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WATER PLANNING IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST By CHARLES W. HODDE. Chairman Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission A lot of Northwesterners visit Las Vegas, and some have been known to come home without all their resources intact. I should make it clear at the start that I bring with me no authority to com- mit beyond what I have in my purse, which was inventoried closely by my wife just as I got on the plane for the trip. I have neither water nor money in volume enough to warrant special attention. While we, of the Northwest, are classed as the "haves" in any water meeting in the West, we find it difficult to fit ourselves into the role of the affluent traveler visiting the ghettos of despair when we come to the Southwest and see your spectacular cities and beautifully tanned people. Truly, we wish that someone could discover how we in the Northwest could have our rain in the night and sun, of the quality of that in the Southwest, during the day. We are engaged in the operation of a new social invention in the Northwest. Mankind has become so accustomed to mechanical and mathematical inventions during this century, and we have so generally accepted them as solutions to our problems, that little attention has been devoted to the undeveloped wilderness of social organization with the purpose of developing a rational choice of commitments for the future. In 'the field of water resource planning, a device is now available for bringing together the efforts and abilities of all levels of government, with promise that the private sector can also be involved in a constructive manner. Private enterprise in the old manner has gener- ally been a subject for policing rather than consultation. This new organization is not assured success through the provision of the Law under which it is organized. People are neither chemicals that can be mixed with an assured reaction, nor levers or pulleys that will respond in an assured manner when put together in a certain pattern. We do believe, though, that we have a method available with which to match each mission against each of many others in the field of water planning, and we think the chem- istry of human confrontation will greatly accelerate the definition of both need and goals. The Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission was established by Executive Order under provisions of the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965, on March 6,1967. It was the first of the new federal-state coordinating entities established under Title II of that Act. The Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission has members representing the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, and the federal departments of the Army; Agriculture; Interior; Health, Education and Wel- fare; Transportation; Commerce; Housing and Urban Development; the Federal Power Commission; and the U.S. Entity for the Columbia River Treaty. The jurisdiction of the Commission includes all the state of Washington; the state of Oregon except that portion draining into the Smith, Klamath and Goose Lake systems along the California border; all Idaho except the Bear River drainage, and it includes those portions of Wyoming and Mon- tana draining into the Columbia River system. The Commission during its first seven months of operation has established its headquarters in Vancouver, Washington, adopted bylaws, guidelines for staffing, a personnel manual, operating pro- cedures, a system of interagency committees, and has several special committees concerned with spec- ific planning problems. It has an initial staff of seven persons in addition to the Chairman, and re- ceives support from approximately 175 state and federal technical persons associated with its commit- tee work. It is providing office space and some support services for our principal interagency region- wide study under way. The Commission proposes operation on a budget for the fiscal years 1968 and 1969 of approx- imately $210,000 per year for staff support, half provided by the combined state contributions and half by the Federal Government through appropriation to the Water Resources Council. We believe the organizational structure, bylaws and other implementing action taken to date -37-