Laserfiche WebLink
<br />, I .....l: .:. <br />OD25:5 <br /> <br />Federal Route Still Best: Udall <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />A few days after the bill was introduced, Congressman <br />Udall returned to the state and publicly reaffirmed his com- <br />mitment to a federal rather than state approach to CAP. He <br />carefully refrained from predicting that it would go through <br />the current Congress, but he said the situation was "far from <br />hopeless." The most important thing at this moment, he, said, <br />was to build the aqueduct-"in any way we, can." <br /> <br />Mr. Udall WllS not unaware that he and his brother now <br />had conflicting points of view on the project. Secretary Udall <br />. was against the dams. Congressman Udal! was for them. The <br />reason, he explained, was simply that he-the congressman- <br />represented a single state, Arizona, while his brother was iden- <br />tified with R nHtionHI administration. which, in the middle of <br />a WHT in Vietnam, felt constrained to hold down non-military <br />expenditures. Moreover, the administration-and thus its Sec- <br />retary of the Interior-had to consider water problems on a <br />nation-wide scale. <br /> <br />For any CAP bill to pass Congress, said Congressman Udall, <br />it would have to include a 4.4-million-acre-foot guarantee of <br />some type for California and cre,ation of a national water study <br />committee, the latter aimed at attracting votes of Eastern and <br />Midwestern congressmen. The bill also. would have to be ac- <br />ceptable to the Pacific Northwest, he said, The Northwest <br />would Hgree to a study, but such H study, to be Hcceptable, <br />would hllve to be made by >l. national water committee or com- <br />mission Hnd not by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The North- <br />.. we'st's position, in Mr. UdHIl's words, was: "Don't ask the big- <br />. gest dam and aqueduct builder in the world if you can build <br />some dams and aqueducts." <br /> <br />. On the day that Mr. Udall spoke in Arizona, two CAP <br />bills-differing only in minor respects-were introduced in the. <br />e.s. Senate. One was sponsored by Senators Hayden and Fannin <br />and ,dso Senlltor Jllckson of W1'lshington. The other was the <br />administration's bill. Each carried a price tag of $719 million. <br />Both proposed the construction of a WEST thermal plant to <br />supply pumping power instead of building the two controversial <br />. dams. Both contained no provision for water import studies, <br />nor did they make any reference to California's requested <br />guarantee of 4.4 million acre-feet per year. The administration <br />bill called for enlargement of Grand Canyon National Park <br />to take in Marble Canyon. The senators' bill did not. <br /> <br />Senator Hayden said in a statement, "1 have been guided <br />over the last 55 years by certain fundamentals. One is to keep <br />a legislative proposal as simple as possible. Another equally <br />important principle is to maintain a flexible position which <br />permits the necessary compromise and adjustments as the pro- <br />posal moves through the various stages of the legislative process. <br />In addition, I have always tried in developing legislation to do <br />it in such a way as to build the framework for future deve.Jop- <br /> <br />-45- <br /> <br />