The CHAIRMAN. But that bill has been divided to only include the river and harbor projects and it becomes necessary for us to consider an amendment to the existing law.

General ROBINS. That is correct, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, General, I am going to ask you to make an extension of your remarks on this matter and to refer to the basic law, that is to say the basic law of the document 23, Sixty-ninth Congress, first session, set forth, one, the maintenance to be done by the Federal Government; two, the amount to be spent by the Federal Government, authorized to be spent by the Federal Government; thirdly, the maintenance to be done by the local interests; fourthly, the amount that has actually been appropriated by Congress and expended by Congress under the act of 1928; fifthly, the amount that remains to be appropriated, if any; sixthly, what amount it is necessary in your judgment to repair existing breakages generally, and your recommendation to carry out the intended purpose of the act of 1928.

And I will be glad for you to do that and I am asking you that question because formerly, as I understood you were the division engineer out there, were you not?

General ROBINS. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Of the district in which the California Debris Commission represented the Federal Government.

General ROBINS. I was president of the Commission for 5 years. The CHAIRMAN. Then we will ask you to send your remarks in and give the committee the full information requested. That will enable us to pass the proper legislation.

(Extension of remarks by General Robins:)

MAINTENANCE

It can be generally stated that the maintenance of the levees in the Sacramento River flood-control project falls upon local interests, except that maintenance during construction or prior to the levees being turned over to the local interests is divided in the same ratio of costs as applies to the authorized project.

(a) Federal maintenance.-The Sacramento River Flood Control Act approved May 15, 1928, adopted the project in accordance with the report of the California Debris Commission, printed in Senate Document No. 23, Sixty-ninth Congress, first session. Paragraph 71 of that report is quoted below as pertinent:

"The Commission believes that responsibility for maintenance of each part of the project should rest upon the party most directly interested in its maintenance. The United States is directly interested in the maintenance of the navigable channels and exercises jurisdiction over them and over tributary nonnavigable channels insofar as they affect the navigability of the former. Moreover, the War Department is able to do work in such channels most economically and is especially concerned with its being done promptly and properly, and it is not desirable that responsibility therefor be delegated to any other agency. It is, therefore, recommended that the United States assume responsibility for the maintenance of sil work in the river channels and of the weirs, the failure of which would cause deposits and the formation of obstructions to navigation. The cost of maintenance cannot be foretold with any assurance at the present time, as the project materially changes hydraulic conditions throughout the Sacramento Valley south of Stony Creek, and since completion of an appreciable amount of work on the project, there has been no flood of sufficient size to indicate the amount and extent of shoaling and bank erosion to be expected. However, there appears to be sufficient assurance that the maintenance of the channels (including bank protection) and weirs will cost not more than one-third the total cost of maintenance of the project, and it is believed that $100,000 annually will be a sufficient appropriation for this purpose except in years of unusually high water."

(b) Local maintenance. Paragraphs 72 and 73 of the report of the California Debris Commission, printed as Sentate Document No. 23, Sixty-ninth Congress, first session, are quoted as follows:

"The cost of maintaining and operating gages for flood prediction, which will be very small, should properly be divided between the United States and the State, the former assuming responsibility for gages on navigable streams and channels, the latter for those at other places.

"The cost of maintaining other parts of the project and of operating pumping plants, floodgates, and similar apparatus, should be divided between the State and other local interests most directly concerned, in whatever manner may be prescribed by the State laws, or mutually agreed upon. However, the operation of the movable top of the Sacramento weir should be undertaken by the State, in accordance with schedules established and furnished the appropriate State authorities by the California Debris Commission, in view of the many conflicts that will arise as to how and when it should be opened or closed."

TOTAL AMOUNT OF FEDERAL AUTHORIZATION

Under the 1928 act, as amended and supplemented, the amount to be contributed by the Federal Government was increased from $5,600,000 to $17,600,000, and the River and Harbor Act approved August 26, 1937, provided for an increase of $2,500,000, or a total authorization of $20,100,000.

APPROPRIATIONS TO DATE

There has been appropriated to date (April 9, 1940), $18,858,000. Attention is invited to the fact that the present appropriation bill, as amended by the Senate, carries $1,242,000 which will exhaust the authority. (The $18,858,000 stated includes $98,325 appropriated but later impounded and returned to the Treasury under the provisions of the Economy Act.)

