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<br />~ <br /> <br />Council to vote a project up or down, but rather to insure that everyone is <br />playing the game by the same rules. <br />I think that the independent review function will also insure better <br />planning procedures and more serious consideration of procedures such as <br />you are developing here for purposes of estimating required minimum <br />streamflows. <br />There are a number of directives concerned with water conservation. I <br />don't want to go into each of these individually, but merely give you some <br />flavor of what these directives are all about. I believe that the decision <br />by President Carter to make water conservation a cornerstone of Federal <br />water policy is definitely a step forward as far as insuring adequate minimum <br />streamflows for purposes of wildlife habitat and other uses. Because of the <br />increasing future demands for water resulting from increasing economic and <br />population growth, any successful efforts at reducing overall demand is <br />bound to reduce the pressure on required minimum streamflows. For example, <br />one of these directives requires all Federal agencies to review their existing <br />programs by October 30 of this year and to report to the Water Resources <br />Council ways that existing programs can be changed to promote water conser- <br />vation. We are just now beginning to receive the first reports. Other <br />areas involve things like cost sharing. The President has directed that <br />legislation be drafted by the 'Water Resources Council to require 5 and 10 <br />percent cost sharing by States for water resources projects. The purpose of <br />this cost sharing is to insure more critical review of the need for water <br />resources projects by States, thereby helping to insure that unnecessary <br />water development projects will not be built. <br />Other directives have also concerned cost sharing. For example, the <br />Bureau of Reclamation received various directives to promote more adequate <br /> <br />13 <br />