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COLORADO RIVER WATER USERS' ASSOCIATION • ~M ,_,- '!' ·~unr--......,r.r ~, ·- t . '\ - -. ' • •• • ' PROCEEDINGS of the T\VELFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE COLORADO RIVER WATER USERS' ASSOCIATION LAS VEGAS, NEVADA NOVEMBER 30 & DECEMBER 1, 1955 COLORADO RIVER WATER USERS' ASSOCIATION TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING November 30 - December 1, 1955 The Twelith Annual Meeting of the Colorado River Water Users• Association was called to order by President Raymond Matthew at the Hotel New Frontier, Las Vegas, Nevada, Wednesday, November 30, 1955 at 9:45 AM. The address of welcome was given by the Honorable Charles H. Russell, Governor of Nevada. Among the highlights of the warm and friendly remarks of the Governor were: "I must congratulate your Association for its initiative and good common sense in meeting in this harmonious and unprejudiced fashion in order that, after a frank and friendly discussion of mutual problems, a course of action can be instituted that cannot fail to be of benefit to all of us. "Our respective States share common problems in an expanding population and economy. Growth multiplies the issues at stake and makes it mandatory that we join together for an amicable solution. " GREETING Raymond Matthew, President "Greetings and. a hearty welcome to the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Colorado River Water Users' Association. It is indeed gratifying to see such a large attendance here today, and I feel sure you Will be well rewarded. We have a very fine program in store for you which has been arranged by the Program Committee under the chairmanship of our able and genial Secretary - Treasurer, Rod McMullin. "This Association is unique in that it is the only organization in the Colorado River Basin where representative of all the States in the Basin can and do gather on a friendly basis to discuss problems of mutual interest with respect to the water supply, its uses, and developments In the Colorado River Basin in the general interest of protecting the rights of the water users and sound water resources development. "Unfortunately there arc differences and conflicts between the various States as to the rights to the use of the waters of the Colorado River Syste.m. But here in this Association those differences are forgotten and controversy is studiously avoided. We have nothing to promote but good will and a greater friendship and understanding among the water users of the Basin. " The following committees were appointed by the President: RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE: Alfred Merritt Smith, Nevada Chairman Hampton C. Godbe, Utah Gilbert F. Nelson, California AUDITING COMMITTEE: Ralph C. Durke, California Chairman equitable distribution of the developed power in the future, but first we must J. G. Buehler, Nevada get the dams under way. B. H. Mendenhall, Utah It is logical that if the federal government can afford flood control on ****** the Mississippi River, it can also afford water resource development such as ours on the Colorado. Remember that as taxpayers we provide our pro-rata Addresses delivered at the conference are summarized herewith: share of flood control, with no return on the investment, while our program definitely provides for repayment for sums expended. This is, of course, exclusive of the taxable revenue generated by development of any reclamation **** ** project. STRATEGIC AND RARE METALS IN THE COLORADO RIVER BASIN In closing, let me emphasize that your group can be a powerful voice to Congress to provide: Senator George W. Malone of Nevada ' 1. Adequate protection and assistance for our mineral I am here today to visit with you rather than to attempt the delivery of a development. formal address. I shall also broaden the scope of my listed topic to include the items that I hold to be of major concern to our Western States. 2. Proper and clearly defined protection for our essential Water Rights. Foremost among these is the protection that our Water Rights must have if they are to survive the encroachment tactics being waged against them by 3. A comprehensive and accelerated program for the Feder al Agencies. A case in point is the withdrawal of water for Indian development of our Color~do River. Reservation purposes, exemplified by the Dakota suit. I helped organize the seventeen Western State Engineers to resist this approach and I most strongly ****** urge you to re-alert and reactivate all the efforts of this group. In addition to that, you of this Colorado River Water Users' Association should place yourself on public record, by formal resolution, as unalterably opposed to modification of CLOUDS, RAIN AND CLIMATE the plain intent of Congress as evidenced in the Desert Land Act of 1877. Dr. James E. Mc Donald There are other cases, unfortunately, that plainly warn us that Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Arizona nullification of the State's control over their water supplies can become a reality, unless immediate and effective action is taken toward enactment