Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> <br />STATEMENT BY SENATOR ANDERSON OF NEW MEXICO <br />RELATIVE TO THE 6TH ANNUAL REPORT ON THE STATUS <br />OF THE COLOR1\DO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT AND PAR- <br />TICIPATING PROJECTS PURSUANT TO PUBLIC LAW 485 <br />OF THE 84TH CONGRESS (70 STAT. 105) <br /> <br />Mr. President, under date of December 28, 1962, the Assistant <br />Secretary of the In terior, Hon, Kenneth Holum, transmitted to the <br />President of the Senate the sixth annual report of the Department <br />on the status of the Colorado River storage project and participating <br />project,s as required by section 6 of the authorizing act of April 11, <br />1956 (70 Stat, 105). <br />The report calls attention to three significant events in the develop- <br />ment of the project: First, the substantial completion of the Paoma <br />participating project ill western Colorado; second, thc receipt of the <br />first operatinlj' ;revenues from the sale of water on the Navajo storage <br />unit in New Mexico; .and third, the authorization on June 13, 1962, <br />of the Navajo Indian irrigation and San Juan-Chama projects, <br />Annually this report has been printed as a Senate document and in <br />eonformity with this .precedent I am sending forward a resolution <br />authorizing that this r~port be printed. <br />In addition, Mr. President, the Glen Canyon Dam, which is one <br />of the key units of the project, is nearing completion, and filling of <br />its mighty reservoll', Lake Powell, is about to start. Because of the <br />great importance of this unit to the development of the entire Colorado <br />River system, I am presenting a statement of the criteria and prin- <br />ciples governing the filling and operation of the Glen Canyon Dam <br />and Reservoir to be printed as an appendix to the sixth annual report. <br />Mr. President, I am certain that every Member of the Congress is <br />aware of how vital to the West and to the Nation is the full develop- <br />ment of the Colorado . River and its resources. As the dean of the <br />Senate, the distinguished Senator from Arizona, Carl Hayden, so <br />pictill'esquely expresses it: "The Colorado River is the West's last <br />waterho1e." <br />One of the great forward steps the ConOTess has taken toward <br />maximum development of this cornerstone of'so much of the West's, <br />and the Nation's, prosperity was the enactment in 1956 of the Colorado <br />River Storage Project Act, which is Public Law 485, 84th Congress. <br />Among the participating projects authorized by this mO,numenta1 <br />legislation, which I had the honor to sponsor, was constructIOn of the <br />Glen Canyon Dam and Reservoir. <br />As construction of Glen Canyon Dam progressed, Secretary of the <br />Interior Stewart Udall initiated studies, in consultation with all of <br />the diverse interests of the Colorado River Basin, to determine how <br />Lake Powell could be filled with the least possible disruption of the <br />many activities now dependent upon the flow of the river, The <br />Secret,ary was faced with difficult decisions in formulating the filling <br />1 <br /> <br />