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Show DIXIE PROJECT, UTAH 63 STATEMENT OF SENATOR FRANK E. MOSS OF UTAH Senator Moss. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Chairman Aspinall and Congressman Burton. I want to express my appreciation to the chairman of the subcommittee and the chairman of the full committee for scheduling this hearing today on the Dixie project. < ; No project was ever more earnestly sought by the people of the State and area it will benefit; no project was ever more universally supported. The people of Washington County, which we in Utah call our Dixie because its warm, mild climate allowed us at one time to raise cotton there, have been trying to harness the waters of the " Virgin and Santa Clara Rivers ever since the area was settled by the Mormon pioneers in 1852. Again and again they built diversion structures and irrigation ditches only to have them washed out by heavy, silt- laden waters and have their crops and the adjacent farmlands flooded over. The people of Dixie began to plan and work for a reclamation project of the scope called for in this legislation at least 50 years ago. It has been an immediate and urgent goal for at least 25 years. Congress has been precluded from considering the Dixie project because it was enmeshed in the Arizona- California controversy over the allocation of the waters of the Colorado River. The Virgin River empties into the Colorado, and even though it contributes less than 1 percent of the flow of the mighty Colorado, no action could be taken on Dixie until the present controversy was settled. As you will remember, the Supreme Court made a final decision on the Colorado River water only about a year ago. I brought my bill to authorize Dixie before the Senate Irrigation and Reclamation Subcommittee shortly afterward. Hearings were held both in Washington and in St. George, Utah. Thereafter, the bill was reported favorably by the Senate Interior Committee, in October, and passed on voice vote the same month. So Dixie could hardly be placed in the category of a highly controversial bill. I will not take the time of this subcommittee to discuss the vital statistics of the project, or to detail the unique and courageous history of the people in Utah's Dixie who will be benefited so greatly by the passage of the bill. I am sure representatives of the Bureau of Reclamation and my colleagues from Utah in the House will do this for you. I would like, however, to ask that some of my earlier statements on the Dixie project be made a part of the record of the hearings, and be printed at the conclusion of this statement. Mr. ROGERS. Without objection, it is so ordered. ( The material referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF SENATOR FRANK E. MOSS, DEMOCRAT, OF UTAH, ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE, WASHINGTON, D. O., MAY 8, 1963 Subject: The Dixie project, Utah. Mr. President, yesterday the Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation opened public hearings on my bill to authorize a $ 45 million reclamation project proposed for southwestern Utah, the Dixie project. The opening of congressional consideration of the Dixie project brings closer to fulfillment a dream of almost 25 years for the citizens of my State who reside in Washington County and surrounding areas. |