Colonel STURDEVANT. At the upper reservoir a small amount will be held, about 8,000 acre-feet out of 43,000 feet will be held there for such other uses as may be desired, possibly irrigation or any other purpose.

But the remainder of any flood water caught would be released immediately, as fast as it could safely be done.

At the Cherry Creek No. 1 water would be held no longer than

necessary.

Mr. CURTIS. That is the one closest to town?

Colonel STURDEVANT. That is the one closest to Denver.

Mr. CURTIS. And you say about 8,000 acre-feet will be held at the upper one?

Colonel STURDEVANT. Will be held at the upper site; yes.

Mr. CURTIS. What effect will that have upon the water released into the Platte Basin that flows on through Colorado into Nebraska for irrigation; will it affect the amount of water?

Colonel STURDEVANT. Not very appreciably; no. The capacity of those reservoirs is very small, and even if filled by flood they will be emptied in a very few days. They will not greatly change any low water stage in the lower Platte region.

Mr. CURTIS. It will not interfere with water they are getting for irrigation in that section?

Colonel STURDEVANT. No.

Mr. CURTIS. How much land could be irrigated by this 8,000 acrefeet?

Colonel STURDEVANT. About 4,300 acres.

Mr. CURTIS. That is all.

The CHAIRMAN. Was there a reservoir formerly at Castlewood? Colonel STURDEVANT. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. About when was that destroyed?

Colonel STURDEVANT. It was destroyed in the 1933 flood.

The CHAIRMAN. Who constructed it?

Colonel STURDEVANT. A private irrigation company.

The CHAIRMAN. It was built by some private irrigation company? Colonel STURDEVANT. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. At the same location where the present Castlewood Reservoir is to be located?

Colonel STURDEVANT. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Does the private irrigation company still own the reservoir site?

Colonel STURDEVANT. It is my impression they have abandoned it. The CHAIRMAN. It has been abandoned?

Colonel STURDEVANT. Yes; I have been so informed.

The CHAIRMAN. Was any flood protection afforded by that reservoir?

Colonel STURDEVANT. Yes; but evidently it was too small for flood protection, as indicated by the fact it was overtopped and destroyed. The CHAIRMAN. We are very glad to have had your statement. STATEMENT OF HON. LAWRENCE LEWIS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF COLORADO

Mr. LEWIS of Colorado. Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the committee, at the outset I wish to say that the entire Colorado delegation

is interested in this project. All would be here this morning to evidence their interest were it not that they are obliged to attend meetings of other committees.

The CHAIRMAN. They will have opportunity to appear along with other Members of Congress next Tuesday.

Mr. LEWIS of Colorado. Yes; I do not know that they will all be able to come even then.

Congressman Cummings was here a few minutes ago, but he had another committee meeting and was obliged to leave.

Congressman Edward T. Taylor, the beloved dean of our delegation, also asked me to say to you and to your committee that he should like to be here. As you know, he has not been well, but he asked me to express to you, Mr. Chairman, and to this committee, his very great interest in this project for the flood control of Cherry Creek for the protection of Denver, the Capital City of Colorado. Senators Adams and Johnson of Colorado sent word to me that they are obliged to attend Senate committee meetings; but they charged me to say that they also are deeply interested in this project.

You referred at the outset to the fact that I had expected to have here as a witness Mr. Dan J. McQuaid, the engineer and executive secretary for the Denver Flood Control Association, which is an informal organization of prominent businessmen of Denver. But Mr. McQuaid has been detained in Denver by illness.

Judge Clifford H. Stone, chairman of the Colorado Water Conservation Commission, and Mr. J. M. Dille also of that commission, are here to manifest their interest in this project. But they tell me that, in order to save the time of this committee, they do not care to make any statement but wish to have the record show their presence and that they favor the project.

Mr. William P. Redding, a representative of the Denver Chamber of Commerce, also expected to be here, but he was obliged to be in New York City today. He has, however, sent me a letter in which he asks me to say that the Denver Chamber of Commerce wishes to go on record as earnestly requesting your committee to give most serious consideration to the Cherry Creek flood-control project for the protection of Denver. I have also received letter from public officials, various organizations, prominent businessmen and other citizens strongly urging the approval of this project.

