417 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, Calif. 90013 485 National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. 20004

JUNE, 1967

MARK-UP of a Colorado River Basin Project bill will be undertaken June 9 by the full Interior Committee of the Senate rather than by the Subcommittee which conducted hearings during the first week of May. This decision of Chair­ man Henry Jackson of Washington was protested by Sens. Thomas Kuchel of Cali­ fornia, Gordon Allott of Colorado, Len Jordan of Idaho and Frank Moss of Utah, whose amendments thus have less chance to get on record. But it seemed likely to stand. SUBCOMMITTEE hearings were marked by Sen. Kuchel's objections to the abandonment by Interior Secretary Stewart Udall of his 1966 approach to South­ western water problems which then sought a regional solution. The Administra­ tion bill recommended this year by Sec. Udall, S.1013, and the bill backed by Sen. Carl Hayden of Arizona, S.1004, are both opposed as benefiting only Ari­ zona and for proposing to do so to the disadvantage of other States of the Basin. CALIFORNIA'S position was underscored May 17 when the Colorado River Board unanimously voted to support Sen. Kuchel's bill S.861 in which Sen. George Murphy joined and which also is backed by Gov. Ronald Reagan and Atty. Gen. Thomas Lynch. The Board's resolution noted three essentials which the Kuchel bill provides and the others do not: 1. "Construction of the Central Arizona Project will in time result in water shortages for existing projects on the Colorado River .. The CAP must bear a portion .. California, not Arizona, bears first burden, los­ ing 662,000 acre­ feet of MWD aque­ duct supply when California is cut to 4.4 million. The protection of the remaining supply must not end until Sec . Stewart Udall the river is Sen. Th omas Kuche l augmented to firm up the 7.5 million acre-feet annually which the Supreme Court apportioned. 2. "California can not support a bill to authorize the Central Arizona Project unless that bill also authorizes an immediate and meaningful study of ways to augment the water supply in the main Colorado River, including studies of importation possibilities.

3. " ... Hualapai Darn and power plant ... is an essential source of low-cost power for the economy of the Southwest, as well as an essential source of funds to finance works to add water to the Colorado River."

Watching President Johnson sign are Gongs. Hanna and Holifield, Sen. Kuchel, Joseph Jensen of MWD, Sec/Int. Udall, Vice Pres. Humphrey and Mayor Sam Yorty. In rear are Glenn Seaborg and James Ramey of AEC. SIGNING by President Johnson May 19 of legislation authorizing the Interior Dept. to spend $57.2 million through the Office of Saline Water on the Bolsa Island desalting and nuclear-fueled power plant was witnessed by a large delegation of Southern Californians led by Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty and including executives of the City Dept. of Water & Power and of the Metro­ politan Water District. MWD will take the freshened water into its system at the Diemer plant in Orange County to blend with supplies from the Colorado River. The Senate May 8 passed a House bill earmarking all but $11 million, which will be used to share operating expenses, as capital contribution. To this $46.2 million capital allocation will be added $15 million from the Atomic Energy Commission, $126 million from MWD, and $257 million from three electric utilities which will market the 1.8 million kw of power generated. Total capital cost will be $444 million and ultimate fresh water production will be 150,000,000 gallons per day. First 50 million gallons per day unit is expected to start operation in 1973, providing remaining approvals are obtained as hoped. Next step after Presidential approval is an Atomic Energy Commission hearing in Southern California on the construction permit. LA DW&P advanced its preparations by accepting bids (for May 31 opening) on turbine generators for its share of the power plant, an item of approxi­ mately $20 million. On July 3, bids will be opened on the nuclear steam supply system for the DW&P unit, expected to cost about $40 million. Prepar­ ations by Southern California Edison and by San Diego Gas & Electric Co., the other energy utilities participating, also are in bid stage. LBJ AND MRS. JOHNSON are still scheduled to dance at the Presidential Ball due June 23 at Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles where admission price will be $1,000. The Presi­ dent may find time during this trip also to participate in ceremonies celebrating progress of the California Aqueduct to Dos Amigos pumping plant as was suggested last April when water was let into the San Luis Canal near Los Banos on its way to help the Colorado River meet growing demands in the Southland. CONG. WAYNE ASPINALL urged a House appropriations subcommittee to in­ crease funds for irrigation and power projects in the West although President Johnson Jan. 30 did not mention water resources development in his message to Congress, an omission Cong. Aspinall said was, to him, "an indication of dis­ interest." At the same hearings, 40 California officials led by Ira Chrisman, chairman of the Calif. Water Commission, and State Water Resources Director William Gianelli asked for $165 million for flood control, navigation and irrigation projects during the next fiscal year. AMERICAN PUBLIC POWER Association in Denver May 11 endorsed federal construction of a Hualapai Dam hydroplant in Bridge Canyon and recommended investigation of pumped-storage features to give it 5 million kw capacity. At the same time APPA voted to oppose the principle of the calling for pre­ payment to utilities for steam power as an alternative proposed by Sec/Int. Stewart Udall to construction of the hydroplant. The APPA went along with water resource studies by a national commission as proposed by Sen. Henry Jackson.

