Show WHITE HOUSE NOTE SUPPORTS COLORADO RIVER development NT washington se sept p t 22 there are now indica tiong that tha t tile white house will make an oil all out effort to push the colo ando storage project legisla tion through congress next year already stops steps ore are taken to try to win over the votes vote of eastern and midwest crins which arc are rogar regarded ded a 01 4 necessary to push the louisin ion through thron gli the tile llou house te of 0 representatives lal last remaining hur hurdle ale the allu iliam se Is the lost lat remain I 1 n ing important hurdle to 0 o realign tion of all important water and power development pro gram for iho the states of utah wyoming colorado and new mexico the strong position of 0 the eisenhower Elsen hower administration towards the upper colorado legislation hns has been set forth in a white house memorandum which now Is being circulated on capitol hill this memo appears to be designed mainly to allay any fears of farm belt congressmen that the project pi eject might further aggravate the nations serious crop surplus problem and al also aln n to make it clear that there is his no power policy issue in t this s project in addition the memo knocks down the high cost arguments of the opposition and also describes the controversial echo park dam as not indispensable to the financial or engineering success of the project regarding crop surpluses the white house memo offers the following assurances these projects would not add to the national basic crop surplus problem it will take at least 20 years to complete the project and 30 to reach full development at the rate of growth indicated by the bencus bureau it would take new acres of land to care for or the copt population lotion increase of the upper basin alone HR authorizes projects to provide a total of partial water supply to only acres of which only about would be newly irrigated land crop changes furthermore half of 0 the land to be served is now in surplus crops such as grains it is expected that at least 50 per cent of this land with adequate water will go out of grains and into non surplus fruits vegetables and alfalfa irrigation will permit greater production of livestock not in surplus to consume most of the grains raised without price support help in offering assurance that there is no public power controversy tro versy in the upper colorado program the memo states there Is no power policy I 1 issue in this project ten private power companies appeared in support of the project at least 85 per cent of the power in the upper basin is expected to be sold to private power companies friends of the upper colorado project noted that this position taken by the white house differed considerably on power from claims made by five upper basin congressmen in a letter which they circulated at the house Le republican publican caucus late in la july that letter stated the president favors the upper colorado program because all of the power would be sold at the load centers to p private private utilities the white house memo makes it clear that adequate power would be set aside for the needs of rural electrification administration cooperatives and other so called preference customers and that all of the power will not be sold to private utilities another significant part of the white house memo offers assurance that the bill would cause no injury to Cali fornias colorado river water rights it states the colorado river rive r compact apportions 7 million acre feet of water per annum to the upper states after completion of the projects in all uses of these states would not exceed 3 11 million the special master appointed by the supreme court recently held that there is no legal controversy tro versy between the upper and lower basin states not withstanding the efforts of certain lower basin interests to bring the upper basin states in litigation between arizona and california the bill requires strict compliance with the applicable interstate compact high cost argument the white house memo merno also attempts to knock down the high cost argument of the opposition with the following statement objection has been raised to the costs per irrigated acre the cost range from to per acre these are n not ot out of line with other ther highly successful projects in this area these ilese costs will be repaid over a 50 year period and represent only 10 to 12 per acre per year the diversification of crops and stabilization of income make these project costs feasible |