However, I believe your committee is more interested in the technical side of this project, as set out in the Army engineers' report, and in the statement by Colonel Sturdevant.

First of all I wish to cover one or two points. In the basin of Cherry Creek, upstream from Denver, are a few small towns and other settlements-for example, Franktown, Parker, Melvin, and Sullivan. Of these comparatively small places, Parker, with a population of 200, would suffer the most-including some loss of life-from a major flood. But, except at Parker, most of the loss from a major flood, upstream from Denver, would be to the farms and ranchesto the agricultural and grazing interests in the Cherry Creek Valley to the south of Denver, and to the highways, including bridges.

As Colonel Sturdevant has said, this stream rises 57 miles south of Denver, and, on reaching the city, it flows between two tree-lined boulevards, first through one of the finest residential districts, known as the country club district, then through the business, wholesale, and

industrial districts, and through the railroad yards to its confluence with the South Platte.

There is a drop of 2,500 feet in the 57 miles from the source of Cherry Creek to the point where it empties into the South Platte River in the heart of the city. As shown by that long topographic map [indicating map] the entire drainage area of Cherry Creek is about 57 miles long and only about 15 miles wide. The total area of the watershed is about 416 square miles. The main channel is located in about the middle of the watershed, and extends slightly northwest downstream. The main channel is fed by almost innumerable tributaries which are all very steep and comparatively short. Ordinarily they are merely dry gulches.

The site of the new Castlewood Dam recommended by the Army engineers, is about 200 feet downstream from the site of the old Castlewood Dam which failed during the flood of August 2-3, 1933. This new dam site is about 4 miles south of Franktown and about 27 miles south of the corporate limits of Denver.

When reference is made to a flood which threatens the safety of a city, doubtless there comes to the minds of most Members of Congress a picture of the comparatively slowly rising waters of a great river swollen by melting snows or by heavy rains at the headwaters. Of the approach of such a flood there is usually a day or two or several days sometimes as much as 10 days or 2 weeks-within which the menaced city can make preparations to safeguard life and property before the arrival of the crest of the flood. During such interval, emergency dikes or levees can be erected to supplement permanent flood-control works and inhabitans can be warned to get out of the lowlands.

In Colorado and elsewhere in the so-called semiarid regions of the West, cities are menaced by floods with entirely different characteristics, by floods from insignificant-looking flash streams, floods which come almost with the suddenness and lack of warning of a stroke of lightning and which, after wreaking terrible damage, quickly subside. Although such floods rarely last more than 24 hours, nevertheless, because of their sudden incidence and the lack of time to make emergency preparations against their attack, they are more disastrous to the city so inundated than are floods in the great rivers. The only sure safeguard for a city so menaced is the provision of permanent works adequate to control any flood which is likely to occur.

Such is the type of flood which, every year, from the last of April until the first of October, is an hourly menace to Denver, from the usually insignificant appearing and seemingly harmless stream known as Cherry Creek.

Since Denver was first settled floods from this stream have, in the aggregate, caused the loss of millions of dollars of property and about 100 lives. So treacherous is Cherry Creek and so dangerous when aroused that I have often referred to it as "Denver's sleeping tiger."

Denver is a comparatively young city. It is only 82 years old. It was founded in 1858 when some gold seekers from Georgia who had been to California looking for gold found a few Indians who were camped near the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in what is now the heart of Denver. That was the first group of white men that had come in there, except a few trap

pers and a few explorers who had gone through the country some years before.

These Georgians panned for gold in Cherry Creek. They found "color" of gold in the stream and they followed it down to the South Platte on to Clear Creek, which is another tributary of the South Platte, and then up Clear Creek where later were discovered lode deposits in place. These discoveries started the so-called Pike's Peak or bust gold rush of 1859 and 1860. It was so called because the entire region north of the Arkansas River and east of the mountain, in what is now Colorado, was then known as the Pike's Peak region.

Denver was settled as a result of that gold rush. There are men living today, one or two of them Members of the Congress of the United States, whose span of life is equal to the entire age of the city of Denver.

When the white men first came in there the Indians warned them not to build in the Cherry Creek Valley. "No build tepees down there. Big flood come some day."

