WSP04978

• File Number: 8210.110.60
• Description: Colorado River Water Users Association
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 11/30/1961
• Author: CRWUA
• Title: Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Annual Report

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comprehensive water resources plans. On July 10, 1961; Senator Anderson held a hearing
on S, 1629, Prior to the hearing Senator Anderson sou~ht the views of 26 States and he re-
port'}d that 19 of 26 states endorsed the proposal for financial assistance to the states; 16
states approved the bill as proposed; 3 suggested amendl11ents; 3 states were noncommittal;
and 4 proposed expression of views later. .

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The views of the Bureau of Budget and the Departments of Interior and Agriculture
were in accord with the objectives of S. 1778 but recommended the substitution of the propo-
sal that the President was submitting to the Congress. !
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The 1936 Flood Control Act, which recognized the i,nter-relation of flood control with
other water uses. gave impetus for comprehensive basin planning and for multiple purposes
development. In 1934, the National Resources Planning Board came into the picture, and
all of the agencies of the government and the states who were interested or involved in water
and related land resource development found a convenient way to begin to get together. This
beginning led, at the Federal level. to a tri-partite agre~ment among the three principal
departments involved at the time--Army. Interior, and ~griculture--for consultation in
making river basin surveys, When the National Resou~ces Planning Board was discon-
tinued in 1943, these departments and the Federal Powe~ Commission formed the Federal
Inter-Agency River Basin Committee. Field Inter-Agency Committees for the Missouri and
Columbia Basins were formed in 1945 and 1946 and later other inter-agency committees were
formed. Subsequently, the Department of Commerce began its participation,

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Following the change of administration in 1952, an agreement, signed by the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Army, Commerce, Labor. I hterior, Health, Education, and
Welfare, and the Chairman of the Federal Power Commi~sion, and approved by President
Eisenhower, established the I nter-Agency Committee o~ Water Resources which replaced
the Federal I nter-Agency River Basin Committee. Eligi~ility for membersh ip on the field
inter-agency committees was broadened to include the states.

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During 1950, 1951, and 1952, much intensive activity took place in resource planning
and pOlicy formulation, There was the President's Waltlr Resources Policy Commission
report under the chairmanship of Morris Cooke entitledj "A Water Policy for the American
People". This report recognized, among other things, jhe need for co-ordination at the
Federal level and for organization and planning on a riv~r basin basis. Then in 1955 the
report of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Water Resources POlicy, commonly
referred to as the "Hoover Commission", was made. It, too, recognized the need for
planning and organizing on a river basin basis, Small watershed activities of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture, beginning about 1953, gave further impetus to basin-wide
studies. In 1956, comprehensive water resources develppment studies were undertaken
by the Corps of Engineers for the Delaware and the Potomac River Basins for which there
was no formal inter-agency organization. In 1958 Congress authorized the Southeast
Basins Study Comm ission and the Texas Study Comm iS$ion. The latest report is that of the
Senate Select Committee on National Water Resources Which has provided a summary of all

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