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Show 30 DIXIE PROJECT, UTAH sions from this section of the river are practically impossible. Periodic flooding causes shifting of the river bed and supports dense stands of phreatophytes, particularly salt cedars and willows. A few miles below St. George, Utah, the river again enters a canyon section and emerges just east of Littlefield, Ariz. From this point to where it discharges into Lake Mead, a distance of some 40 miles, there is an almost continuous band containing many acres of dense phreatophytes with the low flow river channel meandering back and forth through them, always supplying the water to keep them luxuriantly green. The heavier floods flush out sand and silt accumulations and " irrigate" the many acres of nonbeneficial vegetation. Because of the heavy movement of silt down the river, with some being deposited at one point and some eroded from another, and with the wide variation in flow, it is impractical to attempt to control the unregulated river into any single channel and to prevent waste of water. With the Dixie project, the major destructive and wasteful floods on the river will be controlled. The Virgin Dam, with 180,000 of its 246,000 acre- feet capacity ( or 73 percent) dedicated to silt storage and incidental flood control, will control the river below it. Of the 24,000 acre- feet storage capacity proposed for the lower Gunlock Dam on the Santa Clara River, 10,000 acre- feet ( 42 percent of the total storage) is to be reserved for silt storage and flood control. Combined, the two project reservoirs will stop a large part of the silt now going into Lake Mead. They will also stop much of the flooding along the entire lower reaches of the Virgin River in Utah, Arizona, arid Nevada. But, most important, a large portion of that water now consumed nonbeneficially will be available for beneficial uses of man. Before the construction of Hoover Dam, only limited use could be made of the uncontrolled waters of the Colorado River, flood damage was high, and wastes of water was inevitable. On a smaller scale, but still far too large for individual people or communities to handle, is the necessary Virgin River control. And not only Utah will benefit from this project, Arizona and Nevada both stand to gain materially from this " river control" project. Those who will be benefiting most directly- irrigation and municipal users- will be paying most of the costs, and this seems proper. But the benefits to others down the river through flood control, water salvage potentials, silt removal, and better regulated streamflow should not be overlooked. There are undoubtedly those who will strongly oppose this development on the basis that Utah has no right to increase her uses of Virgin River water, that the Colorado River Basin is already overappropri- ated for existing and approved projects, that further hydrological studies are essential to good planning, and so forth. In rebuttal, I must say that few new reclamation projects will be built in the United States in the future if reasonable and sound developments can be stopped politically. There are few unbuilt projects that will not find strong opposition from some source. And if the Dixie project, with its highly favorable benefit- cost ratio, cannot proceed, many others that are far less needed and far less economical in terms of new water development, will probably be forever stopped. The State of Utah believes that she has the right to a reasonable part of the waters which come from her land's. Proper filings for construction of the Dixie project are in the name of the Utah Water & Power Board and are in good standing under the laws of the State of Utah. |