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:,~'~"{"lljfj";" ,r I' o~~'5irr .. Californians introduced the other bill, which duplicated the one that hlld died in the Rules Committee in 1966. It provided for both dams, an import study and Upper Basin projects. There were also developments occasioned by the fact that a congressional moratorium on the building of Colorado River dams had expired December 31. The Interior Department ad- vised the Federal Power Commission that it would want to be, heard in opposition if the Arizona Power Authority came back asking for a license to build Marble Canyon Dam. "Congres- . sional and national interest in the problem of the Lower Colo- rado River has reached a new crescendo of intensity," said Interior in its petition to the FPC. And an Eastern congressman, Rep. Richard L. Ottinger (D-N.Y.), introduced a bill asking for . a second moratorium, this one to last three years. A Friendlier Chairman? A modestly hopeful development in Arizona eyes was the accession of Rep. Harold T. Johnson (D-Calif.) to the chair- manship of the House Reclamation Subcommittee, which would C'onsider the CAP bills. He succeeded Representative Rogers of Texas, who retired from Congress. Mr. Johnson's district was one in which the big Auburn-Folsom South Project-authorized in 1965-was located. Senator Hayden had given the project his blessing, in its passage through the Senate, and Congressman Rhodes, asa member of the House Appropriations Committee, helped Mr: Johnson get money for the project. It went without . saying that Arizonans hoped for a (jll.id p1'O quo. from Mr. Johnson. If, however, CAP again got bogged down in the new Con- . gress, machinery was in motion to start Arizona on the go-it- alone path. Spokesmen for the Arizona Interstate Stream Com- mission and Arizona Power Authority told the Natural Resources Committee of the Arizona Senate that legislation for a state- ,financed project would be submitted in two weeks. And, they said, they felt confident that such an approach was feasible. .John Smith, chairman of the Power' Authority, said the state could pay for the entire project with the sale of electricity if it was allowed to build both dams. The cost would be about $828 million and the project would take about seven years to complete, he said. The Senate committee talked about the possibility of pass- ing a memorial to Congress, notifying it that Arizona intended to go it alone unless CAP went through in 1967. The legislature's lower house likewise was alerted to the possibility that it would be asked to act on legislation authoriz- ing a go-it-alone project. "We no longer can approach this vital water situation with but one shell in our gun," the House was told by Rep. William D. Lyman (R-Yavapai), chairman of the Committee on Fish, Game and Natural Resources. He said his committee agreed with Governor Williams that "the next two years should see the start of the Central Arizona Project, either I t -39-