Keyhole Reservoir on the Belle Fourche River and the two reservoirs and appurtenant works on the Moreau River. The CHAIRMAN. We are very glad to have had your statements, Mr. Case and Mr. Carlson. You understand, of course, that if you desire to make further statements we have set aside Good Friday, April 19, for that purpose. Mr. Bennett, there is nothing that I know of to be proposed with respect to Osceola Reservoir. Was there any matter other than that you had in mind? STATEMENT OF HON. MARION T. BENNETT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI Mr. BENNETT. That is all that I was interested in. I would like to reserve the right to make a further statement. The CHAIRMAN. All right. Is there any other Member of Congress who would like to enter his appearance and develop any matter? We have with us this morning Gen. Lewis A. Pick, division engineer of the Missouri River division, for a return engagement. The committee will recall that General Pick is one of the authors of the comprehensive Missouri plan and he has appeared previously before the committee at length and gave us an account of the Missouri River flood of 1943. For the record, General, we are glad to have you here this morning. Tell us, generally, your services since you appeared before the committee previously when you were division engineer of the Missouri River division. STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. LEWIS A. PICK, DIVISION ENGINEER OF THE MISSOURI RIVER DIVISION, CORPS OF ARMY ENGINEERS General PICK. It is indeed a pleasure for me to again appear before the Flood Control Committee of the House of Representatives. I recall it was in the spring of 1943 that I was privileged to appear before your committee. I believe that the official action of the Flood Control Committee that day had a more far-reaching effect in floodcontrol matters in the United States than probably any other single action that has ever been taken by this committee, because it was at that session that your committee authorized the Corps of Engineers to restudy the Missouri River for flood control from Sioux City to Kansas City. Out of that resolution came our report on the Missouri River, the comprehensive report for the development of the Missouri River. That was followed by the report by the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Congress saw fit to combine those two reports to include the entire development of the Missouri Valley. The CHAIRMAN. After that what service did you have with the Government? General PICK. When I finished that report I was ordered to the India-China-Burma theater. I was sent to India and was assigned as base commander of the advance section in the India-Burma theater under Gen. Joseph Stilwell, and was charged, among other things, with the construction and operation of the Ledo Road. That road had not been built. To build it meant the cutting across of a mountain area in eastern India and across north Burma, all the way to the western boundary of China. This is a virgin territory-a virgin jungle. We actually built the road, 483 miles long, and connected up with the old Burma Road. I carried out my mission of operating that road well before the war was over with Japan. It was finished in 15 months. It was opened on the 4th of February 1945, and by July 1, 1945, we had delivered from India to China 28,000 vehicles to be used by the Chinese Army. We had reestablished land communications between China and our allies, and this road was a tremendous factor in the Chinese Army moving south and east prior to the cessation of hostilities with Japan. The CHAIRMAN. Then you were reassigned as division engineer? General PICK. Yes, sir. I returned to the United States and was reassigned to the Missouri River Basin as division engineer with headquarters at Omaha in December 1945. HEART RIVER, N. DAK. The CHAIRMAN. Before we have your general statement covering the Missouri River Basin we have one individual project for consideration today. It is the Heart River project for flood control at Mandan, N. Dak. I will ask you to give us a general description of the project with the recommendations of the Chief of Engineers. As I recall it, this project was authorized by Senate Commerce Committee resolution adopted June 22, 1937, requesting a review of House Document No. 238, Seventy-third Congress, second session, with a view to modifying recommendations for the Heart River, Bowman, and the Missouri River diversion projects, and by a Flood Control Committee resolution adopted on May 2, 1939, requesting a review of the same report with a view to determining whether flood control at Bismarck and Mandan, N. Dak. is advisable at this time. You may proceed and tell us generally what the problem is, and the estimated cost, and whether or not it is economically justified. General PICK. The Departments report on Heart River, N. Dak. is published as House Document No. 294, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session. Heart