WSP01373

• File Number: 8112.600
• Description: Arkansas White Red Basins Interagency Committee - AWRBIAC -- Reports
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 6/30/1957
• Title: 1956-57 Report of Arkansas White Red Basins -- Inter-Agency Committee
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Inter-A(;ency Com'l1ttee on Hater Resources, perhaps from the Bureau
of the Budget, specifically for this p~ose. The undertaking should
have sufficient national interest to \ffirrant such support.

The data and findings and recommendations of the Pond Creek Study
group might be utilized. The reconstruction and utili~tion of work
done on this project lIl9.y form the basis for renewed study, under re-
vised criteria. The conclusions reached on the Pond Creek Study were
pessimistic of accomplishment of the desired end - coordination. The
failure of this effort should not mean that all such efforts will
faiL In fact, our great social and technical a.dvances have been built
out of the rubble of nnny failures. It is apparent that real states-
mnship will be needed to bring order into the situation which confronts
us. Your Ad Roc Committee believes that this inter-agency group has the
inherent capabilities to attain the objective.

Other items of considerable interest include bringing up to date
data on population, manufacturing, mining, and incomes of the basins.
The Ad Hoc Committee opinion indicates that revisions and additions
to these data should be attached to a specific and practical need.
The Ad Hoc Committee recognizes the basic report as a significant
contribution to the establishment of an over-all picture of economic
conditions in AWR Basins, but that revisions would be costly and may
not contribute significantly over and beyond the value of the present
report. Therefore, the logical way to handle revisions would be to
tie them to a definite need.

It is the Ad Hoc Committee's opinion that future economic studies
could be greatly facilitated if there was being maintained a reference
library of reports or studies of the many Federal, State, local, and
private institutions on economic matters in the area. Such a refer-
ence library would be valuable in reducing cost and time spent in
research activities and would be excellent source material. A collec-
tion of either the reports or references might be undertaken by the
State representatives.

Discussions were also held on the problem of obtaining estimates
of the monetary value of water for recreational use, municipal use,
fishing use, and for pollution abatement. The Ad Hoc Committee gener-
ally recognizes the fact that while the benefit-cost ratio is an over-
worked and overvalued term, it is being and likely to continue to be,
the Congress and layman's guide to project justification and priority.
The establishment of monetary values of the water uses is not easy.
The lack of acceptable methods of computing such values, however, has
seriously handicapped planning and may have resulted in the by-passing
of extremely important water uses. Provision for these uses has not
been included in many projects because the benefits could not be
assessed tangibly, nor the beneficiaries properly identified. The Ad

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