We are opposed to spending Federal funds in Chattanooga, Tenn., for the purpose of flooding Rossville, Ga. The problem must be considered as a whole and flood protection plans made accordingly.

We request that this, our protest, be brought to Mr. Whittington's attention when the Flood Control Committee reconvenes.

We thank you very much for your interest in our behalf in this matter and return herewith for your files, Mr. Whittington's letter of April 19.

If there is any further or additional information that we might supply in connection with our position on this problem, please do no hesitate to call upon us. Very truly yours,

HERMAN O. BOWMAN, Mayor.

Mr. TARVER. I will quote briefly excerpts from Mr. Bowman's letter:

The authorities of the city of Rossville feel that any plans (for flood-protection construction) related to flood control in Chattanooga, Tenn., which are financed in whole, or part, by Federal funds, should incorporate therein and provide protection for Rossville, Ga., because:

1. The cities are contiguous to each other.

2. The ground configuration is such that any obstruction of natural drainage in Chattanooga, Tenn., will necessarily redound to the detriment and damage of Rossville, Ga., unless coordinated planning takes into consideration and makes provision for the changed configuration as a result of levee or canal construction. 3. The construction of levees as now proposed by the flood-protection district of Chattanooga, Tenn., will result in irreparable injury and damage to Rossville, Ga.

The entire letter will be in the record, and I hope it will receive the attention of the committee.

I wish to call attention to this statement in the letter of the Acting Chief of Engineers to me, dated April 4, 1945:

The district engineer at Nashville, Tenn., discussed the plan of protection proposed for Rossville with Mr. Bowman on March 27, 1946, and confirmed his statements to the mayor in a letter dated March 28, 1946. A copy of the district engineer's letter to Mayor Bowman was sent to you in connection with your letter of March 23, 1946. You will note that the district engineer's letter to the mayor states that the present plan will give the Rossville area aqual protection with the Chattanooga area and will not require the installation of levees in the vicinity of Rossville. The district engineer's report to this office states that upon clarification of the matter, Mr. Bowman expressed himself as being very well satisfied with the proposed plan.

That is the plan that the engineers have devised, not the plan advocated by Mr. Fuller.

I may assure you that the flood-protection works for the Rossville area will be undertaken in close cooperation with the Rossville authorities, and that plans for those works are substantially in accordance with and provide for all the protection contemplated in the report on which authorization of the project by Congress is based.

I quote that portion of General Crawford's letter because it shows that no legislative change in the plan as authorized by Congress is necessary in order to afford appropriate and adequate protection, both for the city of Chattanooga and for the city of Rossville, and that the only purpose of Mr. Fuller in attempting to have the committee amend the legislative authority for this project is to satisfy his own spirit of vindictiveness occasioned by the denial of his own personal plans for changes in the method of affording flood protection to these two urban areas. I don't imagine that any representative of the Corps of Engineers has testified before your committee in favor of the amendment submitted by Congressman Kefauver. I judge from the correspondence I have had with the Corps of Engineers that

any amendment to the statute already in existence is unnecessary. If any representative of the Corps of Engineers has testified that any amendment is necessary in order to afford complete flood protection, both to the urban areas of Chattanooga and of Rossville, Ga., I would like to be advised of that fact, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. I think the record is to this effect: Thus far the testimony both by the proponents of this amendment and the opponents would indicate that they don't want to have the levee tied to a certain place before the Georgia line is reached, and the Corps of Engineers merely responded to questions by assuring them what would happen if the amendments were adopted, and in this connection-if that is not a fair statement, General Wheeler, I would be glad for you to correct the Chairman.

General WHEELER. Yes; that is correct, Mr. Chairman. The views of our Department are as contained in the letter that Congressman Tarver has placed in the record. We believe that the plan as authorized by Congress, and for which we submitted a definite project coordinating the protection of the area which includes those two cities, is the proper plan.

Mr. TARVER. Do you think that any amendment to the statutory authority is necessary?

General WHEELER. No, sir; not to carry out that definite project for the protection of those two areas.

Mr. TARVER. That is all, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. In this connection, Mr. Beard, so the committee may see just what the proposal is, will you turn to the map of Chattanoga and Rossville and indicate the proposed levee line under the adopted project, and the proposal to amend the adopted project?

