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'-"-", - ",- 00 00 - C"". ~ " ~~ PROGRESS REPORT .rl/"'~-By-I{~~ J. Smith, Executive Secretary ~.L~~.. , 'C~nt.r:~ Arizona Project Association . . 510 Goodrich Building - Phone 2-1112 I , ~ ':oS 1 Phoenix, Arizona I "'-~ i ;\JO W ATII CON~l.,,'; AnON 10AIO (Republication Solicited) WASHINGTON ~. News of Arizona's Water ~ht __ t, '- \ ... '"-,,t April 30, 1951 Since our last News Letter, we have taken quite a whipping in Washington. The House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs postponed action on our bill until steps could be taken either (a) to get Supreme Court adjudication, or (b) to obtain a Lower Basin agreement. There is no point here in going into details as to why these things have not been accomplished previously, except to say that California has been, in our view, the obstructionist. The Washington situation is the subject of discussions being held by Governor Howard Pyle and others in Arizona, and by Senator Ernest W. McFarland and the Congressional delegation in Washington. It is too early to predict what will be worked out. The fight will continue, however. THE CALIFORNIA STA1'E WATER PLAN State Engineer A. D. Edmonston of California has come forth with a state water plan which interests Arizonans because of two things: First, Engineer Edmonston told Southern Californians that 7,500,000 acre-feet could be carried into their area from the surplus area around Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay region; and second, Engineer Edmonston repeated the propaganda line that "California has rights in the amount of 5,362,000 acre-feet annually" in the Colorado River, ignoring the fact that only 4,400,000 acre-feet are firm rights to main stream water and the other 962,000 acre-feet must corne from California's half of the surplus water, if a sur- plus exists in 1963. "Adequate water supplies can be developed and regulated from California's water re- sources", Engineer Edmonston said, both in his published ',Vater Plan and in a speech at Riverside. He pointed out that about 73,000,000 acre-feet waste into the sea from the Sacramento-San Joaquin system annually. SALT LAKE CITY Governor Pyle and a group of persons prominent in Arizona's water fight flew to Salt Lake City April 26th and appeared on April 27th before a meeting of the Salt Lake City Junior Chamber of Commerce. Governor Pyle also paid a courtesy call on Gover- nor J. Bracken Lee of Utah. The occasion was to reply to a presentation made by three Californians at Salt Lake City March 23rd. Governor Pyle pointed out the nec- essity of developing the Colorado River on a combined irrigation-power basis. UNDERSECRETARY R. D. SEARLES Richard D. Searles, president of the Salt River Valley Water Users Association, is Arizona's highest-placed person, governmentally, since the days when Lewis W. ~s was Director of the Budget. Undersecretary of the Interior Searles has resigned his SRVWUA presidency since his Federal appointment, and has been succeeded by W. W. Pickrell, vice_president.