BOARD02576

• Board Meeting Date: 2/5/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

they have very cleverly amended the Colorado River Compact to provide
that the Upper Basin states will get no more water. The Upper Basin
states could lose over a million acre-feet of water under the guise
of salinity control.

The posture of the state of Colorado and the Upper Basin states has
to be reviewed in the light of what is happening to us. I am sure
that it is only a coincidence that the President is from California
and a further coincidence that the recent director of the Office of
Management and Budget, Mr. Weinberger, is a former official of the
state of California. The water rights of the Upper Basin are now
being seriously jeopardized by indirection, not by legal action, nor
by Congressional action. but by the strange device of the Office of
Management and Budget.

I want to point out that the big cry on the Colorado River has been
to maintain a quality at the international boundary of approximately
1,000 parts per million. For fifty years or more, the farmers in
the Arkansas Valley have been irrigating successfully with water in
excess of 3,000 parts per million. The people of Las Animas have
been drinking water approximating 3,000 parts per million for many
years. I fail to see why 1,000 parts per million is a magic number.
We must realistically revise our policy of cooperation on the Colorado
River and start fighting. We are being penalized for inefficient
and poor irrigation practices in Mexico. We are being penalized
because of ancient salt deposits in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.
The Bureau has now been told to assess damages to the Upper Basin
against our projects in favor of the Lower Basin. The real question
is - Who is damaging whom? We have been placed in a precarious
position by political decisions. In some way or another we have to
start fighting our way out.

Mr. Cornelius: Larry, I have one question I want to ask. As I remember
the Upper Colorado River legislation, it provides for concurrent con-
struction of our projects with the Central Arizona project. Didn't
the Central Arizona project get any recommended appropriation in the
budget?

Mr. Sparks: 57.5 million dollars. Of this amount, 52.5 million is
for the Navajo power plant. Five million dollars would be available
for actual construction of the Central Arizona project.

Mr. Kroeqer: Is this a law that can be taken to court?

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