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<br />3. DlBCUSSION OF BLMK "SUMMARY AND RliDOMMENIlATION" SEX:TION.
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<br />The Report on the Colorado River Basin is one of a series of
<br />Basin-wide comprehensive reports by the Bureau of Reclamation, one for
<br />each of the major stream systems of the 17 Western States.
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<br />The first of such reports on the Missouri River Basin, dated
<br />April 1944, was transmitted to Congress and printed as Senate Document
<br />191, 78th Congress, 2d Session. Some of its provisions will be mentioned
<br />in order to indicate possible differences in the Colorado River Basin Re-
<br />port under consideration.
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<br />(a) For purposes of detailed treatment both Reports sub-
<br />divide the Basins into divisions. In the Coloradc River Report the treat-
<br />ment of water utilization, power, and wealth is ccmpleted for the upper
<br />Basin and for the Lower Basin, in separate chapters, and no summary
<br />appears for the entire Basin as a whole. The value of the Report would
<br />be improved by summary chapters for the entire Basin in a manner similar
<br />to that of the Missouri River Basin Report, wherein present and proposed
<br />power facilities, including plans for future power development, as well
<br />as the economics of the region, including populations, agriculture, manu-
<br />facturing and trade, are treated in their entirety and for all the States
<br />and divisions of the Basin as one region.
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<br />(b) The Missouri River Project Plan contains a "Summary of
<br />Costs, Benefits and Returns." Such a chapter does not appear in the Colo-
<br />rado River Basin Report.
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<br />Note (1): The Missouri River reclamation plan, though in-
<br />cluding some of the units suggested by the Secretary of War for flood-
<br />control and navigation improvements (at an estimated cost of $661,000,000),
<br />for the most part is complementary to the War Department program. Recla-
<br />mation improvements include a total of 90 proposed reservoirs, with com-
<br />bined capacity of 45,700,000 acre feet, to provide water for irrigating
<br />4,760,400 acres of new land, and supplemental supplies for 547,300 acres
<br />now inadequately irrigated; and includes 17 hydro-electric power plants
<br />with 758,500 K.W. installed capacity, to supply seasonal power for pump-
<br />ing water and to generate 3,809 million kilowatt-hours of firm power,
<br />annually, for municipal, commercial and industrial uses. Ultimate con-
<br />struction cost of the Project Plan, estimated at $1,257,645,700 (at 1940
<br />prices), is shown to be justified by the basin-wide or regional benefits.
<br />Annual benefits are listed as follows: Irrigation $130,000,000; Power
<br />$17,141,000; Flood Control $16,5001000; Navigation $4,165,000; and munici-
<br />pal water $500,000; or a total of ~168,306,000. This is 2.57 times the
<br />annual costs, including operation maintenance, repairs and replacements,
<br />for irrigation $7,725,000, power $4,316,000, flood control and navigation
<br />$4,500,000, and including amortization of the entire cost at 3 percent in
<br />50 years $48,872 000; or a total annual cost of $65,413,000. Except for
<br />allocations of $419,300,700 to flood control and $97,245,000 to naviga-
<br />tion, the remaining $741,100,000 of estimated construction costs in the
<br />Missouri River B.A~, are shown to be repayable by local beneficiaries,
<br />as follows: \) -,. 'to ,
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<br />(3)
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