WSP12165

• File Number: 8210.470
• Description: Pacific Southwest Interagency Committee
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 8/1/1963
• Author: PSIAC
• Title: Pacific Southwest Water Plan - Report - August 1963
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON 25. D. C.

Augus t 26, 1963

LETTER OF THE S&;RETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO GOVERNORS FANNIN
OF ARIWNA, BROWN OF CALIFORNIA, CAMPBELL OF NEW MEXICO,
SAWYER OF NEVADA, AND CLYDE OF UTAH

Dear Governor:

As promised to you in my letter of June 12, and pursuant to
provisions of Section l(c) of the Flood Control Act of 1944
(58 Stat. 887), I am enclosing herewith three copies of the
proposed Pacific Southwest Water Plan Report.

This report was prepared by an Interior task force headed by
Assistant Commissioner William I. Palmer of the Bureau of
Reclamation. At the outset I should like to make it crystal
clear that while the report has been approved as a proposed
report for transmittal in accordance with the Flood Control
Act, nevertheless as Secretary I have made no final judgments
concerning the component parts of this plan, and that it is
my intention to maintain an open mind on all of its details
until all of the comments and recommendations received in
the course of the statutory review are taken into account.
During the 90-day review period, we expect to give the closest
kind of scrutiny to the plan and its details. .

As you fully understand, in proposing that the States in the
Pacific Southwest region emulate their neighbors in the north--
who agreed upon the eminently successful Upper Colorado River
Storage Project plan--this report is, in essence, a search for
the. essentials of a basin-wide plan which could become a long-
range vehicle for mutual cooperation. Therefore, in candor,
I want to make it plain at this point that we are keeping an
open mind on all major issues and expect to weigh carefully
the major recommendations which you will make.

Candor also compels me to underscore the two major questions
which this report will undoubtedly raise in your mind as the
Governor of a lower basin State. The first relates to the
fact that the initial phase construction recommended by the
task force is a very ambitious program which would entail a