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Show Dixie Project Included in Major Bills Concerning Colorado River By Rep. Sherman P. Lloyd, Utah Second District Washington: The long-awaited long-awaited Dixie Project may finally be getting off the legislative leg-islative roller-coaster and back on the track of reality. Hearings on the latest bevy of Lower Colorado bills were conducted by the House Interior Inter-ior Committee last week, and those that seemed to be gathering gath-ering the strongest support all included the Dixie. The main bill, H. R. 3300, is sponsored by the House Interior In-terior Committee's Chairman, Rep. Wayne Aspinall (D-Colo. . Chairman Aspinall, a longtime long-time champion of the Dixie Project,' seems to be going all out for the Lower Basin Development Dev-elopment Fund. Success may hinge on whether or not the fund, which must completely finance fin-ance Dixie, is adequate. The Hualapai Dam would assure a fund large enough to take care' of all the smaller projects pro-jects like Dixie, and would also go a long way in financ- economic growth of a great area of Southern Utah." My statement, in part, said: "The lands to which the project will bring water are fertile. Up to 11,000 acres of arable lands may be made available for development, plus more than 9,000 acres which would receive supplemental supple-mental water." "These new and developed lands in a semi-tropical climate clim-ate will help feed the exploding explod-ing populations of Nevada and Southern California to which this area is very near." "And very significantly to me, we will be creating new and permanent wealth. . .new and permanent jobs, basic to a truly healthy economy and certainly preferable to artificial arti-ficial make-work and temporary tempor-ary employment which government gov-ernment hand-out represents in so many other areas of Federal expenditure. This all hinges on having a predictable predict-able and regulated water supply." ing augmentation ot the Colorado Colo-rado River. Congress is in the throes of debate over this question. The Johnson Administration reportedly re-portedly opposes the dam, but those who want to fully develop dev-elop the potentials of the river insist that a dam is needed to provide much-needed re- venue from the sale or power. The Dixie is also included in many of the other bills sponsored by Congressmen from Arizona and California. A definite plan report on the revised project is due from the Bureau of Reclamation by the end of the present fiscal year. I was pleased to present a statement at the Committee hearings in which I reaffirmed reaffirm-ed the importance of the project pro-ject to the "agricultural and |
