THE PACIFIC REGION REPORT OF THE REGIONAL TECHNICAL ADVISORY SUB-COMMITTEE The technical advisory subcommittee for the Pacific region submits the following draft of a comprehensive plan for the most effective improvement and coordinated development of the water resources in the Pacific region in the interest of domestic water supply, irrigation, flood control, navigation, and development of hydroelectric energy. Other related matters such as watershed management, soil erosion, reforestation, and research also are discussed. The report is in 11 sections. The introduction is a general discussion of the region as a whole and the following sections cover the 10 areas selected as the most important in the order of priority as listed below: 1. Sacramento and San Joaquin 2. Colorado 3. Puget Sound 4. Columbia 5. Utah Lake 6. Snake 7. Los Angeles and San Gabriel 8. Willamette 9. Gila 10. Santa Ana The subcommittee recommends that upon the selection of one or more watersheds of the Pacific region a planning board be set up from the Departments of War, Interior, and Agriculture to prepare a detailed working plan for the comprehensive development of that stream or streams. This will afford opportunity for all departments to assemble and present in detail existing data and call attention to those data that are incomplete or entirely lacking. The subcommittee further recommends that such board be authorized to collect data and prepare plans for the development of all the areas considered in this report. INTRODUCTION 1. General description.-The Pacific region or zone, as used in this report, comprises that portion of the United States, lying west of the Continental Divide. It includes all portions of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, and portions of Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, and Colorado. (See accompanying map.) It has an area of 846,000 square miles, or 28 percent of the entire country. 2. The population of the 7 States wholly within the region, according to the 1930 census, is approximately 9,674,000, of which 3,559,000 are rural. The largest cities-Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle are on the Pacific coast. Important centers of population located in the interior are Butte, Spokane, Boise, Salt Lake, and Phoenix. 3. The agricultural products from irrigated lands of the Pacific region in 1929 were valued at about $750,000,000, while all minerals including petroleum were about $825,000,000. Range livestock use the greater part of the area and production of beef, lamb, and wool support many communities. Manufacturing is by far the largest industry, having contributed for 1929 in excess of 2 billion dollars. 4. Lumbering is an important industry of California, Oregon, Washington, northern Idaho, and locally in other parts. Redwood predominates on the California coast, with fir, pine, and cedar in other localities. 5. In general hydroelectric development in the Pacific region seems ample for present and immediately prospective requirements when the Federal developments at Boulder Canyon on the Colorado, and Bonneville and Grand Coulee on the Columbia are included. The per capita consumption of electricity is rapidly increasing in this area. 6. The Pacific has some of the best harbors in the world. The Pacific region has a large and growing foreign trade, especially with the Orient and South America. Large quantities of agricultural products are disposed of in this way while considerable quantities of fruits have been shipped to Europe. 7. The principal streams are the Columbia, Sacramento, San Joaquin, and the Colorado. These and other rivers have their sources in the thousands of miles of mountain ranges which roughly run parallel to the Pacific coast. Storms usually running southeastward over these ranges leave less water for each succeeding valley. The rainfall, which totals 100 inches annually along the northwest coast in Washington, declines rapidly to the southeast until in very large. areas of the interior the average is less than 10 inches per year, and in the hottest and driest parts little or no rain falls in many years. Around Puget Sound and along the ocean shore south to San Francisco, summer rainfall is usually adequate for agriculture. In the valley of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers from Puget Sound southward lying between the Coast and Cascade Ranges, summer rains are not always adequate and agitation for irrigation recurs with every subnormal year, but insufficient progress has been made in providing water. 8. Importance of water.-To the east of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon and to the east of the Coast Range in California our study of the water resources of the Pacific region shows that its dominant feature is aridity. Over the greater part of this area a scanty and uncertain rainfall makes irrigation necessary to the successful production of crops. This involves at present and in the future the consumptive use of rivers. Here, as in all arid lands, civilization follows the banks of streams. The present interior centers of population are dependent for their continued prosperity on the ability to use water in irrigation, and the manner in which the floods of streams are stored and water diverted and used will largely control the location of future centers of population and industry. 9. Another important fact which had to be recognized in making these plans is that the changes in the character of these rivers as a result of increased consumptive use will be far-reaching. It creates problems of a different character to those involved in the improvement of streams of humid sections. In the humid sections there is a surplus of water. Rivers are valuable because they provide for its escape. The uses of the rivers of the humid center tend to stabilize and make more permanent the flow of those rivers. Their use in navigation is not consumptive, and none of the water is destroyed in the use of these streams for power. Flood control may regulate the rate of discharge but does not diminish the yearly amount. 