of A year ago, at the Eleventh Annual Meeting of your Association, I had Federal legislation to reaffirm the principles of States Rights control being the opportunity of describing to you in some detail the status of cloud modifica­ predominant rather than subordinate. tion techniques. I then pointed out to you that, all things considered, a scientist could only state that the case for rainmaking by any of the existing Let me next touch on a very important subject, that of our Western cloud seeding techniques was simple one of "not proved." I should like to States' development of rare and strategic minerals. As you all know, the briefly summarize the progress that has been made during the past year. United States cannot compete with foreign labor. Our scale of living makes that prohibitive. The only alternative has been a government subsidy and that Although no decisive experiments or studies have been carried through, too has its drawbacks. Tungsten, for example, through intensive and protected it is interesting to note that, in one extensive series of observations by the production, developed a surplus. University of Chicago in the Caribbean Area, the first positive indications of a cloud seeding effect in a statistically well designed experiment were obtained. On the whole, however, the appropriate legislation to encourage our Their results, obtained by water seeding, showed a positive effect, but one development of these rare metals has been fruitful. Magnesium, for example, which gave too small a net effect to be economically significant as can be seen still rates high in the essential list and warrants continued aid. That extension from the fact that the cost of the water produced by seeding was $1, 000 an acre of federal support comes up for action in the January session of Congress and foot. merits a concerted and sustained effort by all affected in the field of mineral development. The Bowen meteoritic dust hypothesis has been given an interesting new test during the past year with the results that aircraft measurements of day-to­ Next, I would like to discuss with you in a very brief fashion, the day fluctuations in the freezing nuclei count at Sydney, Australia; Hawaiian problems involved in our Colorado River development program. I will bypass Islands; and the Panama Canal Zone gave positive indications of a variation in mention of the pending suit now in the hands of the Justices of our Supreme phase with the meteoritic dust hypothesis, and one negative result in Tucson. Court. That is for them to decide. But this fact is plain, we must continue to The Bowen hypothesis is of great interest in the whole problem of seeding press for affirmative action for the building of dams on the Colorado River. because if it can be established it will be the first definite indication of a Glen and Bridge Canyon Dams are good examples. We can work out an significant natural deficit of freezing nuclei. Within the past year, a certain amount of Cvidence concerning the large rate of decay of silver iodide nucleating - 2 - - ~ - activity has been obtained by the Australians, as well as evidence that the dispersal of silver iodide smoke from ground generators is rather less efficient than had discerned. previously been suspected. In the field of synoptic climatology, a number of interesting studies have A growing amount of evidence accumulated during the past year shows that been completed and still others are in progress. It has been found that in the collision - coalescence process of the development of precipitation is important general the efficiency of removal by precipitation of the water vapor over­ in the mid-latitudes, and it now appears to be the general consensus that head in summer in Arizona is usually only from a few percent to a maximum coalescence processes may be coequal in importance with ice crystal processes of 13 percent, which is comparable to the same quantity for the Middle West. although the issue is far from settled. In brief summary of t_he progress that Very interesting is the fact that this efficiency increases almost linearly with has been made in the past year, one can say simply that there has not been any the amount of precipitable water vapor overhead. In an extremely valuable breakthrough in the field of cloud modification techniques, but progress is study by Benton at Johns Hopkins University last year, average figures for the certainly encouraging. water vapor flow over the whole continent of North America were obtained by IBM techniques applied to radiosonde data. Benton's figures showed that in With that general background, I should like to point out in a few brief the summer the flux of water vapor increases steadily from southwest to remarks the nature of the program of clous physics research and climatological northeast across the continent in such a way as to seemingly imply that irriga­ research now underway at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the University tion waters saved during the winter rainy season in the Southwest may be the of Arizona.

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