At the present time, base flow to the River in the winter season only is about 30 second feet or less than one-tenth of the original base supply. The present base flow is not available in the summer time and, except for the perennial flows that can be captured and stored in the winter time in the terminal storage reservoirs, the Irrigation District is entirely dependent upon flood flows, and, therefore, dependent upon reservoir capacity.

On the other hand, the Carlsbad Irrigation District is limited in the total capacity of its system by the terms of the Pecos River Compact. This in turn necessarily limits participation in any project to the amount of replacement storage which needs to be provided.

Although the problems of the Pecos River are many and varied, these are the principal facets concerning the occurrence of floods and their control as it relates to the Carlsbad Irrigation District.

In conclusion, on behalf of the Carlsbad Irrigation District, I urge this distinguished Committee's early and favorable action on H.B. 5442 to authorize the Brantley Project and again express appreciation for the opportunity to present this statement on behalf of the Carlsbad Irrigation District.

Mr. ERICKSON. My statement merely summarizes the various aspects that are of interest in the Brantley Project to the District; how the storage capacity problem has affected the District over the years and how they are and can be affected, of course, by the floods that could occur. It is just a short statement summarizing these things and urging the passage of the bill.

Mr. JOHNSON. As a hydrologist, do you see any damage being done to anyone from the standpoint of hydrology? And do you agree that the Bureau has worked out a feasible and safe project here? Mr. ERICKSON. Yes, sir, I do.

Mr. JOHNSON. And you are in full support of it?

Mr. ERICKSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. We want to thank you for your written statement and your brief summary of it.

Now, Mr. Brantley, I want to personally thank you for your tour yesterday which you narrated for us as we moved through the community. You have a long-standing knowledge of what has happened here in the past, and I see your father held several very important positions here as farmer, banker, member of the City Council, Mayor and president of the irrigation district. He certainly has an active life of working with the problems of the Pecos River, the city of Carlsbad, and the county of Eddy. I am glad to see that they have placed his name on this.

For the benefit of Mr. Runnels and Mr. Lujan, my colleagues, I should remind them that I named a reservoir after our late Senator Engle. This was at the request of his widow. We started it in the Senate, which passed it by unanimous action of the Senate. It then came to the House of Representatives and, naturally, I supported it as being the request of the widow to honor his last legislative act in creating this project. We named it, and I was taken to task for my activities and was defeated twice in that county.

So, I am glad you have got this one now named with a name that is acceptable to everyone, because if you name one of these projects after it is built, look out for it! And if you try to change that name you are going to run into trouble.

But, Mr. Brantley, as far as you know, the irrigation district fully supports the plan as developed by the Bureau of Reclamation? Mr. BRANTLEY. The Carlsbad Irrigation District does support it. Mr. JOHNSON. You feel there is enough protection in the legislation,

even after the amended Senate bill, to allow the irrigation district to operate it with local autonomy?

Mr. BRANTLEY. Yes, we do.

Mr. JOHNSON. The gentleman from New Mexico, Mr. Lujan.

Mr. LUJAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Erickson, on page 4, there is a statement that at the present time the water supply of the Carlsbad Irrigation District is dependent largely upon the flood water stored in the reservoir system. That applies to Alamogordo also?

Mr. ERICKSON. Yes, sir. That is part of the system.

Mr. LUJAN. Yes; but that is dependent mostly on the flood waters? Mr. ERICKSON. On the flood water; yes, sir.

Mr. LUJAN. With Brantley, Do you anticipate any particular acquisition problems?

Mr. BRANTLEY. No; we do not.

Mr. LUJAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. JOHNSON. The gentleman from New Mexico, Mr. Runnels.

Mr. RUNNELS. I have no questions of either gentleman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Casey?

Mr. CASEY. Could I ask, Mr. Brantley, concerning the District's ability and willingness to contract for the irrigation allocation, as I notice that you did not mention anything in your witness statement about that.

Would you care to comment on that for our record?

Mr. BRANTLEY. Well, the Irrigation District, if my understanding is correct, was the first Bureau of Reclamation project that had paid out its original borrowing from the Government under the irrigation law, and since that time we have contracted for the building of the dam at Alamogordo, and we are well down on paying for that, and we feel that the project, if it continues with the water supply available as it has in the past, will enable this debt to be paid without undue hardship on our farmers.

