Memo: Upper Colorado River Commission, 1979

•

•

MEMORANDUM

SEPTEMBER 10, 1979

TO:

Paul L. Billhymer,

Executive Director,

Upper

Colorado

River Conunission

FROM:

Ival Goslin

SUBJECT:

Trip to Washington re: Amendments

to

salinity

control Ac~

.

As

agreed in conversation

with you

and

Mr.

Dugan following t

he

meeting of representatives of

the

seven

Colorado Rive

r

Basin Sta

te

s

in Salt Lake City

on

August 21,

I

spent

last week

in

1'1ashingto

n,

D

.

.:

.

in

conferences

with several

members

of

the Congress fro

m

Colorado

and/or their

key

staff members relative

to introducing legislat

ion

to amend the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control

Act (Title II

)

,

P.L. 93-320.

As you know, these initial discussions

were confined

to involved Congressional members from Colorado because

the

two

salinity

control projects to which the most

pertinent amendments

apply are located within

that

State

.

Without the support

of, and

positive action by, those members there would be no chance

of such

amendatory

legislation being enacted

.

one

of

those

two projects, the Grand Valley Salinity Contro

l

unit

is in

Congressman Johnson's district

.

The

other,

the

Parado

x

valley Salinity Control Unit,

is

in the

district

represented

by

Congressman Kogovsek

.

Both are on the House

Committee on Interior

and

Insular Affairs, and have agreed to introduce the Bill.

Senator ·Armstrong's

staff,

after conferring with the Senator,

said that he

would

join in sponsoring

the

Bill, and agreed that

c

l

ose cooperation with Senator Hart

would

be in order.

After

con-ferring with Senator Hart's staff man in charge of such

affairs, i

t

appears

that both

Senators may

sponsor

the Bill.

The staffs of the

Colorado

Senators and Representatives said

that they would check

with

their counterparts in other

Congress

i

on

a

l

offices to ascertain if

some

of the members of Congress

from the

other six Colorado River Basin

States

will

desire

to

join

in

sponsor

-ing the Bill

.

Since this was,

for

the most

part

,

their suggestion

I decided to let them make these contacts instead

of doing it mysel

f,

as I have done many times in the past

.

Also, Washington represen

ta-tives of

the

Metropolitan Water

District

of Southern California a

nd

the Central Arizona Project were alerted to

the

introduction

of t

h

e

Bill

and

indicated

that they would seek support and/or sponsorship

by some of the members of their

Congressional delegations

.

Presently, i t

is not known how this Bill will

be handled in

the

Congress; i.e., whether i t will be subjected to

the full heari

n~

process by the appropriate subconunittees and

conunittees, or

whether

a successful attempt can

be

made to attach

i t

as a rider to some othe

r

Bill

in the

closing days of this first session of the 96th

Congress.

My best

judgment

tells me

that due

to potential opposition

from

certain

members of the

Congress

from

within

the

Colorado

River Basin

States i t will

be forced

to

go the hearing route,

but

maybe not,

if

sufficient

ground work is done

on

the

scene

in

Washington

.

If

this

Bill has to be subjected to a full set of hearings, as was done

for

amendments

to Title I,

it most

probably

will not be considered

by the

subcommittees until

the second session of the 96th Congress next

year

.

It is also

my strong

opinion that the Bill will not be enacted

by che

rider process

this

year

unless

alot of

diligent,

active

follow

-up

attention is

given

to

i t

in

Washington by someone from che States,

as

was

done

with

the Fryingpan-Arkansas

amendment

last

year,

with

which

we were

successful.

It

should

be realized that even

with

that ki

nd

of

attention,

there

is

not

100% assurance that the Bill

can

be

passed

this year.

There are too

many

unpredictable circumstances that

c~n

occur to back this

kind of

guarantee.

At least,

with

the Bill introduced this year it

should

be h

i~h

on

the committees' priority lists

for

next year, which was

one

of

the

secondary

objectives of

getting

the

Bill before

the

Congress

at this

time.

