FLOOD-CONTROL BILL OF 1946 THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1946 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, EAGLE CREEK RESERVOIR Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., the Honorable Will M. Whittington (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. We will now hear from our colleague, Representative Huber, a representative from Ohio. STATEMENT OF HON. WALTER B. HUBER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO Mr. HUBER. I am Congressman Huber of Akron, Ohio, Fourteenth District. The CHAIRMAN. You are appearing here in connection with what matter? Mr. HUBER. In connection with the Eagle Creek Reservoir. The CHAIRMAN. You have testified previously in this hearing, and we shall be glad to have any additional statement that you care to submit. Mr. HUBER. Mr. Chairman, I simply want to submit for the record a letter addressed to me, with an inclosure, from Vincent H. Johnson, secretary of the Akron Chamber of Commerce. The CHAIRMAN. You may pass the letter to the reporter and it will be inserted in the record. (The letter and enclosure referred to are as follows:) Hon. WALTER B. HUBER, AKRON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. Akron, Ohio, April 27, 1946. DEAR MR. HUBER: Once more I want to emphasize the extreme importance we attach to the Eagle Creek Reservoir proposition and want to urge your continued and even more intensive protection of Akron's domestic water supply. To again emphasize our position, I am enclosing a copy of our letter to Congressman Jahn H. Kerr which states our position very clearly. Please give this matter your usual thorough attention because it means much to the city of Akron. Sincerely yours, V. H. JOHNSON, Executive Vice President. 245 APRIL 6, 1946. Congressman JOHN H. KERR, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: It is our understanding that a conference committee will consider on Monday, April 8, an appropriation for reservoir studies on Eagle Creek, in the Mahoning River watershed, Ohio. Notice of the inclusion of this project reached us only after the House Appropriations Committee had acted on it. We immediately protested to the Member from the Fourteenth District and to our two Ohio Senators. Therefore, we are now asking you to consider our objections. Some years ago, the Army engineers reported on a proposed Lake Erie-Ohio River canal along the Grand-Mahoning Rivers. They found that, if such a canal were to be developed to its economic capacity, more water will be necessary than is available in the two natural watersheds. They found that a supplemental source could easily be developed by diversion from the Cuyahoga River through Eagle Creek by building a dam at Hiram Rapids. Akron immediately protested. The State of Ohio had previously conveyed all its water rights in the upper Cuyahoga to the city of Akron for a domestic water supply. The city had bought other rights; had developed the river for domestic supply; and had acquired about half the land in the proposed Hiram Reservoir at a cost of about a million dollars to increase the supply when necessary. Thereafter, the Army engineers omitted reference to the Cuyahoga River supply from reports on the canal. Since then, Akron has had to build a branch of the Hiram Reservoir to meet its water needs. But the omission of the diversion project from Army engineers' reports does not affect the physical fact that the Eagle Creek Reservoir, if built, would be useful in making a diversion from the Cuyahoga effective as a water-supply source for the proposed canal. Such a diversion would, of course, reduce the capacity of the Cuyahoga River to meet additional water-supply needs of Akron. Within the past 5 years, this diversion by the Army engineers has been suggested by the Ohio State water engineer as a part of a flood-prevention project. Since serious floods do occur in the Ohio River, into which Eagle Creek flows through the Mahoning, and since there is no record of disastrous floods in the Cuyahoga, such a scheme appears to us to be something other than a flood-prevention project. Therefore, we ask that no work be authorized on the Eagle Creek project unless and until adequate safeguards are given Akron that such work will not and cannot be useful in diverting water from the Cuyahoga River. Respectfully submitted, V. H. JOHNSON, Executive Vice President. Mr. HUBER. I wish to state for the record that some of the rural residents in the vicinity where this reservoir would be constructed have voiced an objection to it because it might remove people and thereby lower the tax duplicate. The CHAIRMAN. I would like for you to indicate that dam on the map. It is located on what stream? Mr. HUBER. Eagle Creek. The CHAIRMAN. That is a tributary of what? Mr. HUBER. The Mahoning River. The CHAIRMAN. That is a tributary of what? Mr. HUBER. The Beaver. The CHAIRMAN. And the Beaver is a tributary of what? Mr. HUBER. The Ohio. The CHAIRMAN. Is the district that you represent above or below the dam? Mr. HUBER. It is below it and the feeling is that it might jeopardize the future water supply of the city of Akron. The CHAIRMAN. And is the city of Akron located on the creek below the dam? Where is the city of Akron? Mr. HUBER. Right here [indicating]. The CHAIRMAN. Do you live in Akron? Mr. HUBER. That is right. . The CHAIRMAN. Will this dam be in your district? Mr. HUBER. I understand part of it would be in the district. Mr. HUBER. