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Show -71- Senator Langer. Are there any other amendments? Senator Butler* That is all« Statement of Glenn L» Parker^ Representative of the United States Republican River Compact Negotiations. Senator McCarran. State your name and your official position, if any, for the record, if you please„ Mr. Parker. My name is Glenn L» Parker, Chief Hydraulic Engineer, Geological Survey* ¦ I was designated by the President, in a letter of September 15* 1942 to be the representative of the United States in the Republican River compact nego-*- tiations as provided by the act of Congress approved August 4 1942. I presume the committee would like to know a little of my background and whatever limi-~ tations I may have in respect to acting in that capacity I have been closely associated with the investigation of water resources for about 34 years, being employed by the United States Geological Survey I am an engineer, not a lawyer, A great many of the problems that were met in ar- riving at this proposed compact, have to do with legal technicalities. In answering questions I would not like to be held strictly accountable for legal technicalities* During the course of the negotiations, however, I became fairly familiar with the legal problem through discussion of it with the legal repre- sentatives of the Departments of Interior and ?.rar and with the legal repre- sentative of the Federal Power Commission* Senator Butler has here a map which shows the location of the area,. It covers a drainage area of about 25*000 square miles in northeastern Colorado^ northwestern Kansas, and southwestern Nebraska* The precipitation over that area increases from west to east. At the west- ern edge of the basin the average annual precipitation is about 18 inches, and in the eastern i^art of it it is about 28 inches« At least a considerable part ox the area is in the semiarid belt, and for that reason, irrigation is an im- portant consideration in any proposed compact9 I believe the committee would be interested in the purposes of this proposed compact. I will read them as stated in my report, which has been cleared through the Budget Bureau, so that I have permission to present it to this committee^ The major purposes of the proposed compact, as stated therein,* are to pro- vide for the most efficient use of the waters of the Republican River Basing for multiple purposes; to provide for an equitable division of such waters; to remo-ve all causes, present and future, which might lead to controversies; to promot-s interstate comity; to recognize that the most efficient utilization of the waters vdthin the basin is for beneficial consumptive use; and to promote joint action by the States and the United States in the efficient use of water and the control, of destructive floods9 |