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4 demand for water will continue to grow. They are also convinced that new projects are not always the answer to providing new water supplies. There is a lot of opportunity to retrofit the systems and through improved operation and maintenance and through other exchanges of water and water conservation, to meet new demands. There are additional major emphasis on recognition of other values such as mitigation and fish and wildlife and recreation enhancement. The Bureau established thirteen categories of activities, placed them in a general prioritization scheme. However, these priorities do shift. For example, high priority is placed on operation and maintenance of existing facilities and then construction. Lower in the priority list are dam safety issues, followed by water quality which is environmental and the enhancement of fish and wildlife. The Bureau by 1998 wants to change those sets of priorities to where opera- tion and maintenance would still be number one but that new construction would fall well down the list. Major construction projects now underway would be completed and because of the changing emphasis away from new projects and into water conservation and a better job of managing existing projects, a lot of new construction will not be needed and the environmental things would move higher on the list. In summary, there would be a major change in emphasis away from building large, very expensive projects to meet new water demands to an emphasis of doing better with what is available and building smaller projects, maybe to meet varied local water needs. High on the emphasis that the Bureau plans for the next ten years is to complete those projects which are underway: Central Utah project, Central Arizona project, and others throughout the West which need to be completed so that benefits that the projects were planned for can be realized. Mr. Barrett described the Bureau's current new prioritization of construction work. This details that the Department of the Interior has a new policy of prioritizing their project--as opposed to past years where all projects got a certain portion of the Congress's appropriations--where the Bureau will pick certain projects and fund them at an optable rate to be completed as quickly as possible. When those highest level projects are completed, the Bureau can drop to the next level for funding and eventually arrive at a position where all the currently ongoing construction projects have, one at a time within their prioritization, been completed. The Bureau can actually complete all of the projects at a much lower total cost than if everything was funded at the same time. Prioritization is to complete projects which are nearest to completion first and then construct those which are less far along later. As the prioritization of projects goes forward, those projects which are delayed, the Dolores project for example, also cause delay in the mitigation works that goes along with those projects as well as the construction work. Currently, the Bonneville unit of the Central Utah Project is one of the number one priorities. The Bureau fully funds that project and fully funds the associated mitigation activities. Mr. Barrett went on to explain the management of funds after it is appro- priated for a high-prioritized project. In managing a project, the Bureau realizes that there will likely be delays in some phases of the work. On the construction site it could be a design problem or a contractor has a problem on a field situation. On the mitigation side, it could be trouble buying land without willing sellers or conflicts among agencies. Congress anticipates those situations and every year underfinances the Bureau's requested program. Congress has currently underfinanced programs to about 12 41 a 4 a a 4 4 41 41 a