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" OD036f; -29- April 17th - Regular quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors in Gunnison at which consideration was given to general comment with respect to the two proj- ects; April 17th - Meeting with ~~. Craig Goodwin in Gunnison at which were dis- cussed some conditions not mentioned in the meeting on the 16th to be set up by Junnison County, and there was a general discussion of the matter; and with infor- mation which has come to the Directors from various sources as well as studies that have been made in their office, the Board of Directors of the District has the following comment to make concerning these reports: ),1, The Gunnison River Project !teport is a good catalogue of some of the possibili- ties for growth and improvement in that Basin, but the Directors feel that it is by no means a complete report on all the problems and possibilities of the Basin. Further investigation, which it is assumed will be done, is needed in several areas to assure more complete and economical plans for the efficient use of existing water supplies, and perhaps improving the economic status of some of the projects p.'oposed. Specific examples are: Further study should be given the use of high power neads on Uncompahgre river above Ouray; study should also be undertaken with the i jea of producing and storing enough water from Uncompahgre river, and possible dlversions to it, so that, with Cimarron creek as an added source of supply, the tncompahgre Valley might be irrigated without recourse to Gunnison river, or at least, with reduced demand on that river. Similarly more complete studies of the high sources of North Fork of Gunnison river should be undertaken with the idea, by storage, of power production and pos- sible salvage of water to fully develop the North Fork area, itself, and possibly to supply areas outside the Horth Fork Valley. Finally, it is suggested that the Bureau of Reclamation, in cooperation with :1e Synthetic Liquid Fuels Investigation of the Bureau of Mines, strive to deter_ (.line at the earliest possible time the prospective deroands for water which will follow upon the undertaking of commercial production of oil from coal within the c'unnison River Basin. It should be attempted to secure from the Bureau of Mines a reliable estimate as to plant and attendant domestic use of water for such a develo~ ment, 2). The Directors sincerely hope that quick authorization and appropriation for the building of the Colorado River Storage Project, even if necessary, without the participating projects, can be secured from the Congress. The present situation of the Upper Division States is a precarious one, and safety in the use of water allotted to the Upper Basin can only be assured by prompt and continued prosecution of this project until a reserve of water in storage large enough to assure the re- quired delivery to the Lower Basin in periods of low runoff has been made. 3). If the consent of the Congress can be secured to the creation of the proposed ColoradO River Account, the monies it is proposed to accrue in this account can be u3ed, as the report proposes, to reimburse the United States for such part of the ~ost of Participating Projects as cannot be repaid by the irrigation beneficiaries of those projects. This will assure the construction of many projects from which ~he National benefit is worth while, in spite of the fact that the projects them- selves are not individually repayable.