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decree that's senior to practically everything <br />for 56 feet of it and most of the time it's 96 <br />feet so they wouldn't be helped out materially <br />during those critical times. <br />We're not interested so much about exchanging <br />water in May or April or March or December. We're <br />interested in getting that water at the time of <br />need because our agricultural revolution has de- <br />manded that we supply water during the months of <br />July and August which are the critical months. <br />That's our interest. And we are in this position, <br />that they have done everything to try to get this <br />supplemental water. They have got little old <br />irrigation wells they try to get in the corner and <br />they're uneconomic but they grasp at straws to <br />get that water. So they are in a position - the <br />landowners themselves are in a position - that <br />they're available for a repayable contract. <br />You've got a market there that is ready made <br />through present systems without any additions <br />to delivery works. <br />This is what would actually happen in the <br />valley as a whole and the 60,000 acres is roughly <br />25% of all the acreage involved below Kersey to <br />the state line. So we find then to further in- <br />crease their benefits when they have the water <br />supply firm, and they knew they had it every year, <br />they would build up the efficiency of the distri- <br />bution canals. Again we'd find we had water <br />available for additional acres of land to be irri- <br />gated which we now can't possibly do. We can't <br />operate four good years and have a drouth for one <br />or two years under the agricultural machine that <br />has been developed that the farmers can live with <br />today." <br />MR. ROSS: "I'd like to ask Mr. Knights a question. Do I <br />understand from your previous comments, that the <br />Bureau cannot reasonably prosecute the proper <br />studies if this committee does not say at this <br />time we want one site as against the other but <br />rather says to the Bureau 'Please evaluate the <br />hydraulic results, or the benefits, which might <br />occur from both sites ?'." <br />-35- <br />