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according to Southwestern water experts. is to ~nO'mp.nt Mlnntt "f thQ rnlnrann River and its tributaries. They say there are three ways to do this: 1. Importation. This would involve brin~n~ water into the Colorado River Bas' t om some other river hasin. The most logical SOurce would be the Colum- bia in the Northwest. 2. DesaltiDl!. Power from nuclear re- actors, it is hoped, will become cheap enough. to distill water from the Pacific and pump it inland to desert regions. 3. Weather modification. It is held that the West, WIth Its wide open spaces~ is an. ideal place to develop the art of precipitating more water from the sky. Technologies questioned. At the moment, many water experts question whether technologies of desalting and rain-making are advanced enough to sup- ply water in the quantity needed in the Southwest. Representative James A. Haley (Dem.), of Florida, told his South- western colleagues bluntly on February 1: "We might as well quit kidding around. You have got to go somewhere and steal enough water to meet your problem on the Colorado, and the only place you can get the amount of water you need is from the Columbia River." Representative Craig Hosmer (Rep.), of California, cited figures showing that large quantities of Columbia River water flow unused into the Pacific Ocean every year. But Congressmen from the four States of the Columbia Basin':"'Oregon, Washing- ton, Idaho, and Montana-are guarding their water hole jealously. They maintain that their States have only begun to grow and may well need the water of the Col- umbia to assure future development. Idaho officials are especially alarmed. The Snake River, a major tributary of the Columbia, arcs across southern Idaho. It has become a favorite target of South- . western water experts because it offers a relatively short route for diversion of water to the Colorado River. Vow to fight. Says Idaho Senator Len B. Jordan: "When it comes to guarding the Snake, we are going to fight to the last man. Idaho has more fertile land than can be irrigated by the Snake. Why should we give our water to the South- westr Montana finds itself threatened from two directions. West of the Continental Divide, its water flows down into the Columbia Basin. To the east, it flows Columbia River. Diversion of just a small part of the flaw of this mighty river to the Southwest is seen by States in that region as solution to water crisis. into the ~Iissouri Basin. Comments James Murphy, Montana's representative on the Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission: "Montana has always had so much wa- ter that few people ever believed until a few years ago that we could run out. Now, 'they are beginning to wake up to the fact that we had better nail down what remains to assure our own future." Far away, in Texas, officials are eying both the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers as possible sources to keep an irrigated farm economy booming in west Texas. One plan is to take water from the Mississippi River and pump it up to around 4,000 feet in west Texas. That suggestion has evoked cries of protest from States along the Mississippi. Missouri proposal. Now another pl::an invnlvinrr thp Nfi~~nllri Rivpr i<: hp_ in'{ ::U'lvnt""~tp(l hv ~pn~tnT Tnhn Tnw~r, Texas Reoublican. This would invoh:e t~ing into the Missow:i at Fort Ran- d Dam near the border between Ne- braska and South Dakota. Details have been laid down in a blueprint by R. W. Beck and Associates, consulting engi- neers in Denver. The Beck proposal has features attrac- tive to several States of this region. Water from tbe Missouri would be pumped to western Nebraska. Thence it would flow through a river-sized. canal across the Great Plains, dropping off water for use in Nebraska. Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, western Texas and eastern New Mexico. This idea has received a cold recep- tion in States along the Missouri River- especially in the two Dakotas. -38- North Dakota has just launched a proj- ect to irrigate 250,000 acres out of the reservoir behind Garrison Dam on the Missouri. Meanwhile, South Dakota is seeking congressional approval to bring water to 190,000 acres from the Oahe Dam reservoir. Colorado's stand. A striking exam- ple of how proposals of one State can trigger sharp reaction in another State of this Western region is seen in Colorado's stand on the Central Arizona Project. Colorado has entered an uneasy alli- ance with California. This alliance is based on agreement that any bill author- izing works for Arizona will also lay groundwork for augmentation of water supplies in the. Colorado Basin. Coloradans want to hold more water in headwaters of the Colorado River to assure growth of their State. A special problem, shared by Colora- do, Utah and Wyoming, is finding water needed for future development of exten- sive oil-shale deposits. Utah Senator Frank E.. Moss (Oem.) is urging the most ambitious plan of all to ease the Western water shortages. This is the North American Water and Power Alliance, which would bring vast amounts of water down from Canada. New Mexico, two years ago, won its fight with Arizona for inclusion of Hook- er Dam in bills authorizing works on the Colorado and its tributaries. This dam would impound water of the Gila River for use in mining developments in the southwestern part of New Mexico. The bitter fight over the Colorado River stems from the fact that more promises have been made for its runoff than the river can fulfill. In 1922, water