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. Is that part of the creek below the dam in your district, just for the record? Mr. HUBER. I would have to examine the map to determine that later. The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have your statement. We will now hear from our colleague, Representative Campbell. STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD E. CAMPBELL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA Mr. CAMPBELL. I am from the Twenty-ninth District of Pennsylvania. The CHAIRMAN. What part of Pennsylvania? Mr. CAMPBELL. Pittsburgh. The CHAIRMAN. The city of Pittsburgh? Mr. CAMPBELL. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Do you favor or oppose the proposed reservoir? The CHAIRMAN. I recall your former appearance here, and if you have any additional statement of facts that you care to submit, Mr. Campbell, we shall be glad to have that. Mr. CAMPBELL. In the first place, the Governor of Pennsylvania should be here on this subject, in view of the fact that stream pollution is involved, and under Public Law No. 534 the States affected by such a situation should be taken into consideration and there should be. hearings held, and those States should be allowed to voice their objections. The controlling water problem in the valley of the Mahoning River is lack of water for the use of the steel mills in Youngstown. The largest users are the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and the Republic Steel Co. This fact is set forth in the following quotation from the official report of the Ohio Water Supply Board, dated 1943. This report is on file in the capitol at Columbus, Ohio. This report is available to the public, and I have a copy in my possession if the committee wishes to see it. The CHAIRMAN. You favor flood-control dams, but you object to this? Mr. CAMPBELL. What I am objecting to is the low-flow dams for special interests. The CHAIRMAN. Are you opposing the navigation feature in this case? Mr. CAMPBELL. No; but the personal use of water for industry at the expense of flood-control programs. That is the furnishing of water to the mills without the mills going to the expense of producing it themselves, as we do in the Pittsburgh area. The CHAIRMAN. What do you say about the navigation feature in connection with the stabilization of navigation? Mr. CAMPBELL. I do not think, gentlemen, that has much to do with this particular problem. It is more a matter of supplying water for industrial use rather than navigation. The CHAIRMAN. It is a proposal to supply water for industrial use in what respect? Mr. CAMPBELL. For cooling off in the mills. They use considerable water for cooling-off processes. The CHAIRMAN. And you oppose that? Mr. CAMPBELL. I feel that under flood-control projects water at the expense of the Federal Government should not be furnished to the mills or private industries. The CHAIRMAN. Where would those mills be located? Mr. CAMPBELL. Warren and Youngstown, and at intermediate and adjacent communities. Mr. GRIFFITHS. The gentleman is from Pennsylvania and is much interested in seeing that this water is not impounded for the benefit of industry in Ohio. He might as well say it plainly. Mr. CAMPELL. Under the guise of flood control. If it is to be done, it should be done under the proper name. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed with your statement. Mr. CAMPBELL. Some stream gaging has been done cooperatively with the United States Geological Survey in the Grand River Basin. Five stations are maintained with the board's assistance. This work is of particular interest in connection with the industrial water supply problem of the Mahoning Valley. It concerns the economy of Warren, Youngstown, intermediate and adjacent communities and all of the industrial development involved in that area. The gaging is being done primarily to assist the industries and cities in the Warren-Youngstown area in a solution of their water-supply problems. The Mahoning Valley Industrial Council has considered the feasibility of a reservoir in Grand River from which water could be brought over the continental divide into Mahoning River. Such a reservoir would furnish a tremendous supply since the Grand River Basin offers a remarkable opportunity for an impounding reservoir. Trumbull County has a part in the Mahoning Valley industrial water-supply problem. At least five of its communities are affected by the problem because of the dependence of industry upon the Mahoning River for cooling water. The Warren-Youngstown area as a whole has an aggregate primary industrial demand well over a billion gal lons a day. Controlled as it now is, the Mahoning River flow never drops below 162,000,000. But during times of this low flow, industry recirculates the water six times. Mosquito Reservoir will add about 49,000,000. Plans are afoot to add other increments to raise this low-flow figure. The problem of sufficient water for the industries of the Warren-Youngstown area is one of Ohio's biggest. Surface water for industry: Because industrial water needs are usually great, ground water cannot always be obtained in sufficient quantities. Surface supplies are then depended upon, as in the Warren-Youngstown area. But surface-water developments are usually expensive and the individual industry often cannot see its way clear to make the necessary expenditure. However, it is thought likely that an association of industries in any vicinity can find ways of working out the problem, as has the Mahoning Valley Industrial Council at |