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I I MR. STAPLETON: MR. MILLER: MR. STAPLETON: MR. CORNELIUS: MR. MILLER: MR. CORNELIUS: MR. MOSES: "Do any members of the Board have any ques- tions?" "Is there any estimate of the cost of the phreatophyte control?" "Yes, Mr. Cornelius?" "The people in the San Luis Valley are very concerned about this debt they have on the Rio Grande and they thought this might possibly be one method of increasing the return flow to the river. As far as the cost is con- cerned, under the present A.C.P. practices the limitation to anyone cooperator in payments is only $1500. But all three of these counties, namely, Conejos, Alamosa and Rio Grande, have recently been admitted to the Great Plains Pro- gram. A cooperator who signs a contract under the Great Plains Program may receive up to $25,000 A.C.P. payments in one year. We feel that there is a possibility that brush control and the establishment of permanent pastures along the Rio Grande in Conejos may be done by the farmers on their own initiative if they may receive up to 80% cooperative payments from the government. In other words, this would be done by the people on the river." "\1ould there be any way that this Board could help in that regard?" "I don't know. I think that if we should go ahead with this and get a good response from the people down there that New Mexico may feel that we are trying to do the right thing." "Mr. Chairman, I think we all realize that we need to do something, and anything we do will help. I call attention though, even with the maximum salvage it's not equivalent to the annual increase in debits, much less doing anything about correcting it. Our average increase in debit runs about 60,000 acre-feet a year. But I agree with Mr. Cornelius that we surely need