OCR Text |
Show vestigation, but they are not thought to be large in terms of the total program for the basin. Statements made concerning recreation, fish and wildlife, and watershed management for the upper basin are equally applicable to the lower basin, which has the same advantages and shortcomings. The needs for adequate land treatment, if anything, are more severe in the lower basin than in the upper. A more intensive program of stabilizing watershed lands is an immediate necessity, and un- like construction programs, it can be commenced without awaiting resolution of water-allotment controversies. The many recreational attractions of the lower basin make that purpose one of the major features to be served in development. The Future Basin Although the basin does not have sufficient water to permit making use of known land potentials, plans are already well advanced for facilities which can double present consumptive use of Colorado Basin water. The greater part of this use increase will occur in the upper basin, which has thus far not developed as rapidly as the lower basin. No gen- eralities as to acreage to be furnished supplemental water, new acreage to be brought in, or farms to be created would be valid at this time, because the manners and places of this further use lie largely within the discretion of the several States. Pro- posed diversions of water to localities outside the basin, competitive in some degree with prospective in-basin uses, preclude estimating in-basin agricul- tural expansion. The controversy over lower basin water precludes identification of future irrigation in that basin. The hydroelectric power potential of the Colo- rado River system is great. More than 1.3 million kilowatts of capacity have already been installed; definite plans for an additional 2.7 million kilowatts are ready, and a market for such additional capacity is readily available. Still further hydroelectric po- tentialities are known. In-basin consumption of this energy will be minor compared to export to adjacent market areas, notably Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Denver. With growing consumptive uses of water upstream, the energy output of the plants will diminish with time, and thermal energy will be called upon to assume the load thus gradu- ally dropped. With the upper basin committed to delivery of 7.5 million acre-feet average annually at Lee Ferry, and with essentially all irrigation in the lower basin and Mexico below the main stem plants, the hydroelectric plants on the Colorado are likely to be capable of meeting a large share of the area's demands. An abundance of raw materials such as coal, oil shales, phosphates, low-grade copper ores, and some of the rarer minerals, like uranium and man- ganese, are available in the basin. Their avail- ability has been known for years but exploitation has been minor. Some undoubtedly have been awaiting inexpensive energy, and some are await- ing technological development, but it is not to be expected that water resources development alone will bring substantial industrial growth in the basin. The basin will continue to be one of great open spaces, with a considerable part of the agricultural economy dependent upon the range. The main- tenance and restoration of that range is of national significance, but proper range treatment is still in doubt, and as long as it is the outlook for an im- portant economic element is precarious. The basin will continue and grow as a national playground, enhanced by additional roads and other facilities. In short, development of the water resources of the Colorado River will provide the means of better living for many within the basin, and for probably more outside the basin, but the basin's environ- ment will be but little altered. It is unlikely that enough water can even be made available to com- plement fully the other resources of the basin's great area. Obstacles to Achievement of Ultimate Water Resources Development Assuming that the restrictions upon the most effi- cient comprehensive development of the basin by agreed-upon water allocations are permanent and for the most part unalterable, there still remain some major obstacles to potential beneficial use of land and water resources in the basin. Most important among these handicaps are the attitudes of some interests toward land treatment programs. Watershed management to maintain and restore the range and forest values is dependent in large measure upon acceptance of the principle that forage is a crop to be harvested on a sustained yield basis. The efforts of the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the Indian 461 |