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. '" ~ .t- I ",'- .." OllZ5j3 was fIa.wed ?y discr~pancies and that ~he au.thors used "highly theoretIcal, ImpractIcal and wholly mlsleadmg" figures. "The entire procedure, rationale and principles embraced by the authors, if applied elsewhere in the United States, would demon- . s~rate that agriculture in general should abandon the produc- tIon of low income-producing crops . . . and irrigated agri- culture should not be practiced," said Mr. Gookin. Assistant Secretary Optimistic There were other developments in the early spring of 1967. Assistant Secretary of Interior Kenneth Holum came to Phoenix Ilnd, in a speech, said he felt sure that the present Congress would approve CAP. Thus, he said, it would solve "the country's most pressing water problem-to deliver Arizona's entitlement of wllter from the Colorlldo River to the populous areas here in the central part of the state." Mr. Holum made his remarks at the annual meeting of the Colorado River Basin Consumers Power, Inc., a five-state organization representing about 200 consumer-owned electric utilities. In San Francisco, the National Wildlife Federation, de- scribed by the press as the nation's largest outdoor conservation organization, put itself in conflict with the Sierra Club by de- claring for Hua,lapai Dam if there was no other way to finance CAP. The federation favored steam plants to finance the project . without dams,' but if this was not feasible, it said, Hualapai should becon"structed. The group joined the Sierra Club in" . opposing Marble Canyon Dam. Governor Williams came back from Washington and an- .. nounced that Arizona's determination to go it alone on CAP if need be was causing nervousness among federal officials. The Bureau of Reclamation, he said, was frightened lest it "lose its reclamation empire." But he was still optimistic that CAP might be built with federal help. ActuaIly, he said, the needs of other Basin states put Arizona in a good position to bargain for a federal project. "Almost every state involved has some federal project they need to get going without delay," said the gover, nor. "California is between a rock and a hard place." That state, he explained, needed "some projects very badly and would like to see this thing settled." An Offer of California Water In early April there was an unexpected development. The Eel River Flood Control and Water Conservation District of northern California offered to export surplus water to the Lower Colorado River Basin to augment its supply. The offer was made in a telegram to Chairman AspinaIl and was said by the Phoenix Gazette to involve about 2.5 million acre-feet per year from the Eel, Trinity and Klamath River systems. The Gazette said it was indicated that the associlltion spoke for 11 northern California -62- L '....::.,":";L,;;;,, J, ',",