4201

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 4201
• Author: Anonymous.
• Title: Controversy in the Mid '60's
• USFW Year: n.d.
• USFW - Doc Type: Unsolved Questions.
• Copyright Material: YES

at great expense."
TIle views of Senator Jackso~ carry
great weight in the debate over im-
porting water into the Colorado Basin. .
He is chairman of the Senate Commit-
tee on Interior and Insular Affairs,
which has jurisdiction over the Colorado '
River bill.
The. Senator fears that. ~nce ~e l
S~uthwest ~~ts a. taste. o.f ~~~~~bia I
River water Its thrrst Will me' He .
says that when the Southwest first start-
ed talking about importing water, the i
figme used was 2.5 million acre-feet.
Now the bill provides an additional 2 ·
million acre-feet for the Upper Colo-
rado Basin. 2 million for the Lower
Basin, and 2 million for areas along the
river that would be constructed between
the'Columbia and the Colorado.
This, says Senator Jackson, "makes a
grand total of 8.5 million acre-feet per
year, plus whatever allowances must be
made for evaporation and other losses."
Senator Jackson says he wants to
guard against diversion of so much wa-
ter. th..'l.t the Columbia would be under
pressures similar to those now felt on
the Colorado. "Life on the Columbia
as we know it," he says, "cannot go
forward if the river is committed to con-
sumptive uses in the same way as the
Colorado is."
Southwestern water experts sav that
more than 150 million acre-feet of water
How unused from the Columbia into the
Pacific Ocean each year, and amounts
needed in the Colorado Basin could be
provid'ed \vithout damage to the North-
western States.
Officials of Southwestern States say,
too, that they are willing to give Sena-
tor Jackson and his colleagues in the
Northwest guarantees against any "raid"
on Columbia River water.
A possible compromise is reported to
be shaping up around a bill introduced
by Senator Jackson to set up a National
Water Commission that would make a
broad study of water problems all
across the U. S. Hearings on this bill
are to begin before Senator Jackson's
Committee on ~1ay 9. Sponsors of the
Colorado River bill say they are 'willing
to accept this compromise if study of
bringing new water into the Southwest
is given priority.
States of the Colorado Basin, after
years of squabbling over their river's
water, now have ironed out most of
their disagreements. One remaining
problem is that New Mexico is demand-
ing from the Gila River, a tributary of
the Colorado, a bigger share of water
than the bill provides.
The bill's sponsors, however, feel this.
dispute can be resolved.

The "cash register" dams. More seri-
ous is the strong opposition to two pro-
posed dams on the main stem of the
Colorado River-Bridge Canyon Dam and
Marble Canyon Dam.
The dams are the "cash register" for
the Central AIizona Project. Sale of
power that would be generated by the
dams is essential to payoff a large part
of the project's billion-dollar cost.
Bridl!e Canyon and ~larble Canyon
dams are the tar et of a natiomvi at-
tac s suc as the
Izaak Walton League of America and
the Sierra Club. They say the dams
. would despoil stretches of the Grand
. Canyon, including some in Grand Can-
yon National Park. '
In answer to the conservationists, Arl-

zona otficiaJ.s make two
claims: (1) There is no POint
on either rim of Grand. Canvon
National nark. or :from a1V
tr:li , aJ.0ne: the canvon W:I"
where it would be possible ~
see ~. :e;rtion of the n:lms
pP t.hA;'" l"ASA'l"Vt'); l'"S . (~ ) ID;
reservoirs actua1l..v will open
np t.nA (},..~nn r.:lJ'YOn so that .
it can be seen by millions of
Americans who have the time
and. the money to run the rapids
of the Colorado.
S~s Arizona Governor Sam
Goddard: II Arizona is fighting
desperately to sustain its
existing economy through the
importation of Colorado River
water. into the central part of
the State. Without this dev-
elopaent, thousands of arizonfo
ians will face economic ruin
as their wells run dry~
GO IT ALONE? In Arizona,
there is talk of n going it
alonell to build the GentraJ.
Arizona Project. But the
Stat's water experts s~ that
unless Arizona could get. per-
iission. w" buiId..~either Bridge
Canyon Dam or Marble Canyon Dam
charges for the water would be
farced so high as to be prohi-
bitive.
Other Southwestern States are
aware that they wi.1l share Ari-
zona's plight in the foreseeable

-.2 lD -

future, unless Congress
passes the Colorado River
bill.
Even it the bill is
passeG., and every drop ot
usable water is squeezed
out of the Colorado, there
still will be a limit to
growth for vast areas of
the Southwest unless other
sources are eventu.ally
tapped.
Leading water experts
s~ that the situation
in the i'outhwest has
meaning for all the u. S.
They warn that other
areas are aODrea.chimr
a '!wth ceUiI: i.m1xlsed
bv ter annnl' s.
In the experts' view:
America has to start
nthi.nking big" about
water . Rivers and lakes
now polluted will have
to be cleaned up.. Long-
er aqueducts will have
to be bull t to tap areas
of water surplus. .Money
will have to be spent to
speed developnent of
nuclear plants that can
not only desut water
but aJ.so generate power
to pump that water over
long distances.

u .S. News a.nd.~WOrld
Re:rt, 60:64-70, M~ 9,
19 .

(photographs omitted)