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<br />, <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />A <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />00228' <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />This construction, in itself, is a pouerful stimulus to the national <br />business economy and to the communities and states in which it is done, but it is <br />the end results which really tell the story. Our construction schedules, which <br />are based upon a normal rate of appropriations by the Congress, show that within <br />the next five years we will add 12,000,000 acre-feet of storage capacity and build <br />canals and other facilities to supply an additional 2,000,000 acres of land with <br />either new or supplemental water supplies. <br />The Bureau of Reclamation has a total working force of approximately 9,700 <br />full-time employees to carry out this program. A personnel reduction of 3,380 in <br />the last 18 months has accomplished an annual payroll savings of $15,000,000. As <br />I have mentioned, this working force has been reorganized and streamlined to <br />utilize most efficiently the available funds. <br />A major emphasis has been placed on moving operating personnel out to the <br />field, as close to the water users as possible. The Washington Office is devoted <br />largely to policy operations and liaison with the Congress and the executive <br />offices on authorization and budgetary matters. Let me urge you, as water users, <br />to go first to the project superintendents and the regional directors with your <br />operating problems. <br />It should also be made clear that the Bureau of Reclamation builds small <br />projects as well as the larger ones. Of 69 projects or major divisions, nine are <br />of less than 5,000 irrigable acres. Twenty-two serve less than 25,000 acres, and <br />only 14 projects irrigate more than 100,000 acres. Recently, we have built or <br />rehabilitated several relatively small projects. <br />We have made sure these smaller projects are not burdened with undue costs by <br />delegating responsibility to a project engineer. He has the knowledge and vast <br />experience of the Bureau to call upon, but the project is only charged the neces- <br />sary time of the engineers or others actually engaged on the work. Nowhere in the <br /> <br />4 <br />