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<br />-".. <br /> <br />or-'-.,;>'-, <br />U L. M I...' <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The Columbia Basin Project has already paid back more than $100,000,000 to <br />the Federal Treasury from Grand Conlee pOVler revenue. The total construction cost <br /> <br />of this project through the end of last !iscal year was $5JO,000,000. We estimate <br /> <br />that before long the incolne from power revenue and repayments by the water users <br /> <br /> <br />which are just commencing will more than equal the annual eA~enditures on this <br /> <br />project, even though more than $250,000,000 remains to be spent. Thus, when the <br /> <br />project is paid out about 2022, the people will own a $750,000,000 project on <br />which the cash outlay was never more than $500,000,000. <br /> <br />On the Columbia Basin ProSect we are putting approximately 60,000 acres of <br /> <br />land per year under ditch. Irrigation service has thuB been made available for <br /> <br />more than 2,200 new farms since the first major delivery of water three years <br /> <br />ago. Over 1,800 farms used irrigation water during the past season. This fact <br /> <br />adequately demonstrates the continuing demand for irrigation farms and the out- <br /> <br />standing achievement on the part of these new farmers in bringing their lands into <br /> <br />productive status as rapidly as possible. <br /> <br />As you can see from the many Pacific Northwest displays at this convention <br /> <br />or, as your very energetic local chairman of arrangements, Mr. Marshall Dana, can <br /> <br />tell you, the beneficial economic effect of this project is being felt allover <br /> <br />the Pacific Northwest and, more indirectly, in all sections of the countrJ. <br /> <br />Each of you, from almost any section of the West, can point with pride to <br /> <br />similar results on projects in your own area. The Colorado-Big Thompson Project, <br /> <br />for example, has proven a real lifesaver in this first year of full operation. <br /> <br />This is a project designed primarily to supply supplemental water to around <br />500,000 acres of land near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The <br /> <br />project was planned to supply only about JO percent of the necessary supply of <br /> <br />irrigation water for this acreage. This year, the project supplied nearly 50 <br /> <br />6 <br />