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Mr. Brooks: Thank you. Mr. Stapleton: The next project is Fruitland Mesa. Mr. Shaw: Mr. Chairman, Members of the Coloiado Water Conservation Board, I am here today to further acquaint you with the need for the I Fruitland Mesa Project. If the Congress upholds President Ford in his budget request for the project, I am told by the Bureau of Reclamation that it will be sufficient for a first year construction start. This amount was $1,227,000 which included $500,000 of deferred funds. Seventeen years ago, we started to put together a Water Conservancy District. This district was completed in 1960. Congress authorized the project in September of 1964 and it was signed into law at that time. The water was allocated and a repayment contract was signed with the federal government in June of 1969. To date, there has been over $2,000,000 spent on the project in planning and construction. The con- struction was two large siphons as a part of the project works. An irrigation season in our area should normally start April 1 to 15 and runs to October 1. In the past twenty years, records show that the shutoff dates were: May, two times; June, three; July, two; August, ten and September, three times, and some of the other ditches that are under the project even shorter. It is nearly impossible to employ good farming practices with an uncertain water supply such as ours. With an adequate water supply, a diversity of crops can be grown. In years past, potatoes, table peas, beans, Moravian barley and seed have been grown. In late years, the area has been almost wholly oriented toward livestock production. There is some small grain groWn yet, but a good water supply would allow us to adjust to market demands and do a better job with livestock. The people of the area have done everything possible to help themselves. They enlarged their reservoir to the maximum allowed by the state engineer and enlarged the ditch to hold maximum flow. They borrowed the money to put in a domestic water system with over"40 miles of pipe- line which also furnished stock water. Before this, they had to hold several day's irrigation water for stock pond runs. This was wasteful and costly. The project will also furnish domestic water for the Soap Creek recre- ation area and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The Bureau of Land Management has asked for water so that they might run it through a pipeline to a large dry area for livestock and game. I I think this tells enough about the need for the project. Now I would like to get back to the funding part. Mr. Chairman, we wish to thank you, your Board and Felix Sparks for your help in getting this funding request in the President I s proposed budget. We believe it came about by your giving us a priority in your funding schedule. We also wish to thank former Governor.Vanderhoof and Felix Sparks for -26-