agreement between the State of Texas and the Federal Government on it. The State of Texas through the Governor and the Board of Water Engineers have requested the legislation subject to some stipulations that they have written into their language, endorsing the project as being economically feasible and so forth, and one of those conditions is that the water be dedicated to the existing users, which is the

Mr. FASCELL. But that raises another question. Wouldn't the State have to give its consent by way of statute? I mean, can the Governor not bind the State in agreement with the Federal Government? I do not know. I am just asking.

Mr. SMITH. Well I do not know either. I think all they have so far is the Board of Water Engineers' and the Governor's approval. I think there is a Texas statute providing that procedure and it is possible that it is all that is necessary.

Mr. SELDEN. Mr. Kilgore.

Mr. KILGORE. Mr. Chairman, I think that there is a subsequent witness, Mr. Cunningham, who is specifically prepared on this particular issue and in addition to that, I think maybe the committee's attention should perhaps be directed to subparagraph (c) of paragraph 8 of the resolution of the U.S. Senate, by which resolution the advice and consent of the Senate was given to the adoption of the 1944 Water Treaty with Mexico, which paragraph contains this language: That nothing contained in the treaty or protocol shall be construed as authorizing the Secretary of State of the United States, the Commissioner of the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, or the United States Section of said Commission, directly or indirectly to alter or control the distribution of water to users within the territorial limits of any of the individual States.

As I say, I think there will be another witness who is specifically prepared to discuss the issues involved.

Mr. SELDEN. Any further questions?

The Chair recognizes Mr. Parish.

STATEMENT OF W. D. PARISH, MANAGER, HIDALGO AND CAMERON COUNTIES WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 9

Mr. PARISH. My name is W. D. Parish and I am general manager for the Hidalgo and Cameron Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 9 in Mercedes, Tex.

I very much appreciate the opportunity to appear here before this committee to express the views of the people of my district with regard to the proposed construction of Amistad Dam.

Experience has shown that areas far downstream from any storage reservoir usually experience prolonged water shortages. A prime example of this is the El Paso Valley below Elephant Butte Dam. The Elephant Butte Dam was originally constructed to impound water for use in the El Paso Valley. It provided an ample water supply for these lands for a few years, then the construction of dams on the tributary streams in New Mexico and Colorado began. As a result of the use of great amounts of water for upstream of Elephant Butte Dam, the El Paso Valley has exp water short

age for the last several years. The people of the El Paso Valley have had little success in obtaining their rightful share of Rio Grande water as most of the diverters upstream from them reside in New Mexico and cannot be brought into Texas courts.

We are most apprehensive about the construction of Amistad Dam 500 miles upstream from our pumps because water released from it for our use must run the gauntlet of over a million acres of dry land. Mr. Garland F. Smith, attorney for our district, has pointed out the areas along the Rio Grande, between Amistad and Falcon Dams which could logically expand under a claim of riparian rights to water if encouraged by the construction of Amistad Dam. He has testified that there are, in Spanish and Mexican grants alone, 1,114,828 acres of land which may lay claim to the stored water behind Amistad Dam.

If you assume that this land would require a minimum of 2 acrefeet of water per acre per year, then it would require 2,229,650 acrefeet of water per year to irrigate the land in Spanish and Mexican grants.

I would like to digress at this point to reiterate that there has been testimony already that some of these lands are diverting up to 8 and 9 acre-feet per acre per year, for irrigation purposes.

This does not include lands patented by the State of Texas which occupies a comparable river frontage. In the report submitted to the committee by the International Boundary and Water Commission, it is stated that the average annual yield of U.S. waters from the joint operation of Falcon and Diablo Reservoirs is estimated to be 1,603,000 acre-feet, which is 626,650 acre-feet less than the annual demand which could be made by the Spanish and Mexican grant lands above Falcon Dam alone.

We have studied the report prepared by the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission concerning the feasibility of Amistad Dam and the comments of various governmental agencies contained in appendixes I, II, and III thereto (S. Doc. No. 65, 86th Cong., 1st sess.)

We are very much concerned about the position taken by the Bureau of the Budget in their "Analysis of Amendments to H.R. 8080_recommended by the Bureau of the Budget" contained in section B of Appendix III of the above referenced document. The amendment proposed by the Bureau of the Budget would include the following provision in section 3 of H.R. 8080:

Provided, That the dam shall not be operated for irrigation or water supply purposes unless suitable arrangements have been made with the prospective water users for repayment to the Government of such portions of the costs of the dam as shall have been allocated to such purposes by the Secretary of State.

We want to go on record as being opposed to any policy requiring payment of any kind for the right to divert water from the Rio Grande.

My district was organized in 1906 and has been serving lands within the district with water from the Rio Grande continuously since 1908. We have complied with the laws of the State of Texas governing the diversion of water from its streams and we feel that we have established the right to divert water from the Rio Grande under the