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Show CHAPTER XII 213 (7) Conditional authorization of the Uintah Project in Utah and reauthorization of Utah's Dixie Project at a cost increase from $42.7 to $58 million. (8) Authorizaiton of Interior's studies to augment the Colorado River. On March 26, 1968, H.R.3300, as amended, was reported by the full House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee by a vote of 22 to 10 with one absention. Congressman Saylor had offered 29 amendments to H.R.3300 which had been voted on and defeated. House Report No. 1312, together with minority views which objected to the price exacted from Arizona to get CAP and to making the Mexican Treaty obligation a National obligation, was ordered to be printed on April 24, 1968. In May H.R.3300 was granted a rule and CAP, which passed the Senate three times but never the House, was now before the House. After 2 days of debate on the floor of the House of Representatives in which the major elements of the bill were debated; e.g., California's 4.4 maf priority, making the Mexican Treaty obligation a National responsibility, the deletion of Bridge Canyon and Marble Canyon Dams as a result of the conservationist's arguments, studies on augmentation of the river, and the Orme Dam Indian problems, the bill, with only two of the half-dozen proposed amendments (to give the Indians the right to develop recreational facilities at Orme Dam and Congressman Saylor's amendment delaying National assumption of the Mexican Treaty obligation until the river was augmented by 2.5 million acre-feet) was passed by a voice vote of the House on May 15, 1968. This culminated 21 years of effort to get House approval. Immediately thereafter, the House moved to substitute the text of H.R.3300 after the enacting clause of S.1004. Thus the legislation was returned to the Senate as an amendment to S.1004, which had been approved by the Senate in August 1967. H.8.7. Senate-House Conference The Senate-House Conferees considered S.1004 from July 23 through August 1, 1978, at which time agreement was reached on the bill which included the items listed in H.8.6. above. The major disagreement between the conferees concerned Section 201 of the bill passed by the House which included direction to the Secretary of the Interior to study ways of augmenting the Colorado River. The Northwest conferees led by Senator Jackson opposed any studies of importation of Columbia River water into the Colorado. After a week of meetings a compromise was reached in the form of a revised Section 201 which directed the Secretary of the Interior to make a reconnaissance study of water supply and requirements and develop a general plan to meet the future water needs of the western United States (States west of the Continental Divide) but precluded the Secretary for a period of 10 years from studying any plan for importing water from the Columbia River Basin to the Colorado River Basin. This satisfied the Pacific Northwest States and allowed them time to inventory their future water needs. A second change was an increase from 2,500 ftVs to 3,000 frVs in the size of the CAP aqueduct in order to permit any available surplus water to be delivered to CAP, but on condition that Arizona pay the added cost of the enlarged capacity. This seemed to provide Arizona with a tradeoff for its agreement to a California 4.4 maf priority in perpetuity. On August 1, 1968, the Senate and House conferees by a 14 to 1 vote (Congressman Saylor dissenting because of the provision making the Mexican Treaty a National obligation) agreed to report out S.1004, the Colorado River Basin Project bill, as amended by H.R.3300. H.9. Approval by Congress of Public Law 90-537 Following adoption of the conference report (House Report No. 1861) on the Colorado River Basin Project bill (S.1004) by the House of Representatives by voice vote on September 5, 1968, and by the Senate on September 13, 1968, President Johnson signed the legislation into law on September 30, 1968, as Public Law 90-537 (see appendix 1202 for text of Act). Senator Hayden and Arizona had finally achieved the CAP and Senator Hayden had announced his retirement at the end of the 90th Congress. |