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<br />1 <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br />MR. GOSLIN: Yes, Mr. Chairman, I would like to supplement Larry's <br />report about the appropriations just a little bit. <br /> <br />First, I would like to say something about the Animas~La Plata Project <br />that maybe Freddy didn't know. <br /> <br />I recently talked to the Regional Director. He assured me that they <br />were going to have a new project manager down there very soon. They are <br />in the final process of selecting a man. I don't know who it is going <br />to be, but they will have one down there. <br /> <br />Also, there is sufficient money to complete the EIS and the Definite <br />Plan Report, that is available to the Bureau. And according to my under- <br />standing, those two documents will be completed substantially before the <br />end of the fiscal year. <br /> <br />I have got in the back of my mind--and Larry doesn't know it yet, but he <br />and I are going to sit down and prepare some questions for the appropria- <br />tions committee with regard to: "If we get this completed as of such and <br />such a time, can you proceed with 'construction?" <br /> <br />On the other part of supplementing his report, on page 22 of that <br />document that each of the board members has, on the green pages under <br />"Advance Planning," there is a line item of $900,000 for a comprehensive <br />environmental statement for the ColoradO River Basin in the President's <br />budget, this was under each state. Just to save some paper and a lot of <br />effort, we put this on one page under "Advance Planning," and we listed <br />the seven states under it. <br /> <br />One of the things that is bothering me about that particular item is' <br />that I cannot find out whether they intend to take that money out of the <br />Upper ColoradO River Basin Fund or not. If they do take it out, it is <br />going to cause some rather bad implications for the future use of those <br />funds in the Upper ColoradO River Basin. We should not permit that. <br /> <br />We had quite a battle last summer in Washington, as Larry and Tommy here <br />both know, trying to get an amendment through the Congress with respect <br />to the comprehensive environmental statement. We made some rather sub- <br />stantial pleas to other parts of the United States, other states, in <br />getting their support. They don't want comprehensive environmental <br />statements in their river basins either. <br /> <br />Incidentally, this $900,000 that is listed here for the Colorado River <br />Basin is just a drop in the bucket of what that is going to cost. The <br />President talks about full funding. That is not full funding. That is <br />just an item for one year. That report is going to cost somewhere in <br />the neighborhood of between five and $10 million. Probably it will take <br />considerably more money than that before they get through, and it will <br />result in endless litigation in the Colorado River Basin, because there <br />is no conceivable way that a comprehensive environmental statement can be <br />prepared for a basin of 242,000 square miles--no way that somebody can't <br />find reason to bring a suit that it isn't adequate in some respect or <br />other. -, <br /> <br />-29- <br />