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Show Article III of the Colorado River Compact provides: (e) The States of the Upper Division shall not withhold water, and the States of the Lower Division shall not require the delivery of water, which cannot reasonably be applied to domes- tic and agricultural uses. The United States, through Congress, and specifi- cally through the Boulder Canyon Project Act, has approved the compact. The Boulder Canyon Proj- ect Act further provides in section 13 r1 (b) The rights of the United States in/or to the waters of the Colorado River and its tributaries howsoever claimed or acquired, as well as the rights of those claiming under the United States, shall be subject to and controlled by said Colorado River Compact. Although the basic legal framework is confining, much economically justified water resources de- velopment is still possible in the basin within its limitations. Watershed Management True conservation must begin, literally, at the grass roots. The 104,000 acre-feet of sediment flowing into Lake Mead in average years is ample evidence that there is presently extensive waste of soil and of the materials out of which soil is derived. The geological, biological, and chemical processes by which soil is formed are extremely slow; the erosional processes by which soil is lost are rapid and accelerative. Vast areas of sterile ground sur- face, of gullies, washes, and arroyos in the Colorado River Basin indicate resources already lost, almost permanently as man reckons time. Implicit in the loss of soil cover is the loss of the grasses and other forage and forests which might have been produced to the enrichment of the area and the Nation. The economic value of these losses, expressed with recognition of their relative permanency, is great. Sediment producing processes have dual effects. Not only a.re lands denuded, with consequent loss of range and timber values, but through them flow- ing streams dissipate reservoir capacity, and deposit sediment in valleys, thereby subjecting those areas to flooding. Fortunately, the sedimentation processes in the 1 Act of D ecember 21, 1928, 45 Stat. 1064, 43 U. S. C. 617/. basin, serious as they are, do not bar parallel con- struction of water resources facilities and applica- tion of proper watershed treatment. It is estimated that Lake Mead can continue to accept the sedi- ment load of the stream for 275 years. Glen Can- yon Dam can be designed to accommodate the sedi- ment load of the stream for 200 years and yet yield benefits outweighing costs.2 The Bridge Canyon site, on the other hand, is dependent for its fullest economical use upon watershed management and supplemental auxiliary sediment-catchment basins, like the Glen Canyon Dam and the associated Coconino structures. Also, sedimentation presents no serious problem on many potential water proj- ects in the upper basin. The immense economic loss implicit in denuded range lands and inadequately managed timber lands must not be tolerated. The Government agencies in the field are not now able to undertake adequate remedial measures because of administra- tive policies, lack of appropriations, lack of per- sonnel, and inadequate basic data. In the case of some States, lack of definitive policy also thwarts progress. Most important, the general public has not been enlightened to the point of accepting the large costs of adequate remedial measures. The objective, then, in watershed management is the development of strong corrective policies sup- ported by the continuing best application of per- sonnel and funds to that function, and an unrelenting pressure for additional legislation, per- sonnel, and funds through which adequate man- agement processes can be applied. In this the vital need of keeping adequate watershed treatment in phase with construction must be recognized in planning and action. Consumptive Utilization of the Water Resource Most authorities would agree that a very eco- nomical and beneficial use of water in the West is its employment as near as possible to where it falls. Not only does such use yield values in timber and grasses, both most important in the economy of the West, but that process preserves the land resource by retarding runoff and erosion. As the runoff is retarded, stream flow is made more uniform, more water thereby is made available to long-established water rights and the irrigated farms to which they attach; and with lesser flood volumes the reservoir 1 See Problem 0-3. 452 |