Flood Control in the Mississippi Valley

The CHAIRMAN. This meeting is held at the request of Mr. Whittington. Some time ago he stated that certain citizens of Mississippi would be up here, and that they would probably want to make statements before they returned home relative to Committee Document No. 1. We would like to extend to those gentlemen the same courtesy that we have to everybody else, and we will be glad to hear their statements at this time.

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Mr. WHITTINGTON. Mr. Chairman, these gentlemen appear here for further hearings on the bill, H. R. 6833, and I am going to ask Mr. J. S. Allen, chief engineer of the Mississippi River Levee District, to make a statement at this time.

The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to hear him.

STATEMENT OF J. S. ALLEN, CHIEF ENGINEER, BOARD OF MISSISSIPPI LEVEE COMMISSIONERS, GREENVILLE, MISS.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Before Mr. Allen makes his statement, with your permission, Mr. Chairman, I will ask him 1 or 2 questions to identify both himself and his district.

Your name is J. S. Allen?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You are chief engineer of the Mississippi Board of Levee Commissioners?

Mr. ALLEN. Chief engineer of the Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. With headquarters at Greenville, Miss.?
Mr. ALLEN. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You are a civil engineer by profession?
Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. How long have you been engaged in your profession of civil engineering?

Mr. ALLEN. On the levees at Greenville, 41 or 42 years.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. How long have you been chief engineer for the board of levee commissioners, at Greenville?

Mr. ALLEN. I was elected in 1922.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. The headquarters of the board are at Greenville, Miss.?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Your district embraces one-half of the so-called "Yazoo Basin "?

Mr. ALLEN. A little less than one-half; yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In area?

Mr. ALLEN. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In miles of levee along the Mississippi River, what is its extent? It covers about how many miles of levee, or about how many miles of levee are located in this district?

Mr. ALLEN. At the present time, about 175 miles.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. For the information of the committee and of the witnesses who will follow, will you identify on this map the Yazoo Basin, giving substantially the area?

Mr. ALLEN. It commences here at Memphis [indicating], and takes in all of this area on the east side of the river, down to Vicksburg.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. About how many miles of levee are located in your district?

Mr. ALLEN. About 175 miles at the present time.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. How many miles of your district is above there [indicating] from the northern boundary of your district to the Tennessee line?

Mr. ALLEN. About 100 miles.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. This committee now has under consideration the bill (H. R. 6833) covering modifications of the Flood Control Act approved May 15, 1928, and the recommendations of the Chief of Engineers contained in Committee Document No. 1, Seventyfourth Congress, first session. That bill and report provides in our area-and when I say our area I mean the area between the mouth of the Arkansas River and the Red River-for the Eudora floodway and the set-back levee in the Cypress Creek area. I would like to have you make any statement you care to with respect to that project, and with respect to the protection and relief of your district and the Yazoo Basin generally.

Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, earlier in your proceedings the board, along with myself, filed for the record a statement expressing our views with reference to the modifications of the Flood Control Act of May 15, 1928, as recommended by the Chief of Engineers.

It seems now that it is being seriously urged that reservoirs on the Arkansas and the White be substituted for the principle, endorsed by every one of the great Army engineers who have been in charge of the river from General Humphreys in 1895 to General Markham and General Ferguson at the present time. We have no fault to find with reservoirs; in fact, we would like to see them all over the Mississippi Valley, as they no doubt in time will prove beneficent public works. It is my understanding that the committee. has available the location and cost of every available site in the valley. However, if I remember correctly, it was Aristotle who said that theories were only valuable when proven by facts, and therefore I shall confine myself to such as we have found them in the lower valley.

I quote a part of paragraph 7 of the report of the Mississippi River Commission, accompanying that of the Chief of Engineers,

on "Modifications of the Mississippi River Flood Control Plan", adopted May 15, 1928.

Under 1928 flow conditions the resultant flow obtained by adding the probable contributions of the White and Arkansas Rivers to the assumed flood arriving from Cairo, if confined by the raising of levees on their existing locations, would produce a stage of about 74.5 feet at Arkansas City. To confine the river at such a stage, the levees would have to be raised about 14 feet. Since they are already more than 25 feet in height in places, this seems impracticable and the alternative course was selected for providing for the escape of such waters as could not be carried in the main river between levees of reasonable height. It was decided that an increase of approximately 3 feet in existing levee heights below Arkansas City was about as much as was desirable.

This limitation called for the escape during the maximum probable flood of 1,000,000 cubic feet per second and the topography of the valley required that this escape be on the west side of the river. It was accordingly decided to raise main levees about 3 feet to provide for the escape of surplus flow by refraining from the enlargement above its present grade of a stretch of the west bank levee line at the head of the Boeuf Basin. * * The portion of the river levees that was not to be raised has become known as the Cypress Creek fuse plug. Its crest elevation is such that stages which exceed 60.5 feet on the Arkansas City gage will overtop it.

In the 1927 flood the levees were overtopped and broken at a stage of 60.5 feet on the Arkansas City gage. It has been carefully estimated that had this flow been confined it would have reached a stage of 8 or 9 feet over the then existing levees.

Since 1928 the grade line on both sides of the river (except the fuse plug section) has been raised approximately 3 feet. Therefore, it is evident that our present levees will be overtopped by a repetition of the 1927 flood. In case of a superflood they would be overtopped, if confined by approximately 11 feet, unless relieved by the fuse plug and the Eudora spillway.

Our experience has been for many years, that every major water

has proven a super one to us, in the fact that each from time to time has risen higher than the one preceding.

The Chief of Engineers, in his direct testimony to the committee, stated that the river between Lake Providence and the mouth of the Arkansas River, in case of a super flood, must be relieved of approximately 1,000,000 cubic feet of water per second, in order to render the existing levees safe.

The people of the Yazoo Delta have been long familiar with the effect upon the river of diversion, either through breaks in the levee line on one side or on both, also with the effect of the gradual closing of Cypress Creek completed in 1921, and as a consequence we view with absolute terror this suggested abandonment of the policy of diversion.

The act of May 15, 1928, we regarded and still regard as a contract with the Nation. Under it we were required to sign a resolution pledging ourselves to the faithful carrying out of certain conditions incorporated therein.

We did this and have expended of levee board moneys $3,292,244.57, and have cooperated to the fullest extent with the national forces in charge of the work, and, therefore, Mr. Chairman, we are at a loss to understand why with the work over half completed, the goal plainly in sight, so radical a departure from the terms of the contract should even be suggested.

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