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Show 30 WAR FOR THE COLORADO RIVER From the outset, the states of the Upper Basin were in- tent and thoughtful observers, if not participants at the hearings. They had a good reason for being present. On the drawing boards of the Reclamation Bureau, plans were taking shape for a project that in both size and cost would dwarf the proposed Central Arizona Project. Engineering, construction and financial standards which had governed western projects in the past (and were still on the law books) would have to be drastically revised to make the gigantic Upper Basin project feas- ible. These revisions were incorporated in the plans for the Arizona project. If they were accepted by Congress for the Arizona project, the road would be clear for the much larger Upper Basin project. Therefore, Arizona had another advantage over California. There was little doubt that the senators and congressmen of the Upper Basin would support the Arizona project both in and out of Congress. California's Colorado River Association not only launched a publicity drive against the Central Arizona Project, but began a nation-wide campaign against the Reclamation Bureau planners who, it charged, had devised water and power programs which would make them virtual dictators of the western economy. To these programs the author gave the name "The Western Web." Millions of Americans, it was pointed out in Associ- ation releases and by speakers who volunteered their services, were unaware of the new plans for western reclamation then proposed by Secretary of the Interior Julius Krug, Reclamation Commissioner Michael Straus, and other ranking officials of their departments. |