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I I new in the field, or what can you tell us about them? MR. SPARKS: The ac~ual task force is the: Secretary.of the Interior" Mr. Andrus; the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality; . and the Director of- the Office- of Management and2Budget, Mr.- Lance, who right now is preoccupied with his banking business in Georgia'- -- (:baughter.) " - - Those three -gentlemen were given this rather stupendous task by the President. In fairness; they have attempted to delegate that.authority to various people:whowere under them. We are not exactly sure who they are. We have heard:some names. Forthe.most part, the working part of the task force are the lesser people in these various departments who are delegated the responsibility for preparing these option papers. . Many of them are totally unfamiliar with anything -concerning water resource development in th~ United States. - The turmoil-at all levels in the federal-government at this time is unbelievable. Decisions cannot seem to be made without the personal approval of: the President We have a new solicitor in the Department -of the Interior. There are new people throughout all the various depart- ments, who seem to be mostly marking time at this point of history:. There are many carry-overs from the Ford administration who have not yet been replaced. : These are generally in. lower: level positions, but: they are critical positions, such as the area directors or regional directors of the various federal departments. They.are sitting by waiting for'news they will be relieved. Some seven months have gone by, and many of them are still waiting. They are not anxious to project themselves into. an arena when they already know they are going to be replaced. :It is:a maddening procedure at this -time~ to:get any decisions made at:any level. We are experiencing that with the:two projects which the: President says he approves in Colorado-, the Dallas :Creek and the - Dolores. We cannot get the approval to initiate construction, despite: all the President's assurances .that he :is for 'the project. The projects are bogging down at the executive level in Washington. . : The" Bureau of Reclamation says they are ready to go. They have approved everything, but we cannot get apprOll'al at the Secretarial level. I will go into those two projects in more detail at a later point under the "Director's .Report." :-: :: - -"- I talked to some of the Nevada people last week, who have been having - the same problem with .the Southern ,Nevada Project. They can't get : projects approved for the delivery of the water.- The :Nevada p-eople told me that they made a trip to Washington last week and found nothing but utter confusion within the:Department of the Interior. This is under- standable, since the President apparently insists on making every small decision himself. Well, that is ~nough, 1- think. MR. JACKSON: Mr. Chairman. -'-5-