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, , i-:il.Jl I million acre-feet of Central Arizona Project water, an amount greatly exceeding the aver- age annual supply estimated by the Bureau of Reclamation to be 1.2 million acre-feet. Of the total requests, over 1 million acre-feet are for municipal and industrial use. The Ari- zona Interstate Stream Commission is con- ducting studies to determine the best use of Arizona's Colorado River water entitlement. The Commission anticipates that the Secre- tary will also use these studies in contracting with Arizona water users. Dixie Project. A definite plan report on the Dixie Project has been prepared and ap- proved by the Commissioner of Reclamation. The first allocation of funds under the au- thority of the Colorado River Basin Project Act was made in 1970 for advance planning and preconstruction activities. Havasu Pumped Storage Project. Ari- zona Power Authority's 1969 application to the Federal Power Commission for a prelimi- nary permit to make engineering and eco- nomic studies for a pumped storage hydroe- lectric project at Lake Havasu was approved on November 18, 1970, By the same order, the Federal Power Commission granted The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's petition to intervene in the pro- ceedings. Metropolitan had filed its petition in 1969 on the grounds that its contracts with the United States relating to Parker Dam, Parker Power Plant, and Havasu Lake consti- tute an interest which may be directly affect- ed by the proposed project. The Commission Order provides that if the Authority should commence the second year of the permit, the Authority must fur- nish the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wild- life with $50,000 to finance a mutually satis- factory two-year study of the effects of the proposed project on fish and wildlife re- sources, and of the means and measures re- quired to conserve and develop the fish and wildlife resources affected by the project; and before commencing the proposed study, file for Commission approval an outline of the proposed investigations and the cost thereof. The Authority objected to being re- ~. qui red to furnish the $50,000 for this study and requested a rehearing before the Com- mission to determine the manner and amount to be spent on the studies after an evaluation has been made of the nature and extent of studies required. Geothermal Re.ource. of Imperial Valley During 1970, a team of researchers from the University of California at Riverside, headed by Dr. Robert Rex, continued work- ing on a program to define the extent and quality of geothermal resources of the Lower Colorado River delta, with initial efforts con- centrated in the Imperial Valley of Cali- fornia. The program has been conducted for the past few years and is supported by fed- eral, state, local, and private contributions. According to the researchers, initial find- ings indicate that geothermal resources in Imperial Valley, if developed for the produc- tion of electric power, might also provide a major new water supply from comparatively low cost desalted water. The continuing investigations of this resource are being di- rected toward (1) locating hot pressurized brines at fairly shallow depths (less than 5,- 000 feet deep), which would have only about one-tenth the salinity found in present steam wells near Salton Sea, (2) developing pilot operations of wells and processes for extract- ing the brines and producing power from the wells, and (3) developing low-cost proce- dures for disposing of the brines left over from power production and desalting. During 1970, the Office of Saline Water contracted with Professor A, Laird of the University of California at Berkeley to ex- plore some of the problems of desalting this hot brine, On December 24, 1970, President Nixon signed into law P.L, 91-581, the Geothermal Steam Act, which permits the Secretary of the Interior to issue leases on public lands for geothermal steam development and sets forth conditions to be followed. This legislation is expected to enable geothermal resource de- velopment to proceed in California and other western states. 39