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<br />by any means. I think if we continue to be pushed around as we have <br />and the Congress appropriates money to us and that money is not <br />released by the Administration, then I think we must go our own way. <br />By and large, the comments submitted by all the basin states and <br />their senators and representatives in the Congress were almost totally <br />ignored. Our last remedy may be in the courts. There are several <br />lines of attack. One is on the EPA standards whether or not the <br />establishment of 1972 salinity levels is reasonable. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Secondly, whether or not the agreement with Mexico is or is not an <br />amendment of the Mexican water treaty. If so, it is solely within <br />the province of the Senate to determine whether or not that is to be <br />ratified. And thirdly, to institute suit against the President for <br />failure to release moneys appropriated by the Congress. <br /> <br />We have sat here for seven years now trying to fight this problem. <br />We have been completely stymied. Millions of dollars have been spent <br />on these projects bringing them to their present level and nothing <br />is being done. When we think we are at the point of getting some- <br />thing started, like the Narrows project, then we are slapped in the <br />face with another requirement for a further environmental impact <br />statement. Every time we get a project to the point where it is <br />ready to go another roadblock is thrown in its way. I think if we <br />can't get redress any other way, we don't have anything to lose by <br />going to court and trying to fight the matter out there. There is <br />some comfort in the fact that Congress is beginning at long last to <br />assert itself a little. <br /> <br />As you know, a year or so ago we brought up the question of the Bijou <br />flood control project. The study done by the Corps about five years <br />ago indicated that we had a feasible project. That report had hardly <br />been released when the Administration directed that a higher interest <br />rate be assigned to all projects. So the process started allover <br />again. Under that new interest rate, the Corps came up with the <br />possibility of one dam on the Bijou instead of the three that we had <br />originally contemplated. Now just recently the Administration has <br />put into effect a further and higher interest rate of 6 7/8 percent <br />interest, which virtually wipes out everything in the West and <br />perhaps throughout the United States. And that was the purpose of it. <br />The purpose of it was to kill everything. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />There is a bill before Congress to set the interest rate back the way <br />it has been, and that is an interest rate based'upon what the federal <br />government pays for money. If that is passed, then we will get <br />around this arbitrary and excessive interest rate which has been <br />announced by the Water Resources Council. Everyone of these changes <br /> <br />-30- <br />