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~ ." ." :'1'- '. 3 lJ~. 1 Expanding water uses in the Rio Grande Basin. recent occur- rence of an extreme and protracted drought, and the increasingly ad- verse debit status of Colorado under the Rio Grande compact all emphasize the need for optimum salvage of nonbeneficially consumed waters in the San Luis Valley. The Bureau of Reclamation in 1955 completed a supplemental report on a reservoir at the Wagon Wheel Gap site on the Rio Grande. This report reaffirmed a previous finding that construction of a reservoir at the site was merited to provide needed supplemental and regulated water supplies to about 271,000 acres of irrigated lands in the San Luis Valley. It proposed supplemental authorization of its construction as a unit of the San Luis Valley Project. The States of Texas and New Mexico, in their comments on the report, indicated un- willingness to concur in its construction until Colorado is in full compliance with the Rio Grande Compact. Further processing of the report to Congress has been deferred for resolution of this matter. Accomplishment of debit-free status by Colorado is desirable to remove the expressed objections of Texas and New ~~xico to construction of the Wagon Wheel Gap Dam and Reservoir. The plan of development represents the culmination of in- vestigations which were summarized in a report to the Colorado Water Conservation Board dated ~~rch 1939; reflected in the report of the Bureau of Reclamation entitled "Report on San Luis valley project, Colorado, ,. dated January 1940, and published as House Document No. 693, 76th Congress, 3rd Session; and recognized in the authorization of the San Luis Valley Project by the Interior Appropriation Act of 1941 which included the proviso: "That commencement of construction of the Closed Basin Drain feature shall be contingent on (a) a conclusive finding of justification for the drain on the basis of cost and the quantity and quality of water to be secured, ---." In line with this requirement further investigations of water salvage plans for the Closed Basin were undertaken and a revised plan developed. This plan was presented in a reconnaissance report dated August 1956, which was endorsed by the San Luis Valley Water Conservancy District and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. In turn, a partial draft of a feasibility report on the plan was forwarded to the Board, among others, in August 1960. The plan of development was then modified to conform to the views of the Board. The plan of development provides for salvage of available surface flows as originally contemplated; but its principal purpose is to salvage, without adverse effect on surrounding irrigated areas, shallow ground waters which presently are nonbeneficially consumed by evaporation and transpiration. It contemplates deliverance of salvaged waters to the Rio Grande to improve Colorado's debit status under the Rio Grande Compact. It recognizes the importance of the San Luis 2