WSP03813 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

I .4, . .. 001052 . Colorado has no quarrel "rith those who s"onsor these developments, :':e recognize their necessity "-nd have been an~rised of the probable need of extending the activities of the Bureau of Reclamation to pIOvide for necessary rice irrigation in the lov~r area, Appropriate legislation to make more effective co_ordination among existing federal agencies may be necessary, Undoubtedly, the time has arrived for com- prehensive, co-ordinated river basin development where the national, as r,,, 11 as the state and local interests, must be considered, :,e will support legislation vrhich recognizes the principle of equitable co-operation between federal and state governments, each operating within its constitutional limitations, STATES WILL OPPOSE F::;m:RAL l~\STERS However, responsible officials of the state will abvays o?"ose any federal vmter master on a river exercising, under the principle of complete federal control, the develOpMent of the resources v~thin its basin. They will abvays contend for recognition of the rights of states to maintain the control and use of water among their oitizens for irrigation and other beneficial purposes, subjeot to eouitable aonortionment of the ;mter of an interstate river between stlltee, - They will always contend for the unimpaired right to make compacts vnth other states, subject only to the a"proval by Congress of such compacts, They will insist that theso river basin resouroes be developed under the recognized prooesses of government and not through a super.governmental entity, They have seen agricultural and incidental industrial development of the state grovl through irrigation of arid and eemi. arid lands and they are not resigned to the oommitment of the present, as well as the future development, to an authority which may oonsult with them but nevertheless has the power to ignore them, They are unwilling to intrust vested righte in water, as well as the op~ortunity to acquire further rights, to an authority operating solely under federal laws, which can be reached, where controversies arise, only through the federal oourts. They are fearful, too, of a federal a[enoy, dominated by three men, res'1onsible only to the President, which has the DO\~r to exclude such agencies as the Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Army ~ngineers which have functioned in the oonservation and control of water in full recognition of states rights, They know that river basins .~th their sources in large arid and semi_arid areas where irrigation is practiced, cannot be dominated, if present and future development is to be protected, by an authority whose principal concern must be to preserve and protect navigable waters, flood control and power development, .~