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<br />the current drought. However, there will be other droughts and, when <br /> <br />they occur, the Dolores project will offer the best solution that can <br /> <br />be found to such events. <br /> <br />The word "drought" may have no real meaning for those who <br /> <br />live along the Atlantic seaboard, where heavy rainfall normally occurs. <br /> <br />But a drought in the West often means financial ruin and other severe <br /> <br />personal hardships. The sector of the western economy which is first <br /> <br /> <br />and most seriously affected is the agricultural industry. Drought is <br /> <br /> <br />a way of life here in the West, but our reclamation projects provide a <br /> <br /> <br />form of insurance in the only manner possible. In the Dolores project <br /> <br />area the average annual rainfall during the crop growing season is <br /> <br />5 3/4 inches. Much of the area therefore depends upon reservoir <br /> <br />storage accumulated during the winter and spring runoff periods. <br /> <br />Reservoirs are the life arteries of Colorado and other <br /> <br />western states. Almost fifty percent of our total annual water <br /> <br />supplies originate in our rivers in about a sixty-day period of late <br /> <br />spring and early summer when the snowmelt occurs. This fifty percent <br /> <br />must be captured for distribution throughout the remainder of the year. <br /> <br />While there are a number of small reservoirs in the Dolores-Montezuma <br /> <br />county areas, the proposed McPhee reservoir of the Dolores project will <br /> <br />have a capacity greater than all of those reservoirs combined. The <br /> <br />reservoir obviously will be a tremendous asset to the people of Dolores <br /> <br />and Montezuma counties. <br /> <br />There has been some loose talk about marginal lands under <br /> <br />-3- <br />