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- f{o- 'L\Lj/~ h"( L(,"C;_, i(t E:\\'IRO\\IE\T REPORT The Quiet Before the Shootout Over 'The Water Law of the West' The Administration has been given a breather in the battle over application of the 1902 Reclamation Act. But the basic issues are not likely to'go away, BY DICK KIRSCHTE:\ G y While westerners were enduring. the 'ie\ere drou~hl of 1977. J. new President from the EJ.-st was making ft:w friends in the r~gion \\ ith hIs attempts to dry up federal funding for some major waler supply projects. ben thou~h President Carter and Congn::ss eve~tually compromised over the so-called water project hit list. that did not end the new Adminlstration's penchant for stirring up contro\crsy o\'er western water issues. No sooner had agreement been reJched o\'er continued constructIOn of new pro~ jeets than J. new fight broke out over Wh0 should recei..." the WJter deli\ered by the federal irrigation systems already in oper:Hion in the arid West. The Carter Administr::llion last August proposed regulalions th.J.t would limit Ihe go\.ernment"s liberal water welfare benefits 10 resident familv farmers in ac- cordance with the intent ~f the Reclama- tion Act of 1902 t32 Stat 388)-the venerable blueprint for western irrigation that has remained little changed by Con- gress over the veal's. . The Interio.r Department IS under court order to prepare an environmental impacl stateml!nt on the proposed rules. a process Ihat ......ill take at lcast a year. The controversy. however. will not disappear while the impact study is under \\:ay. The propos:lIs have put Interior's Bureau of Reclamation-builder of more than 58 billion worth of water works in 17 western states-on the hot spot. Forthere is little. if anything. in the new reclama- tion regulations thai does not simply reSlJ,te the law that the bureau hJS been cha.rged with enforcing all along. As an aide to a Republican Senator from the West told Satianol Journal. "Family farming IS not a partisan issue." The problem. however. as stated bv Carter's Secretary of the Interior. Cecil D. -\ndrus. is thin. "the 'fanlily brmers' \\ horn [he law \\as designed to benefit ~omctimes can be found in the corpor:J.te bOJrd room of Los Angeles or :\e\\ York. in Caribbean 'tax havens or 'farming' ('Iut of the JOlh nom of an office building ora lawyer's or doctor\ office:' The extent of corporate farmin,g and absentee ownership by speculators throughout the 174 irrigalion projecls run by the bureau is nor clear Howe\.er. it is clear that concern over the Ad. ministralion's intentions c:xtends far beyond those corporations and specu- lators. Many \vho fit the de!'>cription off~red hy the Presid~m during. a Septcmher meeting with LJrm editors- .'hone~t farmer!'> in the West. . and their neighbors"-are lip in arm.; o\er what they percei\e to be Caner's policies. They h3ve good reason to be con- cerned. For C~rter has made it ch~ar that he WanlS a thoroue:h review of the justification for the federal subsidies that hJ\e brought pro!'>perilY to lanJs that once were worth little hut nO\.... according: to the Reclamation BureJu. produce more I han $4 billion in crops each }ear. The Presidenl is convinced that most heneficlari~s of federal W.J.ter pfCljecTs "do not bear a fair share of Ihe enormous capital and opera! ing: COSlS," In a message 10 Congress lasl April. Caner suggested that .....ater pricing policies in the West encourage wa~teful c0nsumptlon. He cited a study sho\\inl,! tna! "over half of thl" water deli\ered through Bureau of Reclamation irriga. tion sy:.aems is c(lmpletely wasted..' The answer to the drought. he declared. IS "\\ise managemenl and conser\.alion." not "e.xpensiw ne\\' water proJect..." By year's end. the ad\erse political fallout in the West was so se\'ere thaI the .1,dmmistratlOn's fir~1 order of-business in 1978 was 10 di~patch Vice Prcsid~nt Walter F. \fond:.L1e on a peace-seeking lour of the region. Mondale and key members of Caner's Cabinet earned messages of Jppeascmem and managed 10 placate some \~estern governors. But the ha'iic issues are not likely to go J\\av. A federal court has ordered the Ad- minislr;1ti0n to address the family- farming ma.ndates of the reclamation law. Only aclion by Congress can change that law. Furthermore. Carter has managed to elevate the water projects issue from a maIler of parochial politiCS to one that has aroused national inlerest. His questions about the economics and equities of public financing of such pro- jc,,;ts m3Y yet ha...e to b..: answered. Bl'REAU l:NDER FIRE Since its establishment in 1902. Ihe Bureau llf Rcc.:lamation has spent some 58.6 billion to build and operate water SIOrJgc and delivery projt:cts. many of y,.hich-In addItion to irrigalion- produce hydroelectric power. serve muni- c.lpal and industnal users and provide flood prolection and stream flow regula- rion. Under [he original legislation and m:Jjor amendments of 1926. the bureau's mission has bt.'cn to stimulate rural sCllle- mcnt in the western states by providing chellP irrig.ation water to small family farms. Ahhough the settlement of the West no longer is a pressing national concern. Bureau of Reclam.Hion projecls have remllincd highly popular prizes among y.C51ernl'rs in Congrt:ss. As a conse. que nee. the bureau has won con- gressional JUlhori,ation for some 511 billion in project work still to be com. pleled. In the process. Ihe bureau has de\e1oped a reput:ltion ror acting in- dependen!ly of the Interior Secretary. The popularity of the bureau's projecls-especially those not yel bUllt- i.. nClt shJrcd by Ihe President or hif 1<ATIO'\AL JOUR:\AL 1/;8178 149