Mr. CASEY. Thank you.

Now, Mr. Chairman, off the record.

(Discussion was had outside the record.)

Mr. JOHNSON. We want to thank you, Mr. Brantley, that will be good testimony, to say that the people of the Carlsbad Irrigation District have paid out their first contract and are well on their way to pay out the second commitment, and that you fully intend to meet your obligations in this one, if we can start it.

We want to thank both of you gentlemen for coming.

Mr. ERICKSON. Thank you, sir.

Mr. BRANTLEY. Thank you, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. Our next witness will be the Honorable Walker Bryan, State Representative, State Legislature, District No. 3.

STATEMENT OF HON. WALKER BRYAN, STATE REPRESENTATIVE, STATE LEGISLATURE, DISTRICT NO. 65

Mr. BRYAN. Chairman Johnson, Congressman Lujan and Congressman Runnels, and staff.

We are real glad to have you here in Carlsbad, and I think anything that I have here in my statement is going to be more or less repetitious,

because it has all been said. But we think we do have a real serious problem here, and we are hoping to get your support from your committee.

And, Congressman Johnson, and Harold and Manuel, when you take this to the floor we do not have to have unanimous vote like you got over in the Senate. We would settle for just a majority, and I hope we will get some help up there.

That is all I have to say.

Mr. JOHNSON. Well, your statement will appear in the record, Mr. Bryan, and I want to say that we are very happy to have a State legislator here. Having served in our state legislature, where we had many water problems, and I can well imagine that you have had them. in the State of New Mexico, too.

I am glad to hear that you are in full support of this.

I do not know how many people were on the floor when they received that unanimous vote, but at least you had Senator Anderson and Senator Montoya there to take care of any that were there, and to make sure they did not object.

We probably will not have that kind of an unanimous vote when a matter of this kind comes to the floor of the House. Sometimes we do. I might say to all of you that a project as large as the Central Arizona Project passed the House of Representatives on a voice vote, finally, after 25 years of argument. We hope the same thing might be realized when this one reaches there and that we get a good vote and send it on its way.

We thank you for appearing here.

Mr. BRYAN. Thank you. I am a little familiar with the water laws. I have served in the Legislature on the Conservation Committee in Santa Fe as chairman for a number of years. Harold comes to see me every once in a while.

Mr. JOHNSON. I served for some ten years in the California Legislature as we considered the State water project. Between the north and the south, and it was a bitter fight. It is almost constructed now at about twice the cost initially estimated, but, hopefully, it will serve the people of California very well.

Mr. RUNNELS. With your indulgence-and Congressmen Lujan'safter having served with Walker Bryan for 10 years in the Legislature and to find him sitting here today as a witness-I would just like to ask him if he knows of any piece of legislation that has hurt Carlsbad in the last few years?

He knows what I am talking about, as do others in the room.
And I just need a simple "yes" or "no" answer, Walker.

Mr. BRYAN. Have you sampled the water since you have been here? Mr. RUNNELS. Yes, and it is much better than the one glass I had in your establishment one time.

Mr. BRYAN. You might tell the Congressman about that little experience you had.

Mr. RUNNELS. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Lujan, as I have stated, I served many years in the State Legislature, I have been on both sides of the fence, for and against Mr. Steve Reynolds. I once introduced a noncontroversial little piece of legislation having to do with the use of brackish water in oil-field flooding, and so forth. It was contested by

these gentleman, and alleged that we were going to ruin the water of Carlsbad.

The bill did pass and was signed into law. On the next trip, I took some good-natured ribbing from my friends. The next time I came to Carlsbad to a luncheon here, while I had my back turned somebody filled the glass about that full [indicating] of salt, and the rest was water. They stirred it all up, and I grabbed that glass and took me a good swig and they said, "See, Harold, your bill has only been in effect for a week and look what you have done to our water."

Mr. BRYAN. Thank you very much.

Mr. RUNNELS. Thank you, Walker.

Mr. JOHNSON. Did you have any further questions?
Mr. LUJAN. No, Mr. Chairman."

