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<br />I. PURPOSE AND NEED <br /> <br />This Environmental Assessment has been prepared in compliance with Public <br />Law 91-190, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. According to the <br />Department of the Interior manual and WPRS (Water and Power Resources Service) <br />Instructions, material readily available in the Project Skywater Programmatic <br />FES (Final Environmental Statement) and other published reports will be <br />included by reference in certain sections of this document. <br /> <br />Public planning and policy decisions have recognized that the existing water <br />yield of the Colorado River Basin will not be sufficient to meet the future <br />demands of the Basin's beneficiaries. Severe shortages have been predicted <br />within two decades. This problem was analyzed and its implications discussed <br />in the 1975 Westwide Study [1]*. Future demands upon the Basin are well <br />defined. Significant popul ation increases, a need for additional hydroelec- <br />tric power, increased industrial and irrigation demands, reservoir and stream- <br />flow maintenance requirements for fishery, wildlife, and recreation uses, and <br />water quality and salinity reduction obligations cannot be avoided. Moreover, <br />a major expansion of coal, oil shale, and petroleum resource development is <br />planned in the Basin. In addition to in-Basin demands as far away as <br />Los Angeles, the Colorado River Basin must supply water to Mexico under <br />international treaty (Treaty series 994, 59 Stat. 1219). <br /> <br />The Secretary of the Interior is required to plan for augmentation of existing <br />Colorado River Basin water yield by Public Law 90-537, the Colorado River <br />Basin Project Act of 1968, and by Public Law 93-320, the Colorado River Basin <br />Salinity Control Act. Cloud seeding to increase precipitation, runoff, and <br /> <br />* Numbers in brackets refer to references at the end of this report. <br />