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Show laws' ?o)(o)i?ffg Copy of the letter from Rep. Laurence Burton, Rep. sent to Dona B. Hansen, Duchesne, secretary for the Duchesne County Republican Party the second week in April. Honorable Steward L. Udall Secretary of the Interior Interior Building Washington, D. C. 20240 Dear Mr. Secretary: In the past few days J have been hearing disturbing reports that are giving me and Utahns everywhere serious concern about the construction program from the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project. As you know, Congress i last year appropriated $3. 5 million for the initiation of construction, yet we are hearing hear-ing that there are no funds available for some of the preliminary pre-liminary work such as construction construc-tion camps, purchase of rights of way, construction of the Starvation Dam and other projects. pro-jects. I have received a wire from the West Duchesne County Chamber of Commerce asking where the funds arc for the Starvation Dam construction bids which are scheduled to be let on April 15. I am told that the bids which have been submitted sub-mitted must be rejected unless additional funds are made available. avail-able. In addition, other reports have come to me that funds originally scheduled for the Central Utah Project Bonneville Unit have been reprogrammed and possibly used elsewhere in the reclamation states. I am writing to request a complete, penny -by -penny report re-port as soon as possible on exactly ex-actly what has become of the $3. 5 million that the House and Senate Appropriations Commi-i Commi-i ttees voted for the Central Utah Project construction when they were considering the fiscal year 1966 Public Works Appropriation Bill. At my and the rest of the Utah Congressional delegation's request, the House Appropriations Appropria-tions Committee added the-funds the-funds to the President's fiscal Cont. on page 2 BURTON REPORTS Cont. from page 1 year 1966 budget after it was discovered that no construction money was available. The Senate concurred in the request and on Page 39 of the Senate Report, Congress ordered the Bureau of Reclamation to initiate ini-tiate construction with the following fol-lowing language: "The Committee concurs in the action of the House of Representatives increasing the amount proposed for anticipated delays by $4. 5 million and adding $2. 5 million for the Bonneville Unit, Central Utah Project. This will permit initiation ini-tiation of construction of this unit. As you know, the budget showed $1 million for planning of the Central Utah Project. The Committees added the $2. 5 million for the start of construction. We went before the Committees Commit-tees and told them that the funds would be used for initial acquisition acqui-sition of rights-of-way and award of the construction contract for Starvation Dam and access road, and the award of initial contracts for relocation of roads and utilities uti-lities in the reservoir area. It would provide for the acquisition of rightS7of-way and start of construction on Soldier Creek Dan in connection with the Strawberry Straw-berry Reservoir enlargement, collection of field data and negotiation ne-gotiation of contracts for relocation relo-cation of roads in the reservoir area, and preparation of specifications speci-fications of construction of Water Hollow -Cow Hollow Tunnel and Open Channel Number Num-ber 2. Construction of the Duchesne Du-chesne Construction Camp would begin and preconstruction work would be continued on other features of the Bonneville Unit. I would appreciate a status report on each of these projects. How much work has been accomplished accom-plished this fiscal year, which i ends in just over two months? I have in my file a letter from the Bureau of Reclamation dated May 7, 1965, which tells us that the $3. 5 million construction con-struction program would provide for all the aforementioned projects pro-jects listed in our testimony. The Central Utah Project, including the Bonneville Unit, was authorized by Congress in 1956. Under the normal timetable time-table for reclamation projects, the Bureau could have started construction during the fiscal year 1964. We are now about to go fiscal year 1967 and we still are experiencing very disturbing dis-turbing delays, especially after Congress ordered the work to begin in fiscal year 1966. The local people . have entered en-tered into a repayment contract which was validated by the Utah courts. An election was held confirming the contract and we were then told by the Utah office of the Bureau of Reclamation that the project was ready to go. It is now most distressing to hear after all of this assurance and after Congress appropriated the funds, that there is going to be a rejection of a rather small, but significant, work camp bid because be-cause there are no funds available. avail-able. The people of Utah were eagerly awaiting the groundbreaking ground-breaking for the Bonneville Unit. Instead, we are receiving reports re-ports of a bid rejection because of the lack of funds. I would appreciate a complete, com-plete, early and detailed reply. Sincerely, Laurence J. Burton |