(The prepared statement submitted by Mr. Bryan reads in full as follows:)

STATEMENT OF WALKER BRYAN, MEMBER, NEW MEXICO STATE LEGISLATURE My name is Walker Bryan. I am a member of the New Mexico State Legislature and represent District 65 in the New Mexico House of Representatives which is included in that portion of Eddy County and the City of Carlsbad, New Mexico that would be devastated in the event of a flood along the Pecos River caused by the inadequacy of McMillan and Avalon dams.

As the previous testimony has pointed out, we desperately need your help to alleviate a potentially disastrous situation and respectfully request that you favor us with positive and immediate action by approving this project as proposed.

Mr. LUJAN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask unanimous consent to have entered in the record at this point a signed letter from Senator Joe Gant from Eddy County in support of the project.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do I hear objection?

Hearing none, so ordered: and that will follow Mr. Bryan's state

ment.

(The letter referred to follows:)

Hon. HAROLD T. JOHNSON,

NEW MEXICO STATE SENATE,
Santa Fe, April 14, 1972.

Chairman, Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation, the House Interior and Insular Affairs, Washington, D.C.

DEAR CONGRESSMAN JOHNSON: The New Mexico State Senatorial District I represent is downstream and lays on both sides of the Pecos River below the unsafe old dam the proposed Brantley Flood Control Project would replace. I have personal knowledge that during the floods of 1939, 1941 and 1966 a number of homes in Carlsbad were surrounded and damaged by the flood waters of the Pecos River.

If either of the two unsafe present dams, Avalon and McMillan, had given away, as the recent disaster in West Virginia, the City of Carlsbad would have suffered much higher loss of life and property damage during any one of these floods.

We respectfully seek your help and favor for action by your committee on HB 5042 to protect the citizens of Carlsbad and on downstream in both New Mexico and Texas.

Sincerely yours,

JOSEPH E. GANT,
New Mexico State Senate.

Mr. JOHNSON. We are glad to have Senator Gant in support of the project also. I talked with him last evening.

Our next witness now will be the Honorable Walter Gerrells, Mayor, city of Carlsbad.

Mayor Gerrells.

STATEMENT OF HON. WALTER GERRELLS, MAYOR, CITY OF CARLSBAD, N. MEX.

Mayor GERRELLS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Walter Gerrells, and I am mayor of the city of Carlsbad and a lifelong resident. I am presently filling my second term, and prior to that I served on the City Council for several years.

First of all, of course, I would like to welcome all of you to Carlsbad, and you, too, Congressman Runnels, despite your water legislation. We appreciate your being here.

Mr. JOHNSON. Well, Mr. Mayor, we want to thank you for your hospitality shown us when we arrived here yesterday and last evening. It looks like your weather is going to treat us kindly today and we will have another nice day in New Mexico.

I want to say that your water is on a par with most people's, from what I have drank here in your fair city, and it has been very good. Last evening, we had it mixed with a little of this and a little of that, but this morning it tasted very good also.

Mayor GERRELLS. I got a little bad ice last night, but other than that it was good water.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to appear before you gentlemen on behalf of the 21,000 people we have in our community. And we feel like we live under the threat of loss of property and life from flooding on the Pecos River, a threat that we believe can only be minimized by the construction of the proposed Brantley Dam.

I would like to take just a few moments to further orient you with the situation that faces the citizens of our community and tell you something about our city, show you by means of our display and perhaps photograph just exactly what we are facing and what we have faced in the past.

Carlsbad is the county seat of Eddy County and is located in southeastern New Mexico as indicated on the map over on the right. It is situated in a bend of the Pecos River with this river flowing through the northern and eastern portions of the city limits. We have an elevation of 3,110 feet and are circled on the northeast and the west by low hills with the river valley continuing on to the south into Texas. Foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains terminate in the Ocotillo Hills on the western edge of the city. The hills, the river, and the flood plain have had and will continue to have a major influence on the development of our community in southwest New Mexico.

The town of Eddy, now known as Carlsbad, was organized as a municipal corporation in 1893 and in that year suffered its first record flood.

Our economy has been based on the mining and refining of potash to the east of the city, irrigated farming to the south, and the influx of tourists coming to see the world famous Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the New Mexico Zoological-Botanical State Park of the Southwest, and the other attractions of recreational value in our community.

The people of Carlsbad have long realized the value of water, and we have instituted, and are continuing to develop, a program of recreational facilities utilizing the Pecos River as a means of improving the livability of our community. In fact, Carlsbad is the only city in the