RECOMMENDATION

The authorization for the project should be increased by $2,000,000, which will reestablish the authority for new work as originally contemplated. These funds are needed to replace funds expended for maintenance of the levees during construction (that is, prior to their being turned over to the State), and also to take care of an increased estimate of the Federal share of building levees. This cost has augmented due to the fact that some levees originally in place and not yet brought up to grade and section by the Department have gone out during. floods, thereby increasing the cost both to the United States and the local interests.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Russell desires to submit a statement at this time.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD B. RUSSELL, OF GEORGIA, IN SUPPORT OF ALLATOONA RESERVOIR

Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, very little can be added to the splendid report of the Board of Engineers recommending the construction of the Allatoona Reservoir nor to the statements which have already been made to this committee in behalf of this project.

A large number of citizens of northwest Georgia and of Alabama have for a number of years been interested in this project. Both of the Senators from the State of Georgia and from Alabama as well as a number of the Members of the House have been diligently pursuing it in an effort to prevent the great damage from floods which has been periodically suffered by cities, highways, agricultural lands, and crops due to floods on the Etowah and upper Coosa Rivers in Georiga,

with, of course, disastrous results in the lower reaches of the river in Alabama.

The city of Rome, Ga., which is one of the most progressive cities in the Southeast, has suffered very severely from these floods, and levees have been constructed in an attempt to protect the city. However, these levees are no protection to other sections adjacent to the river, and the levees will of themselves be insufficient to protect the city of Rome against a major flood.

The proposed Allatoona project will be constructed in Bartow County, and will not only serve to protect Rome and the lower reaches of the Coosa River but also valuable properties within Bartow and Floyd Counties in Georgia. The dam will be of benefit not only for flood control but for the purpose of navigation and for the important development of needed hydroelectric power. It is located in a splendid and progressive section which can utilize the power which will be generated. No section of the country bears brighter promise for both agricultural and industrial development, and I am convinced that all of the electric power generated can be disposed of at fair and reasonable prices.

All of Georgia is tremendously interested in the provision for bringing electric current to the farms through the Rural Electrification Administration. Such a project will not only mean cheaper power for farm homes, but will lend impetus to the rural electrification program and make current available for practically all of the farms in this area in addition to its industrial value.

I have some knowledge of nearly all of the multiple-purpose projects which are under consideration at the present time, and I am convinced that there is not a more important and meritorious project before the Congress than the Allatoona Reservoir. I earnestly urge the committee to give favorable consideration to the authorization for the construction of this project with complete confidence that your action will be justified by its future benefits.

The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have your statement, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. I note that Senator Hill is present and we shall be glad to have your statement at this time.

STATEMENT OF HON. LISTER HILL, SENATOR FROM ALABAMA, IN BEHALF OF THE ALLATOONA DAM PROJECT

I shall not trespass on the time of the committee by reviewing the details of the proposed project as this information has been so well and ably given the committee by Colonel Park, the District engineer, and by Congressman Tarver of Georgia.

The project is primarily a flood-control project, but it also has great value for navigation and for the generation of hydroelectric power. It is one of the dams that according to the engineers must be constructed if we are to have navigation from Rome to the Gulf over the Coosa-Alabama system, as is so devoutly wished for.

Navigation of this system would open up for the commerce of the Nation and of the world and for the benefit of the people of the Coosa-Alabama area a valley than which there is not another to be found in the country more varied or richer in its natural resources.

The project will give protection from floods to the city of Rome and to some 50,000 acres of agricultural lands in Bartow and Floyd

Counties, Ga., and Cherokee County, Ala. In one flood during recent years, the like of which would be prevented by the construction of the project, damages in the agricultural area alone amounted to $984,000. The annual saving in flood protection for the city of Rome alone would amount to $107,000. In fact, there would be an annual saving altogether in flood protection by the construction of the project of some $121,500. During the past 49 years, during which time a gage record of the waters has been kept, the flood stage has been exceeded 54 times at Rome. This means that during the past 49 years there has been on an average more than 1 flood a year at Rome. There were extremely severe floods both at Rome and in the agricultural areas in 1932, 1936, and 1938.

