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<br />October 4, 19'7 <br /> <br />Dear Governor Knight: <br /> <br />As you may know, upon the issuance of specifications and award of contract <br />for construction of Glen Canyon Dam in April of this year, several agencies <br />expressed to this Department interest and concern in the future operations of Glen <br />Canyon Reservoir. The Colorado River Board of California was one of these agen- <br />cies. Our letter of July 26, 1957, to Mr. Fred W. Simpson, Chairman of that Board, <br />proposed a meeting be held in October for an exchange of views among representa- <br />tives of the states of Colorado River Basin, and of this Department. A copy of <br />that letter is enclosed. <br /> <br />We now propose that the suggested meeting be held commencing at 10:00 a.m. on <br />October 24 next in Room 5160 of the Interior Building in Washington. Our repre- <br />sentatives will hold themselves available for a two-day meeting, should such time <br />be necessary. <br /> <br />The legislation authorizing the Colorado River Storage Project requires this <br />Department to submit to the Congress periodically payout and other related finan- <br />cial studies concerning the project. To do this we must exercise our best judg- <br />ment to estimate in point of time when Glen Canyon Dam and Reservoir will be able <br />to store sufficient water to attain initial storage and power head. This in turn <br />calls for the development of a working hypothesis involving assumptions and <br />premises as to streamflows and water uses. For the report to be made to Congress <br />on January 1, 1958, we have, within the Department developed such a working hypoth- <br />esis. Attached to this letter are five copies of a statement titled "Hydrologic <br />Bases for Financial Studies - Colorado River Storage Project, II in which those <br />assumptions and premises are set forth. <br /> <br />We expect that the October meeting will permit explanation and exploration of <br />these assumptions and premises, and of the working hypothesis based thereupon. <br />This working hypothesis would be applied, as the statement makes clear, during the <br />period through which initial storage and power head are obtained, subject, of <br />course, to review and poSSible adjustment in the light of the physical situation <br />as it develops during that period. <br /> <br />We believe we have made clear our position that the Department will not be <br />ready and does not elCpect to reach any decisions as to power marketing for quite <br />some time in the future. <br /> <br />Of course, it may well be that the different states will wish to express <br />themselves on a variety of matters of much broader scope than the matter of working <br />hypothesis of limited and short term application and, if so, we in the Department <br />will be most attentive. However, again from the point of view of the Department <br />at this time, we look on the October meeting as an opportunity to explore together <br />our best thinking now on assumptions and premises as to matters that are themselves <br />yet some distance in the future, i.e., gaining initial storage while passing appro- <br />priate flows. In these circumstances, we believe the only matters which presently <br /> <br />2 <br />