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<br />7Y2 <br /> <br />~hird andleast important is the work performed <br />for other Federal agencies. This is usually <br />a service type program which involves stations <br />required for the operation of Federal <br />projects. With this lengthy background let us <br />get into the details of our operations in <br />Colorado. We are now maintaining in or <br />closely adjacent to Colorado a total of 274 <br />gaging stations of which 156 are in the Colorado <br />River Basin, 58 in the Missouri River <br />Basin, 31 in the Rio Grande Basin, and 29 <br />in the Arkansas Basin. If this disproportionate <br />distribution disturbs you I might say that from <br />a hydrologic standpoint there is less necessity <br />for intensive stream-gaging in areas where <br />available water resources are fully <br />developed. Furthermore, I have excluded from <br />these figures stations operated purely <br />for administrative or distribution purposes <br />and have included only those stations where <br />the records have sufficient hydrologic value <br />to justify publication in the annual <br />Water Supply Papers of the Geological Survey. <br /> <br />A breakdown of stations by source of funds <br />shows that 194 stations are maintained in our <br />Federal-State cooperative programs, 77 in <br />our Federal ppogram and 13 with funds transferred <br />from other Federal agencies. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />In total number we consider the over-all <br />program somewhere near adequate. There are of <br />course some gaps which must be filled and <br />new stations will always be needed for specific <br />project investigations~ On the other hand there <br />are some stations that have served their purpose <br />and can be discontinued and others which will <br />soon become administrative stations and can be <br />turned over to the State Engineer for operation. <br /> <br />Returning to your particular interest which ~ <br />our cooperative program with your Board, some <br />of you will recall that it was begun in a <br />small way in 1941. The particular objective <br />was to operate gaging stations required for <br />specific project investigations. This is <br />quite different from the objective of our <br />cooperative program with the State Engineer <br />which is to obtain a continuing inventory of <br />Colorado's water resources. Until last year <br />the program was relatively constant with an <br />average of about 18 stations maintained. <br />Generally, each station was operated for a <br />period of 5 to 7 years and then relocated to <br />obtain data for another project. <br /> <br />I <br />