22455

OCT 9 196Z

THEM DISTRICT

IA

OFFICE OF GENERALMANAGER AND CHIEFENGINEER

OCT 8 1962

E~ecutiv-eCommittee Board of Directors The MetropolitanWater District of SouthernCalifornia B u i 1 d I n g.

Gentlemen:

~The Federal Power Commission on September 10 1962, filed an initialdecisionrecommendingiss~ance of a fifty— year license to the Power Authority for the proposed Marble Canyonhydroe~ectrIcprojec~ on the ColoradoRiver just upstream from Grand CanyonNational Park. A copy of the Commissiontspublicationrelease,reporting the decision is attachedhereto.

This decision is the outcome of hearings.onArizona’S application for a license to developMarbleCanyon. The public hearings began in May 1961 and were continued in October and December of that year.

In: June 1961 the City of Los Angeles,Department of Water and Power, recommende4 for the Commission’sconsideration ~he development of the Marble-XanabProject by the Federal Government but the City,made no application for a license. It proposeddevelopment of practically the entire riverbetween near the south end of the and Glen CanyonProject on the north,makingavailable at Narble-Kanababout2,000,0(0 kw and 8,000000,000 kwhr annually instead- of the MarbleCanyonoutput of only 500,000 kw and 2,5OO,0OO~OO kwhr annually.

The District,havingpreviouslyintervened in this proceeding., filed•testimonyindicating that the ,Marble-Kanab Projectoffers a potentiallydesirablesourceoflow co5t hydroelectricenergy to meet the needs of the District and that this project has sufficient merit to warrantCongressional Investigation. 4 The output of the MarbIe-KanabProjectwouldsatisfy not only Arizona’spowerrequirements for which the MarbleCanyonProject is intended, but alCo.the requirements of California’sDepartment of WaterResources for bringing Feather River~.water into South~ern Ca].ifornia. Furthermore, powerwou]d be available ~or use by Nevada and public utilities in SouthernCalifornia.

On 3eptémbér~21~, 1962, Mr. Rockwell met in Washington, D. C., with CqmmisaionerFloyd E.. .Lon4fly, and Mr~ A.’ B. West, Director of Region 3, UnitedStatesBureau of Reclamation, to ia~uaswhóe~,ing of the Glen Canyonpower for which the District has applied. 1fr.~’ Ivan L. Bateman of the City of Los Angeles was at the Commissioner!sOffice at the same time.

Mr. Rockwell and Mr. West joined Mr. Bateman in the Commissioner’s.,.offioe to di~cus.s the llarble-KanabProject. The Con~issionerindicated that the Bureau of ReclamatiOnwould file exceptions to the FPC decision and that the filingwould be signed by SecretaryJtewart L. Udall.’ He also stated that it would be helpful to have PresidentKennedy.advise the Federal Power Commission that there was no hurry in Ooming to a final, decisiQn on the MarbleCanyonProject.

This meeting was reported to the Los Angelesoffice, whereupon Mr..Jensenrequested Mr. Rockwell. to bring this matter to the attention of the CaliforniaSenators.

Neit~rSenator was avail~b1e that afternoon, but bir, Warren,,~Francis~.inSenatorKuchel’soffice knew of the MarbleCanyonhearings,andthought that the proceedings were favorable to California, SenatorKuchel was leaving for California a~d 1~. Franoij said that he was sure the Senator would do all that he~could to fui’ther any actionfavorable to the iterests of California. Mr. Francisindicated that a telegramexpressing our viewswould be a good way to bring the matter to the attention of SenatorKuchel.

SenatorEnglewas.on‘~he floor of the Senate at the time and Mr. Philip P. Diókinson in the Senator~soffice was familiar with the Marble,,Canyon and Marbl~-Kanab~Projects. He said that Congresswould not approve of the Ma~bie-Xanab Project due to the diversionaround the Grand Canyon of all said that but about 1,000 cfa of the ~~~ water. He he would work with CommissiQnerDominy as much as he could and that he wouldadvise the Senator.of the situation.

2. The Federal Power Co~iseion has alloweduntil October 31 for~partie&.to the proceedings to file exceptions to the decision.

General 1~.,ager ~nd Chief Engineer

End. 394.8 N? 3948 i~CLOSUI~

THE METROPOLITANWATERDISTRICT OF SOUTHERNCALIFORNIA

FORM 9.5 3M 3-81 P0. 93848 RELEASE FEDERALPOWERCOMMISSION FOR PUBLICATION

ImmediateRelease PROJECT NO. 2248 Release No. 12, 205

FPC EXAMINERWOULDLICENSEARIZONAPOWERAUTHORITY’SPROPOSED

MARBLECANYONDAM ON COLORADORIVER;REJECTSCOUNTER-PROPOSAL

AFFECTINGGRANDCANYON

Washington, D. C., September 10, 1962--FederalPowerCommissionPresiding ExaminerEdward B. Marshfiled an initialdecisiontodayrecommendingissuance

of a 50-yearlicense to the ArizonaPowerAuthority, of Phoenix,Ariz., for its proposedMarbleCanyonhydroelectricproject on the ColoradoRiver just upstream fromGrandCanyonNationalPark. The decision is subject to review by the Com mission.

ExaminerMarshrejected a proposal by the City of Los Angeles,Calif., and its Department of Water and Power that the FPC recommendfederaldevelopment of an alternatedevelopmentwhichwouldaffect the GrandCanyonNationalPark.

the examinerpointed out that Arizona’sMarbleCanyonprojectwould be oper ated essentially as a run-of-the-river plant and is not expected to have any appre ciableeffect on the floodflows of the Colorado. The projectproposed by Los Angeles,however, woulddivert 92 percent of the ColoradoRiver flow awayfrom the GrandCanyon, the examiner said.

rki~)na’sN~arb1eCanyon dam will be a constantradius arch section dam 750

leet in lengthalong its crest and about 400 feet high. It will create a reservoir havingapproximately 480, 000 acre-feet of storage. A powerhouse to be built im ~diate1ydownstreamfrom the dam will have an installedcapacity of 510, 000 k.i1c~~’atts.

The cost of the project,includingrelatedtransmissionfacilities, is estimated at obout $1 54, 000,000. Powergenerated at the project will not be distributed~ by Arizo~a but will be sold to public and privatedistributionagencies.

ExamintrMarshconcluded that Arizona’sproposeddevelopment will provide the maximumpracticable ise of the waterresources of the Coloradobetween the Bureau of Reclamation’s Glen Canyondam and the northernboundary of Grand Canyon. The examiner said Arizona’sproject is engineeringlysound and feasible, economicallyfeasible and can be readilyfinanced.

(OVER)