BOARD00941

• Board Meeting Date: 9/23/1966
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

I

At the present time we belcng to three
inter-agency ccmmittees which were established
by executive crder. These inter-agency ccm-
mittees, as such, have nc real pcwer to engage
in river basin planning. They have been pri-
marily cccrdinating agencies. We belong to
three of them. One en the Arkansas, which
actually includes the Arkansas as well as the
White and Red Rivers, and ccnsists cf states
primarily alcng the Arkansas but alsc dcwn as
far as Lcuisiana. Ancther is the Missouri
Basin Inter-Agency Ccmmi ttee . vIe are invcl ved
in that with our Ncrth and Scuth Platte Rivers
and that ccnsists cf the states in the Misscuri
Basin up to the point where the Misscuri enters
the Mississippi. The third cne is the Pacific
Southwest Inter-Agency Committee and consists
of all of the states in the Colcradc River
Basin.

I

Since ccngress has enacted this law and
it will prcvide funds for a more ccordinated
type cf agency, we feel that it wculd serve a
more useful purpose than to ccntinue en with
the present inter-agency ccmmittees, that they
shculd be disbanded and that the river basin
commissions as authcrized by the Ccngress
shculd be formed as expediticusly as possible
so that we can have a better liaiscn beth with
the federal government and amcng the various
states ccncerned. Tc date nc river basin ccm-
missicns have actually been fcrmed, altho~gh
several applicaticns have been made. The
columbia River Basin states have made applica-
ticn for a river basin ccmmission to be estab-
lished under this law. I have talked this
matter ever with the Governor on several ccca-
sicns. He has had letters frcm gcverncrs cf
ether states requesting Coloradc's attitude in
the fcrmation of these river basin ccmmissicns.

We participated quite actively in the
writing of this bill. The Beard will recall
that we, over the years, proposed numerous
amendments to the bill, practically all of which