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Show will insure the lowest rates consistent with sound business procedure, thus encouraging the diver- sity of new manufacturing needed by the region. At the same time it will not hold back the initia- tion of those additional irrigation enterprises which are required to meet both regional and national demands upon food supply. Full bene- fits from placing dry land under irrigation will not accrue unless safeguards are continued against speculation, family-size farms are en- couraged, and adequate credit and extension services are provided the new farm families. Further encroachment upon the river's flood plains will continue to breed the disrupting effects of floods unless curbed by preventive measures. Improper timing of new works may cost the Nation as real and as permanent damages as their construction under faulty development policies. While it is essential to set a highly flexible time schedule so as to take account of changing con- ditions, it is possible and desirable to indicate the relative priority of some immediate proposals for the Columbia. Major dams such as the Chief Joseph, Albeni Falls, Hungry Horse, and Hells Canyon Projects should be completed as soon as practicable. Some administrative and policy conflicts must be resolved before certain of these can be undertaken. Work should go forward on the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project works and on some supplemental supplies of irrigation water. Transmission lines, fish ladders and spawning ground rehabilitation, and watershed rehabilita- tion also deserve early priority. Before develop- ment of additional multiple-purpose and naviga- tion facilities proceeds much further, there should be adequate State and Federal investment in re- search and exploration dealing with such prob- lems as minerals, industrial water supply, and fisheries development. There are still too many unknowns as to Pacific Northwest resources and their possible use to warrant transforming some present plans into concrete, dirt, and steel until much more investi- gation has taken place. To go ahead with their construction now might well handicap later fruit- ful developments of water, fisheries, and minerals. This means xequiring every new action to meet the test of harmony with a program for resources development in the interest of the people of the Pacific Northwest. The Rio Grande In the predominantly dry Rio Grande Basin water is everywhere at a premium. There is not enough water of good quality to meet all needs of the present population of 1,300,000 who live in the sections of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas drained by the river. Indeed, the de- mands are so large in relation to the flow that the drainage basin divides into three subbasins, each of which is almost wholly independent of flow of waters from the others. The upper reaches of the Rio Grande are snow- and spring-fed mountain streams draining the heavily forested and rugged eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and New Mexico. Flowing easterly, the river enters the San Luis Valley, a broad, high-altitude trough, the north- ern part of which drains into a closed basin and the southern part of which contributes flood flows to the main river. Through New Mexico from the Colorado line to Fort Quitman, Tex., the river flows through a series of deep canyons and alluvial valleys. In this stretch the Rio Grande is a typical desert river. Most of the surface water is derived from melting snows in the high moun- tains. Of the average annual water production of 3,060,000 acre-feet, approximately half comes from Colorado and half from New Mexico. South of Otowi, N. Mex., the tributaries are ephemeral. Stream flow is flashy and subject to wide variation. The agriculture and population of the Upper Rio Grande sub-basin are clustered in the San Luis Valley of Colorado and in the valley floors of New Mexico and northwestern Texas. The New Mexico valleys, ranging in width from a few hundred feet to several miles, are irrigated from the spring floods and summer flows. These green oases were the center of the Indian pueblo life which the Spanish explorers found in the valley, and they became the sites for extensive Spanish-American settlements. Upon the layers of Indian and Spanish-American culture still a 26 |