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If desired. water could be shunted off along the way to points in California. Water delivered into Lake Mead could be shared by States in the Upper Colorado Basin through the exchange method. By this. method, water that now must be allowed to flow down the Colo- rado for use in the Lower Basin States could be held for use in upstream areas. Then Lower Basin needs would be met by the water from the Columbia. The Sierra-Cascade Project outlined requirements for annual diversion of water at three different volumes-7.5 million acre-feet, 15 million acre-feet, and 30 million acre-feet. Man-made river. If 15 million acre- ward." In years of low water flow, says feet were taken from the Columbia each the Senator, there would not be enough year, that would require a man-made to meet needs for irrigation, industriaJ river carrying as much water as the Col- and municipal use, power generation, Qrado itself develops in an average year. navigation, and maintenance of fish life. The pumps lifting the water out of the In answer, spokesmen for the South- Columbia would require about 15 mil- west say that any water diverted from lion kilowatts of power. That is approxi- the Columbia will be taken from below mately the amount now available in all Bonneville Dam. This is the last dam on the Pacific Northwest. Upward of half the river before it spills out into the Pa- this power, however, could be generated cHic Ocean. Thus, it is said, the i\orth- as the diverted water dropped down to west would have use of all water needed the 1,200-foot elevation of Lake i\lead. above this point. To carry this Colorado-size river Senator Jackson says that he has no would require an aqueduct 300 feet objection to studying possible diversion wide and 15 feet deep. Estimated cost of water from the Columbia, but that of the works involved in moving. this any study should be part of a nationwide much water from north to south would survey of water problems. Such a survey be at least 7.5 billion dollars. Some woulci be made bv a National Water water engineers have estimated costs Commission that \~ould be established considerably higher. by a bill approved by the Senate in Putting costs in terms of water de- June. livered, the Sierra-Cascade Project esti- Southwesterners sav thev are willin mates a price of about 830 an acre-foot to a ree 0 t e i . a na for Columbia River water delivered to sion. but onl if orioritv is !.Tivpn tn finrl_ Lake Mead. That is the equivalent of in~ a way to bring new water into the around 10 cents per thousand gallons. r _!nr"rln R;v..... It compares \vith a cost of 20 to 25 Diversion plans. At least half a doz- cents per thousand gallons for large- en plans have been developed privately scale nuclear desalting plants that have over the years for diverting Columbia been suggested as an answer to South- River water to the Southwest. western water problems. One plan, known as the Sierra-Cascade Shaping water policy. In the Pacific I>roject, would tap the Columbia below Northwest, you often hear quoted these Bonneville Dam and deliver water to questions raised by Maj. Gen. Jackson Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam on the Graham, chief of civil works for the Colorado. This plan was published and Corps of Engineers: "~Iust we always copyrighted in 1964 by E. Frank ~1iller, try to bring water to people, no matter a nuclear-chemical engineer. It gives an where and in what inhospitable regions idea of the engineering works involved they may choose to wander? in diverting water from the Northwest "Is a man entitled to buy up, settle, to the Southwest. or promote a chunk of desert and then The Sierra-Cascade Project would re- demand that his Government bring wat- quire an aqueduct system nearly 1,000 er to him from the general direction of miles long to carry water from Bonne- the North Pole? Or would it be in the viIIe to Lake Mead. The water would public interest to encourage people to go be pumped up to an altitude of 5,000 where water can be made available feet to get it over the Sierra Cascade more economically?'" Mountains in Oregon to natural storage Outcome of the water war building basins in the Warner and Surprise val- up in the \Vestern States is expected to leys near the Nevada border. From there ~ provide an answer to these questions it would flow, mostly by gravity, through and shape future water policy for all the an open aqueduct down to Lake ~Iead. United States. u.s. m.wS & WORLD REPORT 61:70-73, September 19, 1966. (photographs omitted) IRRIGATED LAND in Southern Idaho. Says an Idaho official: "We think if makes more sense to grow the crops here instead of giving our water away." ington State. The nonfederal dams ac- count for more than half the hydropower capacity installed in the Columbia River Basin. The fight between public and private power that once raged in the Pacific N'orthwest has been muted in recent years. Under a 1964 agreement, all hy- dropower facilities in the region are co- ordinated for maximum power output as if they were under the control of one owner. A growing market. There appears to be a market for Columbia River Basin power as it becomes available. A BPi\. study forecasts that power needs in the Pacific Northwest will nearlv double be- tween 1965 and 1975, rising from an annual 14.6 million kilowatts to 26.3 million kilowatts. The only black cloud on the North- west's horizon, in the view of the region's leaders, is fear that Southwestern States will be able to force diversion of water from the Columbia River. It is pointed out that the ~~t~~t ~as far more vnfoo" ;n rnnirpr;:.f::. th;.n th~ North\vest. California alone has 38 seats in the House, while all four Northwestern States combined have onlv 1.5 seats. Leading the fight in C~ngress to head off diversion of Columbia River water is Washington's Senator Jackson. As chair- man of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, he is in a key posi- tion on water matters. Senator Jackson says that when the Southwest first started talking about tap- ping the Columbia River, the amount asked was 2.5 million acre-feet. Now, says the Senator, a minimum of 8.5 mil- lion acre-feet is requested. and the total is rising fast. Texas, which also wants a share of any water imported into- the Southwest, is estimating a need of 18 to 20 million acre-feet from outside sourCes by the year 2000, according to Mr. Jackson. Northwest's worries. Diversion of large amounts of water, says Senator Jackson, would mean that "life on the Columbia as we know it cannot go for- ... 35" -