OCR Text |
Show APPENDIX VI VI -7 2 COLORADO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT criteria finally adopted. These decisions, made, as I have pointed out, only after the most searching study and exhaustive consultation with the varied Colorado River Basin interests, reflect impartial judgment based on expert advice, and are in the best interests of the Colorado Basin as a whole, I am confident. Fortunately, the favorable runoff of the Colorado River during 19G2 will result in almost ideal conditions for the initiation of storage in Lake Powell. With average or near average flows for the next few years the upper basin reservoirs can be filled with a minimum of effect on downstream interests. The filling of Lake Powell, which will rival Hoover Dam and Lake Mead in size and capacity, together with the other upper basin storage reservoirs, will be another long step forward in unlocking the door to full development of the upper basin's water resources. In this respect the upper basin structures will serve, in effect, the same purposes that Hoover, Parker, and Davis Dams do for the lower basin. Together, these upper and lower basin reservoirs will approach full control of the once-rampaging Colorado River. In reaching this objective I sincerely hope that Secretary Udall may have the full cooperation of all basin interests and that the remaining development of the Colorado River Basin can proceed at full speed and in harmony and equity. I am convinced that the printing, as a Senate document, of the Sixth Annual Report on the Status of the Colorado River Storage Project and Participating Projects and the statement of the principles and criteria arrived at by the Secretary and his expert advisers for the filling of Glen Canyon Reservoir will be of value to the Congress and the N ation. |