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<br />I <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Another study which has been under way by the Fish and wildlife Service <br />and the Bureau of Reclamation and the Geological Survey just got funded <br />this year. It is called the "Platte River Study," including all the <br />watershed above the Loup River, in Nebraska. This is an Interior- <br />directed study analyzing the development and the environmental needs of <br />the entire basin. Also, the Bureau may look at nonstructural alterna- <br />tives to south Platte River storage--some of the possibilities of look- <br />ing at the alternatives of the Narrows. Funds in FY '79 are quite <br />limited, $45,000. <br /> <br />Both this study and the one I just mentioned on the Republican River <br />are being fully coordinated with the $6 million High Plains Ogallala <br />investigation, which is under way by the Department of Commerce. <br /> <br />I will try to eliminate as much collection of raw water data as possible. <br /> <br />We have also been involved with the Department of Natural ResOurces in <br />Colorado on an evaluation of the Colorado water policy, and I have to <br />report they just furnished quite a bit of material to us just the other <br />day. It looks like Our contract will be completed in a month; and we <br />will be able to use that material, I think, very well. They have a <br />program lined out for public involvement through the rest of this year, <br />with possible recommendations for changes in the Colorado law and <br />institutional arrangements for the Legislature next year. <br /> <br />Another program which I reported on in some detail at the Colorado <br />water Congress meeting last month is the water conservation program, <br />which we are helping fund; and it uses this popular figure of Captain <br />Hydro. We have had very good response and cooperation from all parties, <br />and we really intend to pursue this and keep an intensive program <br />going on in public information and in the area of water conservation <br />and planning. <br /> <br />In closing, I would like to reaffirm the Director's approach to resource <br />development in the Lower Missouri. He likes to approach the 1980's <br />with the question:' have we struck a proper balance between. economic <br />development and the environmental interest? <br /> <br />We have worked through a period, and I think everyone is aware of that, <br />that we have gone from one extreme to the other. On one hand, we <br />looked at only economic development and, on the other hand, total non- <br />development--preservation. It is Our feeling that we have got to come <br />at this thing with a different approach. And even though it might <br />appear that the attitude of both camps have softened a little bit, we <br />have got to get away from this pendulum swing to either one side or <br />the other and achieve a better balance of working together and solving <br />the water problems facing ColoradO in the 80's. To this end, we are <br />hopefully involved in public involvement at every stage of our activ- <br />ities--planning, construction, and operation and maintenance. And this <br />should tell you one thing for sure--that we are looking for all the <br />innovative and imaginative ideas that we can: get to implement the water <br />resource development and management. <br /> <br />-7- <br />