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Show 54 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER days of July, Senator Millikin continued to call his subcommittee to order, and through witnesses from the Bureau of Reclamation and the state of Arizona the structure of the proposed multi-billion dollar Central Arizona Project was clearly revealed. Also brought into sharp focus was the new program of the Reclamation Bureau. The real leader of McFarland's technical troops was Vaud E. Larson, a Reclamation Bureau engineer who had directed the preliminary investigation of the project. Building up to the appearance of Larson, McFarland called to the witness stand E. A. Moritz, the Bureau's director of the region in which the project would be located. 10 Moritz knew his lines. He backed up the contentions of Hayden, McFarland and his boss, Warne, not for- getting to get into his recital several favorable notices for Larson. He hammered on the points which all pro- ject supporters were to repeat innumerable times: Arizona was suffering an acute water shortage; the State's water reserves were exhausted because of over- pumping; Arizona's entire economy was built on agri- culture, and that economy was facing disaster because of a lack of water; only the Central Arizona Project could save it. Engineer Larson took the stand armed with a bushel of maps, charts and prepared data. Within a few minutes the committee was bogged in a mire of techi- calities that only a hydrological engineer could under- stand. Larson talked during three sessions. His direct testimony and examination required seventy-six pages of printed record, and included sixteen charts, graphs, maps and tables. Later he submitted for the record |
