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. ^" j . 002594 . ~ 3 - We should all be able to profit from experiences in the various states. I say this hopefully, and reservedly. Under the burning deserts of Arizona, there accumulated over uncounted thousands of years a vast reservoir of underground water. Recharge in that arid region is extremely slow. The principal irrigation in Arizona is carried on from an extensive well system. \Jithin the memory- of present day irrigators there today a subsidence of over three hundred feet in the water table has already occurred in marw areas. Arizona now finds itself in a critical situation in its most productive farming areas and is losing thousands of acres of cultivated lands yearly. ,p" Excessive pumping of sections along the coastal plain of California have caused the inflow of sea l~ater into previously productive farming areas. Methods of pumping the sea out again have yet to be devised. Painful evidence of mans' umdllingness to face the problem is to be found in every area of the Western United States where extensive pumping of ground water has occurred. Seldom, however, has the evidence been heeded until too late: After much talk and furious debate a ground water law was finally passlld in Colorado in 1957, but no basic issues were decided. The law establishes a$':~und water cormn1ssion empowered to designate those areas where there has been a contiINt~d,,'i1D~!,: se:;,'ious decline in the l-rater table as "critical areas". As long as such desigIjiltion exists, further drilling of new wells is prohibited. The landowners may reject such critical designation through action of an elected advisory- board. To date only one critical area has been declared by the commission, and that declaration was rejected by- the local advisory- board. The actual effect of the legislation is to perpetuate the race 'between adjacent landolmers as to uhich can dig the deepest well and power it with the largest pump.