Happily, there will be a large amount of hydroelectric power generated by the construction of the project. The district engineer advises that there will be a minimum of 16,000 kilowatts generated at the project and that 22,500 kilowatts at dams below the project will be converted from secondary power into firm or primary power by the construction of the project. There is a ready market for the the power and no question of its sale. Its sale would bring a return to the Government of $620,000 a year. The Federal Power Commission, after a study of the project, is of the opinion that instead of 16,000 kilowatts being generated at the project there can be a generation of as much as 65,000 kilowatts, and that when and if the project known as the Gilmer Ferry project is developed upstream there will be a generation of 100,000 kilowatts at the Allatoona project alone.

In other words, according to the findings of the Federal Power Commission, the project will return to the Government many times the amount of $620,000 which the district engineer assures will be returned to the Government.

The total annual carrying charges of the project amount to $399,000. The minimum flood benefits of $121,500 and the minimum power returns of $620,000 give us the sum of $741,500 or nearly twice the sum of the total annual carrying charges. These carrying charges include all charges such as maintenance, interest, amortization, and so forth. The project is not only one that is greatly needed for the protection of life and property, but it is one that is absolutely sound on a business and economic basis, returning the entire cost of the project to the Government with a profit thereon.

I wish to respectfully urge upon the committee an expeditious and favorable report on a bill embodying the project.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee., The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have your statement, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Elston, we shall be glad to have your statement at this time.

STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES H. ELSTON, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS, FIRST DISTRICT, OHIO, IN SUPPORT OF H. R. 8914

Mr. ELSTON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the purpose of this bill is to authorize the Secretary of War to accept as loans from States and political subdivisions thereof funds which may be immediately used in the prosecution of flood-control work authorized by the Army engineers but for which work appropriations have not been made by Congress.

This bill is quite similar to a provision in the Rivers and Harbors Act, section 561 of title 33, Code of Laws of the United States, which section reads as follows:

Whenever local interests shall offer to advance funds for the prosecution of a work of river and harbor improvement duly adopted and authorized by law the Secretary of War may, in his discretion, receive such funds and expend the same in the immediate prosecution of such work. The Secretary of War is authorized and directed to repay without interest, from appropriations which may be provided by Congress for river and harbor improvements, the moneys so contributed and expended: Provided, That no repayment of funds which may be contributed for the purpose of meeting any conditions of local cooperation imposed by Congress, nor under the authority of the preceding section shall be made (March 3, 1925, ch. 467, sec. 11, 43 Stat. 1197).

In his testimony before this committee Gen. Julian L. Schley indicated that the above section of the rivers and harbors act has been quite satisfactory.

I am unable to advise you as to how many political subdivisions may be interested in the passage of H. R. 8914, but as an example of its urgency I should like to call to the committee's attention the extent to which it might benefit the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. After the disastrous Ohio Valley flood of 1937 the people of Cincinnati authorized the issuance of $5,000,000 in bonds to meet the city's proportionate cost of any authorized flood-control projects. These bonds have not as yet been issued inasmuch as the council of the city of Cincinnati but recently decided, after an exhaustive study, upon a project. Should these bonds be not issued before December 31, 1940, the authority to issue them will expire, making it necessary to again submit the question to the voters. This would entail considerable delay and cost. The Army engineers at the present time are making a study of the project decided upon by the city of Cincinnati and I am advised that this study will be completed in the very near future. In all probability this plan will be agreed upon inasmuch as it conforms almost entirely to a plan which the Army engineers have heretofore indicated would be acceptable to them.

Last year Congress appropriated sufficient money to complete preliminary plans and specifications for whatever Cincinnati project might be agreed upon, but in view of the limited appropriation for flood-control work this year the amount allocated for the Cincinnati project would probably be insufficient to do all of the construction work which should be done this year. If H. R. 8914 should pass the city of Cincinnati would be enabled to issue whatever part of the above $5,000,000 bond issue would be necessary to carry on the construction work which would not be fully permitted by the Federal appropriation of this year. Any amount so advanced by the city would be returned out of future appropriations. Passage of H. R. 8914 would, therefore, serve a twofold purpose; first, the bond issue to which I have referred will not expire, and second, the city of Cincinnati will not be compelled to run the great risk which is incident to any delay in construction work.

The project which has been agreed upon is known as the Millcreek Valley Barrier Dam. This dam protects the Millcreek Valley within which live more than forty thousand of the city's approximately onehalf million residents. About 75 percent of the city's industries are in the Millcreek Valley, and the value of the property in this area is estimated at more than $150,000,000. Cincinnati's estimated loss in