BOARD01106

• Board Meeting Date: 2/3/1962
• Description: Minutes
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

we have a tailor-made opportunity, as
the Governor has said, to put in a
pilot -- sort of a pilot project. That
is, to develop the southern end of the
area first, tbat area which is directly
east of Alamosa here on a very small I
scale. We could commence the construction
of the project and take the extreme
southern tip first and construct our wells
initially there; then observe the effect
of those few wells over a period of some
years and then, if the thing is workable,
to move gradually to the north until the
entire project is eventually completed.
This would undoubtedly involve a period
from ten to twenty years before the entire
project could be completed, assuming that
the pilot and the testing went off
satisfactorily.

This project is unique in that respect
in that the geography of the area, the
terrain, the type of plan is such that it
can be started on a very small scale and
carefully observed over a period of years
before the entire project is developed
and that is the thinking of our technical
staff and of the Bureau of Reclamation at
this time that if this project is to be
constructed at all, it must be constructed
to begin with on a very small scale so that
if there were any damage to irrigation, it
would show up as the wells progressed to
the north.

Now, that is the decision which must
be made by our Board. It is imperative
that sOme solution be found to the situation
down here. It cannot continue indefinitely. I
We have an obligation to deliver water
to the states of New Mexico and Texas
under the interstate compacts. It is the
purpose of our Board and of the Governor
of the State to insure that those compacts
are fulfilled. They work both ways on the
states. They have to respect them and to
live up to their compacts also.