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<br />oon221 .
<br />'8 SANTA MARGARITA WATER RIGHTS CONTROVERSY, CALIFORNIA
<br />
<br />NAVY MANEUVERS
<br />
<br />It is apparent from the testimony that the Navy does not come into
<br />the court of public opinion with entirely clean hands. The Navy had
<br />participated in the original negotiations with the Fallhrook puhlic
<br />utility district, which culminated in the memorandum of understand-
<br />ing approved on Decemher 14, 1949.' From the negotiations it was
<br />apparent that the Navy was not only willing but anxious that the
<br />Army engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Fallbrook public
<br />utility district j'ointlY undertake the necessary steps to build the res-
<br />ervoir contemp ated at, the DeLuz site. Tt was obvious that the Navy
<br />saw no chance of building the project itself at that time, and hoped to
<br />gain by the sponsorship of the project by the Bureau of Reclamation,
<br />the Army erigineers, and the Fallbrook public utility district. After
<br />the passage of the olIlllibus defense' public works hill, which in effect
<br />authorized the Defense Department to build anything it wanted to
<br />'provided the construction was connected with a defense installation;
<br />the situation was quite different. The Navy saw the chance to build
<br />the project itself and to exclusively own and operate it. Thereupon,
<br />the Navy took advantage of the technical machinations of the legalists
<br />in the Attorney General's Office as a convenient method of escape
<br />from an agreement mutually and openly arrived at. This was nothing
<br />more or less than Federal interagency power politics in the raw.
<br />
<br />CONSTRUCTIVE APPROACH REQUIRED
<br />
<br />As wc developed the testimony during the hearings it became
<br />apparent that not enough water could be available to meet all of the
<br />requiremen ts of the Federal Government and the needs of the rapidly
<br />growing local area unless the floodwaters of the Santa Margarita River
<br />could be controlled and put to beneficial use. Therefore, we endeav-
<br />ored to take a constructive approach to the problem, bearing in mind
<br />that litigation over limited water supplies doesn't make new water
<br />available. During the hearings we also kept in mind a major issue in
<br />the hearings which dealt with the right of the Federal Governmeut to
<br />take water for its use without regard t.o the. laws of t.he State which
<br />pertain to water rights.
<br />
<br />RECOMMENDATIONS
<br />
<br />Two major recommendations were made and unanimously approved
<br />by t.he subcommittee as a result of this approach to the problem. The
<br />recommendations to the Committee all Interior and Insular Affairs
<br />are as follows: .
<br />(1) That the committee approve legislation implementing the
<br />memorandum of understanding, which was first approved by the
<br />Fallbrook utility district on Deoember 14, 1949, and which had the
<br />approval of the local representatives of the Department of the Navy,
<br />Department of the Interior, and Department of the Army. This
<br />memorandum of understanding suggested a distribution of the waters
<br />that would be stored behind the DeLuz Dam, which is to be con-
<br />structed on the Santa Margarita River by the Department of the
<br />Navy. Already funds have been approprieted to pre'l!1I'e plans r.nd
<br />specifications for construction of the dam. These funds were author-
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