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183 Mr. Breitenstein asked Hr. /,!oses if he had any recol'lffiendation. I Mr. Moses replied, "Nothing special; possible study of retUln flows to the river. He mentioned Colorado's 153,000 acre feet. debit in Rio Gra~de Compact. We feel we should make whatever investigation we can to find out whether our debit last year was man made or from natural causes. We approve the suggestions made by 1~. Tipton in his report. There was a gift of 60,00 A.F. to New Mexico El Vado Reservoir in 1950. Don't feel that we should take the initial steps ~ be as quiet. as possi?l~; let them raise the question, don't stir it up ourselve& Mr. Holman made the fOllowinG statement: "The picture of the situation I don't think is before the house. As Mr. Moses said, we had two extremely dry years, succeeded by last year in which we had an enormous runoff. During the high runoff there had been anticipated a good deal of danger from flooding. As a result of that there was impounded in the Platoro Reservoir 37,000 acres, but for some cause or other Mr. Sweet, in charge of the reservoir refused us when we interceded with him to cut down on'that releasing as the natural hi;;hwater rU1'10ff had subsided durinG that time. As has been suggested, the water table in the ground had been so very low that it took an abnormal amount of water to bring it up to normal condition. Many farmers would say, "I don't understand how it is possible. ~e turn water On a land for. irrigatin~; we ordinarily finish in 12 hours; but this year we turned it on, say this morning, and it would be day after tomorrow night and still we're not through - water simply disappeared into ground." Low part of river, where farms are located, was overflovnng; more water than channels would carry. One farmer had to go in with a sled to get his way. Vie should [';et the different ditch companies to open up their gates to lower general flow of the wator in the lower areas. Ditch companies should accommodate, by opening head gates and turning water out on other sections to get rid of it so the men along the river bed could harvest their crops. As a result we find ourselves in the present situation. I Mr. Breitenstein said that after this situation developed, the Attorney for the Conejos Water Conservancy District went do~n to close the gates; explanations were made to the district down there and taken up with the State Engineer and nothing could be done about it. You recall that Congress passed the 160 acre law; it did not work down 'there. If the new law had gone into effect in 1949, the situation which t~. Holmann explained would not be in force now. The law. was vetoed and not passed again until 1952. I don't know what the flood control regulation will be thi? year. Last Wednesday, the Assistant Commissioner of Reclamation called me and said there would be no conservation storage this year in Platoro Reservoir.