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Show ARIZONA REPUBLIC JUNE 14, 1963 W- I 1 TT 1 11 amed by U clall Officials E _P_*_* ye tiirect On CAP By BEN AVERY SECRETARY of Interior Stewart L. Udall yesterday appointed a s p e c i a l task force to prepare a report on his proposed Pacific Southwest regional w a t er development p r o j e c t by Aug. 15. He also announced plans to have a bill ready to present to Congress next" January to authorize the project. UdaU's action was disclosed in a letter to Gov. Paul Fannin and the governors of Nevada, California, Utah, and New Mexico, with | copies sent other Arizona water j officials. However, it was not clea, 'whether he would seek to delay j action in the Central Arizona Project bill under the new measure is I prepared or just incorporate CAP linto it. He also proposed a July 1. conference in Ms office in Washington between the governors of Arizona, California and Nevada and their advisers. The meeting is to work out a satisfactory formula for allocating and reductions in case of a water shortage as stipulated under the June 3 decision of the 'U.S. Supreme Court granting Arizona a larger share of Colorado River water. This decision gave the secretary authority to exercise "reasoned" discretion in making any necessary^ reductions in water allocations. - (<IA) ' UdaU's office said preparation of the report will be under his personal direction, and will be r e v i e w e d by Undersecretary James K. Carr, former California water commissioner, .and Frank Barry, solicitor for the department and former lTHu_c -sco n attorney. THE secretatryyV'* *o ffice said Udall wrote a perianal letter to Sen. Carl Hayden, D-Ariz., who only last week spearheaded introduction of identical Central Arizona Project billfetfh House and Senate by the Arizona congressional delegation. Contents of the letter were not disclosed, but the senator had left for Paris before it arrived and he is not scheduled to return to Washington'' .until Monday. Udall also will be out of the capital until Monday. However, his office Said he planned to confer with Hayden on his return in an'effort to avoid any conflict with the senator. Even as the letters were beinb delivered in Phoenix, Gov. Fannin held a lun^eon in Hotel Westward Ho attended by business leaders of the state to honor those Arizonans who have worked so long to settle the question of Arizona's water rights and clear the way for the Central Arizona Project. IN A brief welcoming talk, Fannin proclaimed the unity of the state and its wholehearted support of Sen. Hayden. "Tie Udall letter did not arrive until after Fannin returned to his office in the afternoon. the governor said he. would seek further clarificatTOTr of the interior: secretary's proposal. "There is only one way to bring water into central Arizona for distribution throughout the state, and that is through the Central Arizona Project," the governor said. "We have waited a long time, more than 10 years to be exact, to get all questions settled as to our legal right to use this water. This was the only condition that both California and the House of Representatives laid down for passage of the Central Arizona Project Act in 1951. "Meantime, our groundwater reserves are being depleted at an ever increasing rate as our stati J (Continued on Page 2. Col. 2) More -Altont UdaWs Water Project (Continued from Page 19) grows, and speed has become a prime necessity." The governor expressed ho|>© that UdaU's basin project study does not mean any delay in going ahead with the Central Arizona Project bill. BASICALLY,- UdaU's proposed Pacific Southwest Project would" consist of the (Central ArizonaP r o | e c t, which includes H«%eFIH^ the Dixie Project in Utah, the Sputtiera Nevada Municipal Proj-ect, and the All-Amerfcan Canal Lining Project. Ultimately, after Hooker Dam is paid for in 1987, it would pool power revenues to help pay for all of the projects, but in the immediate future power revenues from the Central Arizona Project would have to carry all of the projects, unless Marble Cauybn Dam is included, and some revenue can be obtained from Davis Dam. UDALL'S analysis of the situation differs somewhat from that of most Arizonans. The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona's right to use 2.8 million acre-feet of water from the river "requires the development of a plan to meet the water needs of that region which is at once the driest and the fastest growing in the United States," Udall wrote the governors. "In a real sense the court's decision is only a shifting of shortages," the secretary added. "It leaves us the pressing problem of providing adequate water supplies for the future." UDALL referred to his proposal last January for the basin project to be developed in consultation with the ifpvernors and congressmen fjppallhe affected states. "The hour for water statesmanship in Hie: Pacific Southwest has arrived," he wrote. "Those public leaders who now serve the Lower Colorado* states in Washington and in theltjife capitals have an opportunity to open up new avenues to njutual prosperity. "BY DEFAULT of leadership," he said, "they will choose rather to return to the bitter battlegrounds of yesteryear. Extended controversies and protracted litigation do not develop water for the people's needs. Such a course will not help the Pacific Southwest prosper." Udall expressed confidence that the Interior Department t a sk force, which is to be headed by Assistant Reclamation Commissioner William I. Palmer, "will lead to a regional #|tcr plan which will respect the m a t er rights of your state, and also meet its future needs." |
