distant fourth or even further, would 

 come fisheries and conservation. 

 Let's examine this decision hierarchy 

 in terms of its economics. What are 

 the values of the various uses? I 

 had some trouble digging up money 

 figures for some of these, so I am 

 going to have to improvise in some of 

 the cases. First, let's look at 

 electricity. As I mentioned earlier, 

 hydropower presently provides about 

 80 percent of the region's energy. 

 Most of the remaining 20 percent is 

 generated at thermal electric or 

 nuclear plants. As a power resource, 

 the Columbia River system has more 

 hydropower potential than any other 

 system in America; about one-third 

 of the national total. There are 

 now over 24^ million kilowatts of 

 installed capacity and another b\ 

 million under construction, for a 

 total of 30 million kilowatts. Ex- 

 cept for some small projects, that 

 is probably close to the river's 

 short term potential. That hydro- 

 power energy represents about 50 

 percent of the energy generated in 

 the Pacific Northwest. I do not 

 think I need to translate that into 

 dollars and cents. It is enough to 

 say that the hydroelectricity gen- 

 erated on the Columbia River is big 

 business. There are not many north- 

 west residents who would want to see 

 it otherwise since they are all well 

 aware that they pay considerably 

 less than the rest of the country 

 for their electric energy. The mag- 

 nitude of the dollar decisions in- 

 volved warp the conservation and 

 fisheries concerns of those who 

 depend on the estuary and its re- 

 sources. Let me add that it has 

 been estimated that in the next 

 two decades, the population of the 

 Pacific Northwest region will jump 

 from its present seven million peo- 

 ple to more than eleven million. 

 The demand for energy can be expect- 

 ed to increase. 



Along side the increased de- 

 mand for hydropower will be the in- 

 creased demand for water to irri- 

 gate farmlands, to produce more 

 food and fiber for domestic use and 

 export. The Corps of Engineers has 

 estimated that our needs in the 

 northwest for irrigated land may 

 increase by four million acres over 

 the next fifty years. New irriga- 

 tion development has been increas- 

 ing in recent years at a rate of 

 about 80,000 acres per year. The 

 projected increase of four million 

 acres will deplete the Columbia 

 River by nearly nine million acre- 

 feet of water. That translates to 

 more than 966 megawatts of poten- 

 tial power and more than 1.8 billion 

 dollars in economic revenue annual- 

 ly. My rough calculations indicate 

 that in 1972, the value of the seven 

 highest-ranked crops in the Pacific 

 Northwest was about 1.5 billion 

 dollars annually. Taking the per- 

 centage of those crops that are ir- 

 rigated, I found their worth to be 

 930 million dollars annually. Had 

 I included wheat, of which only five 

 percent is irrigated, I would have 

 found a total worth of over a bil- 

 lion dollars. In other words, ex- 

 cept for wheat, almost 90 percent 

 of the income in the region from 

 the seven more prolific crops is a 

 direct result of irrigation. Per- 

 haps, I need to clarify something 

 for those of you who are not fami- 

 liar with the Pacific Northwest. 

 Except for the area west of the 

 Cascade Range, most of the region 

 has a fairly dry climate. Of the 

 whole, only a small percentage is 

 the lush green of the Willamette 

 Valley or the rain forest of North- 

 west Washington. 



Most irrigation in the north- 

 west is powered by electricity. 

 There are some who irrigate by grav- 

 ity feed systems, but the majority 



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