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<br />002882 <br /> <br />adjudicate Indian wa.ter rights i.p federal courts." We in Nevada, <br />and certainly I think others throughput the west, would have some <br />concern about that. I would like to talk a little bit more about <br />the reserve and Indian claims in a few minutes. <br /> <br />Water conservation is really one of the very highlights, I guess <br />you would have to s~, of the proposed National Water Policy. Leo <br />Ei$el, when he was in Sparks, Nevada, a couple of months ~ for an <br />appearance before the State Reclamation Association, talked about <br />the 13 directives that were issued here several months~. Leo <br />himself very pointedJ.y mentioned that seven of those 13 directives <br />were directed to 'conservation. Now that is not necessarily all bad <br />I am sure, but we are concerned that the efforts from the thrust of <br />those 13 directives seem to be really on conservation, environmental <br />impact, mitigation -- those type of things. Very frankly, there is <br />darn little of water supply and demand and development in the interest <br />of water users. <br /> <br />We are concerned because we have been harping and harping and harping <br />that conservation is fine, if it is taken in the right context and if <br />the ramifications of it are completely understood. But there are a <br />lot of people throU8hout the country who don't realize that a dam on <br />a stream system may be the best conservation measure that could be <br />proposed. Things like lining canals and installing meters in many <br />cases are very positive steps, but they are not alw~s the answer. <br />For example, in western Nevada on the Carson River streams, one of <br />the oldest Reclamation projects, the Newlands project, has been <br />classified as a very obviously inefficient system. At the tail end <br />of that system is a wildJ.ife area where one pretty effective conserva.- <br />tion mea$ure was implelllented partly because of the short~ of water <br />supply but also partly in a sincere effort to try to reduce water <br />consumption. That wildJ.ife area suffered like you wouldn't believe. <br />As a matter of fact it has becoJl1,e almost ineffective, and if it hadn't <br />been for the good faith of the irrigation district in passing water <br />throU8h to it this year, it would for all practicable purposes have <br />been lost for a period of time. For these things, once you lose them, <br />it takes a while to build them up again. <br /> <br />Another good example is right in Carson City. Now I don't mean to be <br />using Nevada as an example, but I think you can all apply this to your <br />own particular areas. We are in a position in Carson City where we <br />just fiat don't have any more water to develop. We feel in the State <br />Engineer's office that we are not going to approve any more subdivi- <br />sions until they can show that they have an adequate water supply to <br />serve them. There are two or three small streams that = into Carson <br />and the Eagle Valley where Carson City is located. One might ask why <br />not go up on the edge of the alluvial fan and pipe those streams down <br />to conserve everything that you have lost. Well the fallacy in that <br />is that what is lost on that alluvial fan we will be pulling out of <br />the groundwater. You save water in one place and lose it some place <br /> <br />C-19 <br /> <br />