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<br />Many individuals and organizations have become aware of the <br />critical regional economic and social problems occasioned by the <br />clear limitations and fluctuations of our ground and atmospheric water <br />resources. The problem clearly affects regional economics in a major <br />way, and its solution will require far- seeing wisdom and forthright <br />policy decisions, lest crisis befall us suddenly when the next severe <br />and sustained drought strikes. <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />Three main factors are increasing the water demands of the <br />Southwest, and also, to a lesser degree, the whole nation: <br /> <br />(1) The population is increasing rapidly, with <br />corresponding growth of water usage; <br /> <br />(2) regional agricultural demands increase with <br />population; <br /> <br />(3) industrial uses expand, at a rate that far exceeds <br />the population increase. <br /> <br />The figures from the Encyclopedia Britannica Year Book for <br />1957, details the expected demands. (See graph attached as Appendix <br />"A"). The increase in anticipated human and agricultural water use <br />roughly parallels the population rise, while the industrial demand is <br />expected to double, and to far outstrip the combined human and agri- <br />cultural demands. <br /> <br />Arid lands are generally more variable in rainfall than regions <br />of more abundant rain. In large areas of the Southwest, as in Eastern <br />Colorado, for example, only one year out of three or four has rainfall <br />sufficient for dryland farming. Practical limits have been reached in <br />irrigation for such land use. Yet, beneficial cultivation of these lands <br />is of great national value in good years, and will be increasingly so in <br />years ahead. <br /> <br />The factors that produce drought in the far West are quite differ- <br />ent from those producing drought in the Great Plains. Severe water <br />shortages, like the present West Coast one, can come with abundant <br />rainfall in the Great Pla:.ns area, for example. Or just the reverse <br />can occur. Each major meteorological regime has its own factors, its <br />own weather rules, though all are inter-related in a complicated manner <br />by the behavior of world patterns of air circulation at jet stream levels <br />and even higher. <br /> <br />It is clearly evident that great benefits will result if it becomes <br /> <br />3- <br />