River is formed near Gladstone in southwest North Dakota by the junction of Green River with a fork of the main stream. It flows in a general easterly direction for approximately 180 miles and enters the Missouri River about 5 miles below Bismarck, N. Dak. Mandan is located on the north bank of Heart River 5 miles above its mouth. Heart River drains 3,362 square miles above Mandan consisting principally of semiarid upland plains. The vallew of the river has an average width of about one-half miles with the bottom lands separated into units of only a few hundred acres each, except for considerably larger areas in the Big Bend district about 60 miles above the stream mouth, and also along the river below Mandan. The basin is approximately 120 miles long and its greatest width is about 45 miles. The total population of that valley is 33,560, which includes 6,685 for Mandan and 5,840 for Dickinson. Those are the two principal cities in the basin. The principal industry there is agriculture and livestock raising. Mandan is subject to flooding from both the Heart and the Missouri Rivers. Existing projects: Levees were built in Mandan many years ago around the railroad shops and a mill there. The CHAIRMAN. Built by the local authorities? General PICK. Yes, sir. There are also other small levees built around there. In 1935 there was a Civilian Conservation Corps camp there, and a levee was put around that. This levee, and a levee around the State training school, located just in the southwest outskirts of Mandan, were built by local interests cooperating with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration spent $5,625 there, and the Works Progress Administration spent $166,099. The sponsor of those projects contributed $26,000. The State and local authorities have suggested the construction of the Heart-Butte Dam and Reservoir upstream about 90 miles from Mandan, and a levee project at Mandan for local flood protection. During the period from 1881 to 1944 there were 22 floods known to have occurred in the basin, of which 21 caused overflow at or below Mandan. Mandan and the area downstream therefrom are subject to floods caused by ice jams on the Missouri River proper and also ice jams on the Heart River, and by the spring thaw floods both on the Heart and Missouri Rivers. The highest discharge of record at Mandan is 21,400 cubic feet per second, which was on the 27th of March 1943. The most severe floods at Mandan were those of 1881, 1887, and 1943. The 1881 and 1887 floods were caused principally by ice jams on the Missouri River below Bismarck. The 1943 flood resulted from high discharge of the Heart River iself. Past flood damages which are definitely known amount to $1,047,500 for the period from 1881 to 1944. The average annual damage for the period 1881 to 1944 is $16,367. For the period 1921 to 1944 the average damage has been about $40,000 annually. The 1943 flood caused damages totaling $734,000. Mr. Chairman, I was there at Mandan the day after the water went down. The CHAIRMAN. What is the proposed solution? General PICK. The proposed solution is the building of local protection works at Mandan. The CHAIRMAN. That is the recommendation of the Chief of Engineers? General PICK. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. The division engineer and the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors recommended the construction of this dam you referred to. What is the status of that dam? General PICK. That dam known as the Heart Butte Dam is included in the comprehensive plan and is to be built by the Bureau of Reclamation. The CHAIRMAN. The dam which you recommended is to be constructed under the act of 1944? General PICK. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. By the Bureau of Reclamation? General PICK. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. What do the local protection works consist of that you recommend? General PICK. In addition to the reduction of the flood flows authorized by the Heart Butte multiple-purpose reservoir to be built by the Bureau of Reclamation, the plan of improvement provides for the construction of levees, railroad grade changes, highway and highway bridge alterations, and sewer and drainage modifications. The project will provide protection against a flood 20 percent greater than the 1943 flood. General PICK. The estimated Federal cost is $246,000, and the nonFederal cost is estimated at $87,000, or a total of $333,000. The CHAIRMAN. That is with the usual requirement for local participation? General PICK. