HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC RESO 11,977RESOLUTION NO. 11,977
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
NATIONAL CITY URGING CONTINUANCE OF THE
COLORADO RIVER BOARD OF CALIFORNIA
WHEREAS, the Colorado River Board of California
was established by the State Legislature in 1937 to protect
California's rights to the water and power resources of the
Colorado River, and
WHEREAS, this action by the legislature was taken
in recognition of the great dependence on the resources of
the river of public agencies represented on the board and
their citizens, and
WHEREAS, the board, largely because of its official
status as an agency of the State of California, has now for
nearly forty years been highly successful in meeting its
tremendous responsibility, and
WHEREAS, in recent years in line with the primary
aspect of that responsibility, it has been the main force
in creating for the first time a unified and cooperative
approach among the seven Colorado River Basin states toward
solving the many complex problems the river still presents,
and
WHEREAS, the Colorado River Board and its staff
have provided not only leadership in meeting river problems
but also a wealth of expertise that is regularly relied upon
by both the other basin states and the Federal Government,
and
WHEREAS, the Colorado River represents either a
full or supplemental source of water for some eleven million
citizens of California, irrigates some 800,000 acres of
California farmland and makes a significant contribution
to the state's energy supply through the hydro -electric
power generated at the dams on the river, and
WHEREAS, Governor Brown's 1976-77 budget has
proposed the elimination of the state's one-third funding
for the Colorado River Board as the announced first step
toward elimination of the board as a state agency and a
takeover of its functions by the State Department of Water
Resources, and
WHEREAS, this proposal displays a lack of under-
standing of the importance of the board to the people of
Southern California, the highly effective role it has played
in protecting the immense interests of the state in the
resources of the river and the overriding necessity for
the board to continue to function in substantially the
manner it has, and
WHEREAS, it would destroy the sound and pro-
ductive working relationship of the board, in meeting its
basic responsibility, and
WHEREAS, the California Department of Water
Resources is not now staffed to handle Colorado River
problems in any adequate manner, and
WHEREAS, if this effort on the part of the State
Administration should prove successful, California's vast
stake in the Colorado River's water and power resources
would be seriously endangered;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City
Council of the City of National City does hereby strongly
urge Governor Brown to reconsider his plan for elimination
of the Colorado River Board, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the members of the
State Legislature be asked to exert their best efforts to
retain the board in substantially its present form.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this l7th day of February,
1976.
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