10. In contrast to this the main function of rivers in this section of the Pacific region will in general be to provide for the consumptive use of water. The cities of this section must depend on streams for their drinking water, for municipal and industrial needs. The farms are in general created by irrigation and their value must depend for all time on ability to divert and use the rivers. At first the irrigator depended on the unregulated flow in which the water of floods was wasted, but in all the older irrigated areas this will no longer answer. The flood waters are needed. We have reached the stage where extension of the farmed area depends on reservoirs and these are being built of a size and cost once deemed impossible. Already the low-water flow of many streams in this region is completely diverted and absorbed. Notable examples are found in southern California and in Salt Lake Basin. Reservoirs constructed primarily for irrigation will largely reduce flood damages. Navigable rivers will in general be canalized. 11. The magnificent scenery, the charm and healthfulness of outdoor life, and the value of its irrigated crops make people desire to live in this region. It is certain that the irrigated valleys will in time be the home of a dense population, and that the diversion of rivers and the use of this water are to be an important part of the economic development of this section during the next century. 12. The importance of the rivers in the arid and semiarid section of the Pacific region has already been greatly increased by changes wrought since settlement began. The pioneeers were largely lured by precious metals. The agriculturist came almost immediately, but he was unacquainted with irrigation which was much slower in getting under way but has expanded continuously. Throughout this region there are many valleys in which the water needs of cities, towns, and farms exceed the available supply, and in practically all there is more arid land awaiting settlement than the rivers can water. Everywhere the water requirements to be supplied by streams must increase. The future wealth and population of this section will depend very much on how the waters of its rivers are conserved and applied. Values inhere in water, far more than in land. 13. Fundamental principles and policies for guidance in formulation and execution of comprehensive plan. A comprehensive plan for the improvement of the inland waterways and development, control, and utilization of the water resources of the stream systems of this Nation cannot be intelligently evolved without giving careful thought to and laying down certain broad fundamental principles and policies. Only by such procedure is it possible for a plan to be successfully consummated which will confer the maximum public benefit to the greatest number. 14. Further research. The engineering, agricultural, and social problems incident to the development of our natural resources are ever changing both in methods and in requirements. While there may be a reasonable amount of data available upon many questions of the moment, the new day will bring forth its new requirements. 65854-34-21 The research necessary to more completely satisfy our present needs and to keep pace with more exacting demands can go on concurrently with, and need not retard, development. 15. There is not sufficient time available for preparing this report to analyze and properly present all data that are available nor to determine just how much additional investigation is needed. We do know, however, that upon all watersheds included in this report data are missing relative to surface and underground water supplies, reservoir sites for storage, water spreading for underground storage, land classification, forestry, the relation of cover to water delivery, watershed management, soil-erosion methods, irrigation and drainage requirements, wildlife restoration, parks and recreation, soil surveys, grazing, social studies, trends in population, agriculture, industry, commerce, and many similar subjects. 16. Superior uses for water.-In the earliest development of the West there was plenty of water in most streams for everyone and the variety of uses was limited. 17. With the gold-rush days to California various water supplies became overtaxed to meet the ever-increasing demands, and a custom of water appropriations and preferential rights for various purposes grew and these customs were enacted into laws. At the present time, not only in the West but in all parts of the United States, a preferential right is recognized for domestic purposes. In the arid States, where irreconcilable conflicts in use develop, the preferential right is first for domestic and municipal purposes, second for irrigation, and then in various orders for industry, mining, and hydroelectric development. In the ultimate planning this superior-use principle should govern. 18. Irrigation.-Irrigation has developed rapidly in the Western States during the past decades through private initiative supplemented later by Federal agencies. Conversion of desert areas into homes and farms, which has added greatly to the national wealth, should be recognized as an achievement of merit and importance. 19. In some irrigated areas, abandonment of farms, homes, and towns representing large investments is taking place because of a failing water supply and lack of storage of flood waters. These investments and values have been created by private effort over many years. It is a tragic situation and may be well compared to that which follows in the wake of a flood or an earthquake. Assistance should be furnished those areas by the inclusion of works for their relief in the comprehensive plan. 20. Other areas whose irrigated lands lie at tidal level are troubled with encroachment of salty water from the Pacific Ocean. The comprehensive plan should provide ways and means for removing this menace. 21. The future of the Western States lies in the proper maintenance of its present irrigated lands and, when economic conditions justify, their expansion to an ultimate utilization of all the good irrigable lands which can be adequately and practicably supplied with irrigation water. Many of the large metropolitan centers now depend largely upon irrigated agriculture for their business, and this will undoubtedly increase with future irrigation development. We might suggest, finally, as a policy, the following: 22. An irrigation development policy. An increase in irrigated acreage for the future can result in a perpetual condition of over |