The Indians undoubtedly knew from experience the dangers of which they warned the white men. Indeed, the topography of the Cherry Creek Valley clearly indicates that there have been in the past few centuries larger floods than have been experienced since Denver was first settled.

It is perfectly clear that, in all probability amounting to a practical certainty, far greater floods may be expected in the future than have come since the arrival of the white men. Eighty-two years is but a moment in the life of a stream-a mere "cat nap" in the life of "Denver's sleeping tiger.'

Denver has experienced 14 major floods from Cherry Creek since the first settlement in 1858-59 and several smaller ones.

Probably the largest flood was that of May 19-20, 1864, of which the records are very meager but which did a tremendous amount of damage even to the little pioneer village. As Colonel Sturdevant has indicated, the flood of August 2-3, 1933, covered the portion of the city which is colored in green on this map [indicating map]. That was the second largest flood. After this 1933 flood, there was constructed, at a cost of about $880,000, the so-called Kenwood Dam, about 52 miles above the city limits. Cherry Creek Dam No. 1– one of the two dams, construction of which is recommended by the Corps of Engineers-would be about 14 miles upstream from the present Kenwood Dam and about 634 miles upstream from the corporate limits of Denever. This Cherry Creek Dam No. 1 is in addition to the proposed Castlewood Dam, already mentioned. The Engineer Corps of the Army in their report emphasize that the construetion of both of these dams is essential for the protection of Denver from a ghastly major catastrophe.

Mr. TIBBOTT. May I interrupt you?

Mr. LEWIS of Colorado. Yes.

Mr. TIBBOTT. What flood on Cherry Creek was it that took away the courthouse and the records?

Mr. LEWIS of Colorado. That was the flood of 1864. Furthermore, as this map indicates during the flood of 1933, much of the downtown area-colored green on the map-was covered, and, in the base

ment of the old city hall, there were a large number of records which were damaged or destroyed.

Referring further to this map. This area-beyond the area colored green but enclosed within the red and black broken lines-is above the area inundated by the 1933 flood [indicating]. But that entire area within the red and black broken lines would be inundated by the major flood which the Army engineers predict is threatened. It is the additional area to be protected by the two dams recommended by the Army engineers in their report.

The South Platte River flows through Denver as appears on this map. Beginning at a point some distance beyond the city limits to the south, continuing throughout its entire course through the city and for some distance downstream beyond the corporate limits to the north, the channel of the South Platte has been widened, deepened and the banks have been raised and riprapped with stone.

I am not an engineer but studies indicate that, since these widenings and straightenings of the river through the city and the levee work, there is no danger of flood from the South Platte. The greatest menace to our city comes from this insignificant and harmless appearing stream called Cherry Creek.

The CHAIRMAN. Has other protective work been done on Cherry Creek?

Mr. LEWIS of Colorado. It has been walled and straightened and the channel has been deepened; but, as Colonel Sturdevant indicated, it is very clear that that work is not sufficient to take care of this flood which is apprehended. I dare say there has been enough said here about the character of these flash floods to acquaint the members of this committee with them. I think the average man, and probably the average Member of Congress, has in mind floods brought about by slowly rising waters of the great rivers.

The CHAIRMAN. I think we have a pretty fair understanding of the situation.

Mr. LEWIS of Colorado. It is much different in our State. They come like a flash of lightning.

The CHAIRMAN. We have heard all about them.

Mr. LEWIS of Colorado. And there is no time to prepare for them or to get out of their way. And there is no possibility of determining when they will come or how big they will be. I think the gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. Curtis, understands that situation.

As a consequence, our only protection is to erect permanent works of sufficient size and capacity to take care of any flood which will probably come. Perhaps you would like to know why we say this danger is imminent and-imminent all the time, every day and every night, between the last of April and the following October. First of all, we have the experience of adjoining watersheds. Colonel Sturdevant has referred to the fact that this area here [indicating on the map] which is marked in blue, is the watershed of Kiowa Creek. Right adjacent thereto is the watershed of Bijou Creek. The storm of May 30-31, 1935, covered the entire drainage areas of these two creeks. Walls of water, literally walls, like waves in the ocean 11 feet high, came down Bijou Creek and Kiowa Creek and did immense damage. A number of lives were lost as a result of that flood.

229579-40- -39