Correspondence on Bonneville Unit of Central Utah Project

Page 39

* Mr David G Hanna (2) 30 July 1973 use, than the massively expensive and often environmentally destructive schemes for the augmentation of water supplies by interbasin transfer and the like, a-bout which we hear so much. As a medium for obtaining the coordination which is necessary, steps should be taken to knit together the basin plans now being prepared by the EIA with the State Wat^r Plan of the State Engineer and the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Rio Grande Regional Environmental Project of the Bureau. Hot any one of these will be worth a tinker's dam unless compatible with the others. (Actually, such co­ordination is required by Section 131.204, Code of Federal Regulations, govern­ing the preparation of basin plans.) Very important is the continuous planning process requires of the states by the Federal '.fater Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. There is now not a sufficient body of knowledge and experience available to prepare basin plans which are adequate to more than a small percentage of the optimum. The contin­uous process must be used to obtain ever-increasing effectiveness in basin plans. For this reason the State Vfater Plan and any plans developed under the RGHEP, as well as the basin plans themselves, must be kept open and flexible, with a full spectrum of alternatives continually under examination to facilitate intelligent choice between them at the appropriate time or times. To make the continuous planning process operative in the sense of produc­ing ever-evolving improvement of the basin plans, an energetic system of research is very important as a primary backup. Evolutionary improvement must be led by .~. -:_.„ .:~-.~,~„,-.-v~ A* •-n.-.t.rift^r.a fpjrno ±h<n •^t.Pj.+.p. Water Resources Research In- stitute is a key member of the team for the improvement of the basin plans. Look­ing at the situation from another direction, lack of knowledge is not en adequate excuse for inadequate basin plans. There are ways to obtain the necessary know­ledge and they must be utilized to the fullest. In some cases, intelligent infer­ences can be used to compensate for gaps in knowledge. The most cogent passage in the July 1972 version of the Lower Hio Grande Basin Plan is to be found (see previous reference) on Page 63: "Uxilike other areas of the country, municipal sewage and indus­trial point sources are not now the major concerns for water quali­ty management in the lower Bio Grande Basin of Hew Mexico* ITor is there any indication that they will be of primary importance in the future. Future abatement policies and water quality management in the basin will address four general problems: l) the surface - ground water relation and the changes connected with a diminishing surface supply? 2) possible changes in water-use and attendant effects; 3) ag­ricultural water-use practices; 4) adequate surveillance of stream and ground-water quality." The remainder of this sub-section is disappointing, however, because there is no real development of the ideas of the lead-off paragraph. The plan should devote a great deal of consideration to the analysis of the four general problems which are mentioned in the quoted passage. Such analysis will almost surely lead to tAe finding that the crux of the problems of the Lower Hio Grande Basin lies in the lap of agriculture.