Enclosed is a draft

of

the Bill

containing

the

amendments to

the Colorado River

Basin

Salinity

Control Act in the form in

whic

h

i t is expected

to be introduced.

Also,

enclosed is a

copy

of a

draft of comments prepared

as an

outline

to

be used by the

members

of the

Congress

when

the

Bill

is presented.

Enquiries

made relative to

the

amendments suggested

by the

Commission to the DOE revolving

fund

Bill

elicited almost no

in

for-mation.

It

appears that due

to

staff changes

in

severa

l members'

offices, but probably more to

the

fact that there was

little direct

continuous follow-up

from

the States, those

amendments did not

r

e-ceive the attention they ordinarily would have

received.

(I hope

I have not misjudged this situation, but from the

responses recei,·ed

I am

relatively certain

that

I

have not.)

The word

in

Washington is that Congress

has October 19 as a

target date

for

adjournment of the

first

session

of the 96th Congress

-but no

one

really believes adjournment can

be

attained

by that da

te

.

Enclosures:

two

A BILL

To authorize certain additional measures

to

assure accomplishment

of the objectives of Title

II

of the Colorado River Basin

Salinity Control Act,

and to

increase

the

authorized

expen-ditures

ceiling

for

the Paradox Valley Salinity Control Unit,

Colorado.

Be it enacted

by

the Senate

and

House

of

Representatives of the

United

States

of America in Congress

assembled,

That the Act of June

24,

1974 (88 Stat.

266), the

Colorado River Basin Salinity

Control Act,

is

hereby amended

as

follows:

SEC. l.(al

After the word "units•

in the

first

sentence

of

Section

202,

insert

a

comma followed by

the

phrase,

"including

measures

to mitigate

losses of habitats for fish

and wildlife

'

related thereto,•

(bl

After

the

first

sentence

of paragraph

(2) of Section

202

insert

the following four sentences:

"Construction shall be

limited

to Stage One

develop-ment in substantial

accordance with

the engineering plans

described in the

report

by the Secretary entitled

'Colorad

o

River Basin Salinity Control Project, Stage One

Develop-ment,

Grand

Valley Unit, Special Report, September 1979'.

Investigation of the remaining

facil

ities

of the

Grand

Valley

Unit shall continue concurrently with

construction

of Stage One.

Prior to

the construction

of any

remaining

facilities of the

Grand

Valley

Unit the Secretary

shall

assess the effectiveness of Stage

One in

reducing salinity

of the waters of the

Colorado

River.

Recor.unendations

of

the

Secretary to the Congress

pertaining

to the

construc-tion of salinity control facilities

of

stages

of

the

Grand

Valley

Unit

subsequent to Stage

One

shall

be

based upon

findings from his assessment of

Stage

One.

(c)

In the second sentence of

paragraph (2) of

Section

202, after the comma following the

clause,

"Measures shall

include lining of canals and laterals," insert

the phrase,

•placing

canals and laterals in pipe,•

SEC~ 2. (a)

After

the figure $125,100,000 in the second

sentence of paragraph (b) of Section 208, insert a comma

followed by, "to include $16,000,000 for the Paradox Valley

Unit, $59,000,000 for the Grand Valley Unit, $500,000 for the

Crystal Geyser Unit,

and

$49,600,000 for

the

Las Vegas Wash

Unit,•

(b)

Following

the

period

after

the

word "works" at

the

end of the second

sentence

in paragraph

(b)

of Section 208

insert the following proviso;

"Provided,

that

the

appropriations

for the Paradox

Valley

Unit

are hereby authorized to be increased to

$57,900,000 (based on January 1979 prices) plus or minus

such amounts as may be

jus

t i

fied by

reason

of ordinary

fluctuation in construction costs involved

therein,

and

such sums as may be required

to operate

and

maintain such