Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs

The committee met with the Board of Directors of the National Reclamation Association, pursuant to call, at 10:15 a.m. in room 3110, Senate Office Building, Senator Henry M. Jackson (chairman of the committee) presiding.

Present: Senators Henry M. Jackson (Washington), Alan Bible (Nevada), Lee Metcalf (Montana), Gordon Allott (Colorado), Clifford P. Hansen (Wyoming), Mark O. Hatfield (Oregon), and Ted Stevens (Alaska).

Also present: Jerry T. Verkler, staff director; Stewart French, chief counsel; William Van Ness, special counsel; Roy Whitacre, Daniel Dreyfus and Denny Miller, professional staff members; and Charles Cook, minority counsel.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

On behalf of the committee, I welcome the Board of Directors of the National Reclamation Association.

Our annual meeting provides an opportunity for an exchange of views and ideas which I am sure will be helpful to the committee during this session of Congress.

The committee, as you know, gentlemen, has some new members. We are very proud of them. Their presence on this committee attests to their interests in resource conservation and their belief in the importance of the Federal resource management programs. All of us share with you the conviction that sound management of natural resources is essential to the future prosperity and well-being of our Nation.

Along with this conviction, we share common objectives, problems, and challenges. Through your close association with the water users, business enterprises, and State and local governments, your organization can provide us with important insights concerning the issues we face in the coming year. Some of them, of course, are familiar issues.

The competition for Federal funds among many new programs will remain at least as strong as it has been in recent years. In the face of that competition, new concern has arisen regarding methods for the economic evaluation of water resource projects.

At another level, the establishment of the National Water Commission last year demonstrated the feeling both of the Congress and the executive branch, that a new and comprehensive review of the

entire body of Federal policy for water resource development is needed.

The last session of Congress was a most successful one for reclamation legislation. The Oahe Unit of the Missouri River Basin project in South Dakota, the Palmetto Bend project in Texas, and the Mountain Park project in Oklahoma were authorized, and, of course, the Colorado River Basin project act was approved, authorizing well over $1 billion worth of reclamation activity throughout the States of the Colorado Basin. These authorizations graphically demonstrate that the reclamation program continues to hold a prominent place in Federal resource management.

We will be pleased this morning to have your views on the future role of reclamation and other matters of mutual interest.

The Chair would like to welcome once again to the committee a very able leader, Mr. James F. Sorensen of California, who is president this year of the National Reclamation Association.

Mr. Sorensen, would you come forward? You have a prepared statement, I believe, and then you will introduce your colleagues, who may wish to make a statement.

STATEMENT OF JAMES F. SORENSEN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RECLAMATION ASSOCIATION

Mr. SORENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We particularly appreciate the opportunity to be here this morning. I note that this is the 15th time in something over 30 years of existence of our association that such an appearance has been made, and I think you have very well pointed out some of the problems we have, and some of the accomplishments which we can look at for the last year or so.

First, I would like to note quickly that our association has grassroots and I like to think of it just that way- representatives from the 17 continental reclamation States. A year or two ago we picked up a director from Hawaii, and unfortunately, he is not able to be with us today. We are looking toward Alaska, we might say, for additional representation and, Mr. Chairman, I would like quickly just to ask these directors to stand. I will not dwell about their qualifications. I want to assure you they are all well qualified.

The CHAIRMAN. Very good.

Mr. SORENSEN. I would ask them to stand as we go along. From Arizona, Mr. Ted Riggins, of Phoenix. Then from Colorado, Mr. Barkley, from Loveland; Bob Chuck is not here with us from Hawaii; from Idaho, Mr. John Rosholt; from Kansas, Mr. Chris Green; from Montana, we have Mr. Hubert White, who is here as an alternate for Wes D'Ewart at this particular time; from Nebraska, Mr. William Smith; from Nevada, Pat Head; from New Mexico, I. J. Coury; from North Dakota, Milo Hoisveen; from Oklahoma, Mr. Clarence Base; from Oregon, LaSalle Coles, one of our past presidents; from South Dakota, Al Schock; from Texas, Guy Jackson III, who is here today in place of his father, Guy Jackson, Jr., and from Utah, Ed Southwick.

From your State of Washington, Lorin Markham, who is going to host us in Spokane this fall; and from Wyoming, Marlin Kurtz.

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Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular ...