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1, I Appendix E THE RELATIONSHIP BET,IEEN THE GARRISON DIVERSION CONSERVANCY DISTRICT MID THE BUREAU OF RECLI'.I,lATION REGAHDH:G CONSTRUCTION OF THE GARRISON DIVERSION UNIT By Bruce Johnson, Regional Director Region 6, Bureau of Reclamation, Billings, Montana When this program was first arranged I was scheduled to speak to you as a resident of the host state of North Dakota. Since that time soree changes have taken place, and I come before you now, for the first time in ~ home. state, as a foreigner. Incidentally my attendance at these meetings of Missouri Basin Inter-Agency Ccnndttee Goes back a good ITany years. I accompanied the then Regional Director and Assistant Regional Director, R. D. Comstock and W. G. Sloan, to the second meeting of the Committee, held on August 16, 1945, at Orraha. Over half of my professional career to date has occurred since that meeting, and my ~ain concern during that period has been to get the investigation and planning of the Garrison Diversion Unit to the point where it could go into construction. As Regional Director that will continue to be one of ~ principal personal interests--though I assure you there are many other intriguing and frustrating jobs under way in ....,-. ____..L'___ _._n' ..n ...... ............ ................."- II il.............. ........ L".......:: ..J.............................:.. Jl.....'-v\..;.J, .L.UoO.Ll.. We have rrade real progress on the Garrison Diversion Unit. A report demonstrating the feasibility of the Unit was completed three years ago. It has run the gauntlet of the States and Federal agencies represented on this committee; been transmitted to and returned by the Bureau of the Budget; and forwarded to the Congress. In the ~eantirre we have been collecting more detailed information, so that final plans can be rea de whenever construction is approved and funds appropriated. The overwhelming support given this project by the people of North Dakota has speeded the clearance of the report at various levels, and the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District, toward which we now turn our attention, has done an essential and a unique job, providing leadership, education, and communication so that public opinion could evolve. As I review the past five years it seems clear to me that without the Conservancy District we would not be considering the Garrison Diversion Unit today. The Garrison Diversion Conservancy District had its genesis in the 1949 legislature which created the "l~issouri-Souris Conservancy and ReclaltBtion District" covering 15 counties, and designed specifically (112th Meeting of the Missouri Basin Inter-Agency Committee, Grand Forks, North Dakota, April 20, 1960.) E-l ,