Mr. BEARD. The proposal pertains to Chattanooga Creek, which is a tributary entering the Tennessee River at this point [indicating] right at the foot of Lookout Mountain, which is on the extreme western edge of Chattanooga itself. The project plan is to straighten Chattanooga Creek upstream to just about the Tennessee-Georgia line, with levees on both sides of the channel to confine the backwater from floods in the Tennessee River.

The project plan as now devised by our district engineer is to tie the easterly one of these Chattanooga Creek levees into high ground in Georgia, about 900 feet south of the State line, as indicated here. Rossville lies east of that tie-in point and will be fully protected. The alternate proposal contemplated under Congressman Kefauver's amendment would require a tie-back a great deal farther east, entirely within the State of Tennessee to this point, which would exclude Rossville from the protected area.

The CHAIRMAN. Would it require more or less right-of-way?

Mr. BEARD. Our information is it would require a greater expenditure for rights-of-way, because of getting into a somewhat more highly developed area.

The CHAIRMAN. Would those rights-of-way be furnished by the local interests?

Mr. BEARD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And would that plan protect the city of Rossville? Mr. BEARD. The plan proposed under Congressman Kefauver's plan would not protect Rossville.

The CHAIRMAN. What would be necessary, if the alternate plan is adopted, to provide protection for Rossville?

Mr. BEARD. At some time there would have to be another spur levee constructed tying into this alternate plan levee here and connecting across to high ground, subsequently as in our present proposal.

The CHAIRMAN. And if the amendment proposed by the proponents of the modification is adopted, would that result or not, without further legislation, in the protection of Rossville?

Mr. BEARD. Rossville could still get protection under the authorization when local cooperation is furnished, but it might cost the Government additional.

The CHAIRMAN. What local agencies have thus far agreed to comply with the requirements of the adopted project, who represent the local people, and have they agreed to furnish rights-of-way to maintain the project?

Mr. BEARD. The Chattanooga Flood Control District, of which Mr. Fuller is the director-I am not sure whether or not he is chairman at the moment-has given us rights-of-way for a great deal of our survey work in Chattanooga, and it is the organization legally established to provide rights-of-way for the Chattanooga project in

Tennessee.

The CHAIRMAN. What rights-of-way would be required in Georgia? Mr. BEARD. A very small piece of land about 1,000 feet long, where the levee will tie across into high ground in Georgia.

The CHAIRMAN. Judge Tarver, are the local interests of Georgia prepared to furnish that right-of-way?

Mr. TARVER. The local interests in Georgia, Mr. Chairman, I am sure will cooperate with the interests in Chattanooga in any effort made to reach a basis of understanding in an honest, fair, and sincere spirit of cooperation. The trouble has been that with Mr. Fuller directing the activities of the Chattanooga organization, no such effort has been made. As stated in Mayor Bowman's letter, he has been arrogant, dictatorial, uncooperative, and has advocated a plan to penalize Georgia rather than to cooperate with the authorities in Georgia with regard to this project. So we think all that is necessary in order to bring about the orderly consummation of the project is that it remain as provided by Congress in existing law, and that the proper officials of the Chattanooga Flood Control District make an honest effort to reach an agreement with the authorities in Georgia for the solution of their joint problems, which cannot be solved severally. The interests of Rossville cannot be properly divorced from the interests of Chattanooga.

The CHAIRMAN. I think the argument has been made that the Chat⚫tanooga district would have no authority to acquire levees in Georgia, and that Georgia would have no authority to acquire levees in Tennessee.

Mr. TARVER. That, of course, would be true, Mr. Chairman, but my information is that the Chattanooga district has not yet secured the approval of the people of that district, as it is required to do, to acquire the property rights that it would have to acquire, and there is considerable doubt among the people with whom I have talked in Chattanooga whether the people of the city will approve. So I do

not think that the citizens of Rossville or Walker County can be charged with failing to reach an agreement on getting the necessary rights-of-way. They have at all times exhibited a spirit of coopera

tion.

The CHAIRMAN. I was just thinking of the legal power to condemn. Mr. TARVER. Of course, they have no authority to condemn property in the other State.

The CHAIRMAN. Has an appropriation been made for this project, Judge Tarver?

