OCR Text |
Show which is accompanied by the necessity for making numerous engineering and hydrologic studies, the Commission has reorganized and reactivated its Engineering Committee. As will be noted in the lists of Committee members on page 12, this Committee is composed of two members representing each of the four Upper Division States with the Commission's Engineer-Secretary as chairman. The By-Laws of the Commission provide that the Federal Representative may appoint members to the Committee, but the Department of the Interior has determined that under the circumstances now existing in the Colorado River Basin, it is not advisable for the Department to allow its personnel to sit as active members of Committees of interstate policy-making organizations. The Engineering Committee is actively working on many technical problems, and is available to give guidance and recommendations to the Engineering staff and the Commission. Reservoir Filling Studies Since the Committee was reorganized in August of 1958, it has held several meetings for the purpose of discussing studies of procedures for filling Glen Canyon Reservoir. The Engineering Committee made the following basic recommendations to the Commission regarding the problems of filling the Upper Basin reservoirs currently under construction. 1. That the Engineering Committee and the Commission staff should make studies of Upper Basin reservoir filling problems using a wide range of criteria in order to know the adverse effects as well as the beneficial effects of assumed criteria; 2. That the continuing of filling studies should be the primary activity of our staff for the present; 3. That each State, insofar as it is able, should assign personnel to this problem to work through the Commission as a coordinating and directing agency; 4. That the Secretary of the Interior be requested to assign personnel to aid with reservoir filling studies and to make available basic data and information to the Upper Basin Engineering Committee on the same basis as personnel, basic data, and information are made available to the Lower Basin Engineering Group. 5. That all studies be made with the understanding that they are exploratory and not for publication, and that they are to be on the subject of filling Upper Basin reservoirs as contrasted with long-term operating procedures. 6. That the Engineering Committee, insofar as possible, confine its activities to fact-finding and making of studies as bases for recommendations to the Commission. 19 |