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have had your statement. Mr. Robertson, a member of this committee, has been most diligent. Do you desire to ask the General any questions or make any statement? Mr. ROBERTSON. I will withold my statement until the Good Friday session. I am heartily in accord with the outline made by General Pick. I have a witness here today, Mr. Frederickson, representing the North Dakota Resources Board, that I would like to have granted permission to say a few words at this time. The CHAIRMAN. With your permission, General Pick, we will be glad to hear from the witness, Mr. Frederickson, at this time. The CHAIRMAN. Give us your name and official position, keeping in mind that we have gone into the economic and engineering features. STATEMENT OF FRED J. FREDRICKSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NORTH DAKOTA RESOURCES BOARD Mr. FREDRICKSON. My name is Fred J. Fredrickson, and my home is in Valley City, N. Dak. I am the executive director of the North Dakota Resources Board, and the Washington representative of the Greater North Dakota Association. Both of these organizations are supported by voluntary memberships, are State-wide in their activities, and their main purpose is to promote the development of the land, water, and mineral resources of the State. I appear in behalf of the additional authorizations under the comprehensive plan on the Missouri River and also in behalf of House Report No. 294, Seventy-ninth Congress, for local protection works for Mandan, N. Dak., as recommended therein. Our State water conservation commission, of which the Honorable Fred G. Aandahl, Governor of North Dakota, is the chairman, has twice approved this report, House Resolution 294, Seventy-ninth Congress, and the works therein proposed, the first time in October 1944 and again in June 1945. That agency is anxious to have the project authorized. Mandan, N. Dak., a city of some 6,000 population, is an important division point on the transcontinental line of the Northern Pacific Railroad. It is at Mandan that the West begins and where the railroad changes to the heavy locomotives on its westward journey over mountainous routes. Previous floods at that point have seriously disrupted the railroad transportation for several days at a time, resulting not only in great loss and injury to the railroad company, but jeopardizing the national security and defense, and caused heavy losses to the city, including loss of life. I hope your committee will recommend these additional authorizations. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. We are glad to have had your statement. Any other statement you desire to make with respect to that project, Mr. Robertson? Mr. ROBERTSON. No, sir. The CHAIRMAN. There has been submitted to the chairman of the committee a telegram from the State water conservation commission urging the prompt approval of this project. I will pass that telegram to the reporter and ask him to insert it in the record at this point in connection with the statement of Mr. Robertson. (The referred to telegram is as follows:) Representative WILLIAM M. WHITTINGTON, BISMARCK, N. DAK., April 9, 1946. Chairman, House Flood Control Committee, Washington, D. C.: The State water conservation commission requests the favorable consideration of your committee on flood control for the construction of levees and related work for the protection of Mandan and State training school as submitted and recommended by the chief of engineers, United States Army, as shown in House Document No. 294, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, and urges your committee to appropriate adequate funds to be made available to the United States Army engineers for construction of necessary works to protect Mandan from future destrucctive floods. No city in Missouri Valley had a greater per capita loss in 1943 flood than did Mandan. STATE WATER CONSERVATION COMMISSION. Mr. ROBERTSON. I have a telegram from the State water conservation commission also which I would like to offer for the record. The CHAIRMAN. You may pass that to the reporter and it will be included in connection with your statement. (The referred-to telegram is as follows:) Congressman CHARLES R. ROBERTSON, BISMARCK, N. DAK., April 10, 1946. Washington, D. C. We wired Representative Whittington, chairman of Flood Control Committee, today the following: "The State Water Conservation Commission requests the favorable consideration of your Committee on Flood Control for the construction of levees and related work for the protection of Mandan and State training school as submitted and recommended by the Chief of Engineers United States Army as shown in House Document No. 294, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, and urges your committee to appropriate adequate funds to be made available to the United States Army engineers for construction of necessary works to protect Mandan from future destructive floods. No city in Missouri Valley had a greater per capita loss in 1943 flood than did Mandan." Urge you to do everything possible to obtain favorable action. STATE WATER CONSERVATION COMMISSION. The CHAIRMAN. Are there any other advocates or opponents of this project? Are there any questions from Mr. Allen? Mr. ALLEN. No questions. The CHAIRMAN. Any questions by Mr. Elliott? Mr. ELLIOTT. No questions. The CHAIRMAN. Any questions by Mr. Davis? |