Mr. TARVER. No. There was a Budget estimate submitted for further planning in connection with the project, but it was denied by the House Appropriations Committee upon my suggestion, because of the pendency at that time of the so-called Walker County (Ga.) Reservoir plan, to which my people are very bitterly opposed. After the Crops of Engineers decided not to proceed further with the consideration of that plan, I advised members of the Senate Committee on Appropriations that I had no objection to approval of the Budget estimate if they desired to approve it, and I believe that since the committee not only approved it but increased it to $500,000 instead of $200,000, as the Budget recommended, but after that it was eliminated in conference and the appropriation has not been made.

The CHAIRMAN. I think it is fair to state that, with or without an appropriation, the Chief of Engineers has no authority under the adopted project to proceed with construction until local interests have given their assurances that the rights-of-way will be provided and that they will maintain the project after completion.

General WHEELER. That is correct; yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. So that the matter of cooperation would have to be determined before you could proceed with construction, even if an appropriation were made?

General WHEELER. That is correct, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any questions by the committee?

Mr. ALLEN. I want to ask you, Judge Tarver, about the population of Rossville. How many people are there in the city?

Mr. TARVER. Of course, Rossville is growing very rapidly, and I would have to estimate the population. It is probably five or six thousand.

Mr. ALLEN. A rather large community, then?

Mr. TARVER. Oh, yes, indeed; and one of the best cities in my district, which is one of the finest districts in the United States. [Laughter.]

Mr. ALLEN. Of course, that is true of all the districts that we represent.

Mr. TARVER. That is all I have to present, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there other members of the committee who have some questions?

Mr. ROBINSON. I wonder if Mr. Fuller has been heard, Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; Mr. Fuller has been heard by the committee. The record will show that the Chattanooga project should have been considered when the Ohio Basin and its tributaries were considered. Judge Tarver stated that he would like to appear then. The record also shows that. Mr. Fuller subsequently appeared when Senators

and Representatives were to be heard, and he was heard, and Judge Tarver stated that, if anybody was heard on the project, he would be glad to be heard. For that reason the committee granted him the privilege of appearing today.

General Wheeler, is there any further matter that you desire to submit in connection with this case?

General WHEELER. No, sir; thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any further questions? Thank you very much, Judge Tarver. That completes these hearings now, and in accordance with the committee, this record will be inserted in connection with the statements of Mr. Kefauver and Mr. Fuller.

(Whereupon, at 10:20 a. m., the committee proceeded to consideration of other business.)

(April 10, 1946—Continued)

Now, Colonel, before we close the session of the committee this afternoon, is there any further statement you or your associate desire to submit with respect to the Ohio Valley and the project particularly considered today?

Colonel DUNN. I think this additional authorization that is all we need.

Mr. WILSON. Before the engineers leave, are you contemplating a request for the dams of the Whitewater River in this next program? Colonel DUNN. No, sir.

Mr. WILSON. Not for the next year, 1947?

Colonel DUNN. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Any other questions? [No response.] Mr. Wilson, this morning and again this afternoon we went into that pretty fully.

Mr. McCowEN. I should call the committee's attention to those six or seven estimated river flood-protection projects in my district that were in that 1941 session.

The CHAIRMAN. I would be glad for you to make them at this point while your representatives are here, and I would like for you to insert them in the record at this time.

Mr. WILSON. They are not asking that the Shoals Dam be authorized?

The CHAIRMAN. No. I think that is pretty clear.

Mr. McCOWEN. Manchester, Ohio; New Richmond, Ohio; Ripley, Ohio; Moscow, Ohio; Aberdeen, Ohio; and Chilo, Ohio. I believe that is all of them. Oh, yes, Higginsport, Ohio. Did I get all of

them?

Colonel WEST. I believe you did, sir.

Mr. McCOWEN. It is not necessary for me to give the estimates here, is it, Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. No; not at all.

Mr. McCOWEN. I would like to make this one other statement.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well.

Mr. McCowEN. Colonel Strong, district engineer at Cincinnati, and I have had meetings in four of those towns with the mayor and village councils. They have been public meetings attended by many citizens. We have already had them at New Richmond, Higginsport, Ripley, and Manchester. We contemplate having similar meetings in those other three towns I mentioned a minute ago.