The Cross Section, Volume 15, Number 6, November 1968 Page: 4
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Page 4 THE CROSS SECTION November, 1968
Mississippi River Water Plan For Plains, Ne
w Mexico Proposed
By GEORGE A WHETSTONE
Professor of Civil Engineering,
Texas Technological College
A paper presented on 12 October
1968 at the fall meeting of the
New Mexico Section, ASCE, Las
Cruces, New Mexico.
* * *
New Mexico is on the route of sev-
eral water schemes. For years now
some plan or other for augmenting the
Colorado River flow - by tapping
the Snake, Yellowstone, Columbia, or
the coastal rivers of California and
Oregon - has had its advocates.
Many of these plans have involved
secondary diversions of the San Juan
and Gila to the Rio Grande. Some,
in fact, were magnificent enough to
furnish water for the High Plains of
Eastern New Mexico and West Texas.
Plans for revising the drainage of
the continent never neglect New Mex-
ico. The North American Water and
Power Alliance (NAWAPA) would
provide a flow from near Lordsburg,via Roswell and Des Moines to Den-
ver. The Central North American
Water Plan (CeNAWP) would bring
the water of Canada's prairie lakes
via Mosquero and Las Vegas to the
Rio Grande near Bernalillo. It would
be lifted out later to flow down the
Gila on its way to Los Angeles. (1)
While some modification of
CeNAWP could very well prove to be
an ultimate answer to the augmenta-
tion of New Mexico's water supply,
realistic political considerations would
indicate that the Lower Mississippi
River should be developed first.
As you are well aware, the Bureau
of Reclamation, Corps of Engineers,
and Mississippi River Commission
have been making reconnaissance
studies of routes, quantities, and costs
of providing Mississippi River water
to the High Plains of Texas and New
Mexico under a Congressional direc-
tive which restricted the westward
border of the study area to the eastern
limit of the Pecos River drainage
basin.The Bureau issued a progress re-
port in May 1968 (2) studying nine
alternative routes. The conclusions
were:
1. It is physically feasible to
transport the projected 2020 re-
quirements of 16.5 million acre-feet
per year from the lower Mississippi
River system to West Texas and
Eastern New Mexico if it is deter-
mined that there are surplus waters
in the Mississippi River available
to meet these requirements. Should
surplus water be available it might
be transported through a combina-
tion of several of the import routes
studied. However, the more south-
ern routes appear to be the most
desirable for future study. The
studies indicate that the project
would lend itself to stage develop-
ment.
2. Regardless of the route, the
cost per acre-foot for delivering
water from the lower Mississippi
River system to irrigators in the
study area appears certain to exceed- a- - -- 3 -
-r Alp 4
r - -
~ __
a6 Id er ""'rtN .16- arKenneth Seales (pictured) and Obbie Goolsby are two of your conservation value of water reclamation to the High Plai
District's field representatives that have been working hard farmer. Some of the findings, including probably surpri
to lay out "in black and white" the dollar value and the ing facts and figures, are presented in this issue.is
s-sutantially their ability to pay for
such water.
3. Economic benefits of irriga-
tiorn to non-farm elements of the
stutdy area's economy are large and
appear to be sufficient to warrant
payment by those nonfarm elements
of costs of import water in excess
of the irrigator's ability to pay.
4. The cost of delivering import
water probably could be reduced
anti economic feasibility of the
pro ject enhanced by incorporating
in the project provisions for pur-
p4urs other than water supply.
5. Continuation of the investiga-
tie is warranted.
I Ihe import routes under study by
the Fort Worth District of the Corps
of Fagineers include eight sketched
on a -eries of maps issued with a four-
page summary of the status of the in-
vestigation in July 1968. (3) All
eight of the Corps' alternative plans
inchLe the conveyance westward of
surple .s waters from Northeast Texas
and all include diversion from the
Mississippi River near its mouth
sincee the availability of water from
the 4ississippi will be contingent
upon satisfying all requirements of
the Mississippi service area."
I %hall not dwell on the seventeen
routes mentioned nor speculate on
other- which will certainly be investi-
gatc0 Rather, I wish to emphasize
the concern of both the Bureau and
the Corps with the question of avail-
ability of Mississippi River water.
This sensitivity to the prerogatives
of 1he basin of origin results from the
prolonged disputes over interbasin
diversions of the Owens and Colorado
Rigcers to the Southern California
coa1ial region, from the intemper-
ately phrased aspirations of some
Southwesterners for Columbia River
waler, and from the affront to Can-adi.tr. sovereignty implicit in the prom-
ulgm.ion of NAWAPA by a firm
bastc in Los Angeles.
The reaction has taken the form
of ; :en-year moratorium on even the
invcigation of possible feasibility of
water import to the Colorado River
basin in a recent bill authorizing the
Central Arizona Project (4), and has
produced a public opinion in Canada
higIil y antagonistic to any internation-
al %cntures for the development and
expert of Canadian water. (5)TOM6L SVX31 'm3088l
133H1S HIN33Jd13 839T
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HL,VM UNlOHDH3UNl SNIVld HDIH11WH3d SSV1O GNO33S
November, 1968
Page 4
T HE C ROSS SECTION
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High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1 (Tex.). The Cross Section, Volume 15, Number 6, November 1968, periodical, November 1968; Lubbock, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1532924/m1/4/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.