OF 10 CONTRACTS drafted by the Interior Department last year, only 2 have been signed by utilities expected to buy Bonneville Power Administration energy to be sent south by high-voltage intertie from the Columbia River Basin, according to Washington Correspondent Helene Monberg, who adds that ''as Bonneville stands to receive $12 million on the annual average from the inter­ tie, (Sen. Henry) Jackson wants action now on these contracts."

REDUCED RUN-OFF estimates for the Colorado River caused BuRec to announce May 16 that holding rated power head at Lake Mead and minimum power head at Lake Powell will require reduction of Flaming Gorge storage by 900,000 acre feet to rated head there by March, 1968, even with help from releases for hydropower generation at Blue Mesa Dam starting in July and August of this summer. BIDS are invited on a June 6 sale by the Metropolitan Water Department of the first $100 million block of bonds to finance construction of new dis­ tribution facilities to carry Northern California water from the State Project to communities and water agencies served by the district.

CARLEY PORTER, Chairman of the California Assembly Water Committee, introduced a joint resolution with colleague Craig Biddle and State Sen. Gordon Cologne, to ask the US to establish a water pollution control labora­ tory at the Riverside campus of Univ. of California like the one at Oregon State University in Corvallis. COLORADO STATE Water Conservation Board was told by Felix Sparks May 12-13 that the Federal Water Pollution Con­ trol Commission wants that State to buy 150,000 irrigated acres in the Arkansas River Basin for $60 million and con­ vert the fields to dry farming so that return flows will not ''seriously degrade" water quality in the mainstream. The federal agency also recommends that Colorado spend several millions more for municipal and industrial water treatment facilities and in State programs to control mining and mineral outcroppings. The Denver POST the following Sunday reported that Sparks considers the proposal ''absurd." Carley Porter Colorado River Association 417 South Hill Street Los Angeles, California 90013

William H. Nelson. Assoc. Editor The Daily Sentinel P.O. Box 149 RETURN REQUESTED Gl'"And ... June t :icon, Colorado 81502

PRESIDENT Philip Corrin Los Angeles ------....1 DIRECTORS R. E. Badger Rancho Santa Fe RECLAMATION Commissioner Floyd Dominy warned that running W. J. Bassett the rapids of the Colorado River is dangerous enough for the Los Angeles Mrs. Gene M. Beal National Park Service to require advance issuance of a permit Los Angeles to take the risk. From license records at Grand Canyon, total Prof. Baylor Brooks number of river-runners in 1962 is known to be 362. In 1966, San Diego Walter W. Candy, Jr. "over 1,000." Expected in 1967, "over 2,000." This popularity Los Angeles level compares with a year of visits to Lake Mead totalling J. A. Cinquemani more than 3,500,000. Los Angeles Nathan 0. Freedman Northridge A NEW WATER-SAVING project was advanced last month with the joint W. L. Jacobs publication of a feasibility report on a proposal to use reclaimed water Calexico from the Hyperion sanitation plant to reinforce the underground barrier Harold C. Kapp Palm Desert now partly built with Colorado River wate r a gainst intrusion of ocean Matthew LaBrucherie water into West Basin (Redondo-Hermosa-Manhattan Beach vicinity). LA El Centro County Flood Control officials presented the document on which US Public Pres. Justice Hilton McCabe 4th Dist. Ct. Appeals Health Se rvice, Cal Tech and LA City Sanitation Bureau collaborated. The San Bernardino project would save money as well as water, it is said. A. J. McFadden Santa Ana GEN. MGR. ROBERT CARTER told his Imperial Irrigation Dis­ Horace Miller Blythe trict directors that the $1.2 million being asked of Congress M. W. Morris for a new dredge is vital to the BuRec program for conserva­ La Habra tion in the Lower Colorado River which is expected to save John Norton III Blythe 196,000 acre-feet of water annually. He also praised the James J. O'Brien saving of 170,000 acre-feet annually expected from operation Indio of the new Senator Wash reservoir as a temporary storage place Mrs. Clay Robbins Los Angeles for deliveries excess to immediate need. John D. Saussaman Fontana SAN FERNANDO Valley visitors to Bullock's Fashion Square in Sherman Wilfred W. Steiner Oaks will be welcomed June 5-10 to a free exhib ition o f water resource Monrovia displays. Metropolitan Water Di strict will show a model of the pro­ Carl E. Ward Oxnard jected Bolsa Island desalting plant, the Los Angeles Dept. o f Water & GENERAL MANAGER Power will illustrate how water from Inyo and Mono Counties gets to Robert Lee homes in the San Fernando Va lley , Coachella Valley County Water District has graphic e x planation of irrigation uses of Colorado River water. Calif. Dept. of Water Reso urces, US BuRec and other agencies also participate.

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