| OCR Text |
Show place the functions, powers and duties of the Upper Colorado River Commission with respect to findings of fact as well as its approach to administrative problems which seeks to afford the utmost practicable sensitivity to the needs and desires of the people affected. In other respects the Commission's objectives include securing the expeditious agricultural and industrial development of the Upper Colorado River Basin and the achievement of a form of administration, operation and maintenance of works and programs for the development, conservation and utilization of water resources designed to afford completeness of approach. It is in the light of these objectives that the activities of the Upper Colorado River Commission ought to be evaluated. The hydrology section of this report and the appendices thereto will show that steady progress is being made toward the evolution of a scientific basis upon which, along with other appropriate factors, findings of fact may be predicated. The Engineering and Legal committees of the Commission, and its Committee on Rules and Regulations, have been at work also on various phases of the same problem as well as on the development of procedures that will satisfy the requirements of sensitivity to local needs and desires. To the extent that the Commission's work in these fields is pressed vigorously forward there will be achieved in due course for findings of fact on the part of the Commission a reputation and, hence, an au-thoritativeness that bespeaks respect for and gives meaning to Article VIII (g) of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, which provides that "Findings of fact made by the Commission . . . shall constitute prima facie evidence of the facts found." Continuous efforts have been made by the Commission to secure the expeditious agricultural and industrial development of the Upper Colorado River Basin. To this end, for instance, the Commission has succeeded: first, in coordinating the comments of the Upper Basin States with respect to the Interior Department's report on the Colorado River Storage project and participating projects; second, in developing a draft of bill designed to authorize the initial stage of the Colorado River Storage project and participating projects; and, third, in continuing to give effect to its policy, whenever an opportunity therefor has arisen, of opposing proposed legislation and policies that might create conditions unfavorable to such development, while supporting proposed legislation and policies that tend to create conditions and relationships favorable thereto. There is evident within the Upper Colorado River Basin a notably encouraging spirit of cooperation with the Commission as well as a determination on the part of individuals and groups desiring primarily the development of the water resources of this or that -6- |
