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The CHAIRMAN. What is the situation with respect to the reservoirs that Mr. Case brought to our attention?

General PICK. We do not have authorized projects for those two particular reservoirs. We are making a survey on the Moreau River

now.

The CHAIRMAN. Under a resolution?

General PICK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What about the other reservoir?

General PICK. That, I believe, is included in the comprehensive plan as a reservoir to be built by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Mr. CASE. As a matter of fact, the Moreau is too.

General PICK. Our report on the Moreau River will be completed and submitted to the Chief of Engineers the 1st of May 1947.

The CHAIRMAN. Any further general statement now with respect to the Missouri River Basin?

General PICK. Nothing except to say by way of summarizing that with our present authorization we have underway the Kanopolis and Garrison Reservoirs and local protection works at Omaha and Council Bluffs. In view of the appropriations now contained in the civil-functions appropriation bill for 1947 we plan to start the Harlan County and Fort Randall Reservoirs at an early date. Although some of these projects will require several years to build the completion of the projects now underway and those contemplated with funds in the 1947 appropriation bill will exceed our present authorization ceiling by slightly less than $100,000,000. If that ceiling is raised by, say, $300,000,000, we will be able to complete all of the works to be started as mentioned above and to initiate additional important agricultural levees along the main stem of the Missouri River, and the Oahe Reservoir, and one or two other reservoirs as the details of those projects are developed. Mr. Chairman, I would also like to insert at this point a statement on recent floods.

DATA ON FLOODS, MISSOURI RIVER BASIN, DURING 1945 and to Date DURING 1946

1945 FLOODS

Main stem

The high water season was unusually prolonged on the lower end of the main stem in 1945, beginning with local ice jam floods in the Sioux City, IowaSt. Joseph, Mo., reach in mid-February and continuing with minor exceptions until late July. Fortunately flooding was not so severe as in 1943 and 1944, the peak stages below Kansas City being 2 to 6 feet less than the maximums for those years.

During February and again in March ice jams between Mondamin, Iowa, and Hamburg, Iowa, caused considerable local overflow of farm lands and damages to roads, railroads, and navigation works. The area flooded amounted to 31,000 acres and damages totalled about $1,335,000. No lives were lost. There was no serious flooding on the main stem above Kansas City after March.

The prolonged high water below Kansas City, March through July, was principally due to a series of general rains over the lower basin. As the river was continuously at a high stage and exceeded flood stage several times, Kansas City to the mouth, the flood periods are not described separately. On the main stem at and below Kansas City in 1945 about 630,000 acres were flooded and damages totalled approximately $11,150,000. Two lives were lost.

Tributaries

There were a large number of tributary floods throughout the basin in 1945 due variously to snow melt, ice jams, and rainfall. The most severe flooding occurred on streams tributary to the Sioux City, Iowa-St. Joseph, Mo., reach and

on the Gasconade River, as peak values nearly equal to or exceeding the previous maximums of record occurred. Tributary floods in 1945 inundated 1,770,000 acres and resulted in damages of about $34,000,000. Six lives were lost in tributary floods in 1945.

Main stem

1946 FLOODS

No serious flooding has occurred on the main stem to the first of April and the ice on the river is completely gone. The snow in the headwaters was the second highest of record, 1934 to date, on March 1, but the plains area was generally dry except for sections in Wyoming and the eastern part of the Dakotas where late heavy snowfalls occurred. The area below Sioux City is moderately wet from early spring snows and rains and will produce large quantities of run-off if general rains occur in the near future.

Tributaries

Flooding has occurred on several tributaries to the first of April in 1946. The Grand, Chariton, Osage, and Platte (of Missouri) Rivers have, due to snow melt and heavy rains, flooded a total of about 490,000 acres with resultant damages of approximately $750,000. No lives were lost on these streams. Incomplete reports indicate that the upper reaches of the Big Sioux River recently reached the highest levels in 25 years due to melting of exceptionally heavy headwaters snow cover. One life is believed to have been lost at Sioux Falls, S. Dak., in this flood.

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Principal tributaries flooded-1943: Osage, Kansas, Grand (Mo.), James, Chariton. 1944: Grand (Mo.), Osage, Kansas, Chariton, Grand (S. Dak.), Elkhorn. 1945: Osage, Grand (Mo.), Kansas, Gasconade, Big Blue, Little Sioux. 1946: Grand (Mo.), Chariton, Osage, Platte (Mo.), Big Sioux.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much for your very helpful statement, General Pick.

Mr. Schwabe, are there any questions you would like to ask respecting the matters under consideration?

Mr. SCHWABE. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Robertson, any further questions you would like to ask General Pick?

Mr. ROBERTSON. I am not just quite clear in my memory, General Pick. In the request for extended authorizations are you making requests for additional funds for that Garrison Reservoir, too, or are there adequate funds to carry on with that?

General PICK. What I am referring to here are authorizations. We have to get the authorizations before we can go before Congress for appropriation of funds.

Mr. ROBERTSON. You are asking for a total sum for the entire system of $300,000,000?

General PICK. You see, the 1944 Flood Control Act authorized $200,000,000 to start work on the authorized program. We have selected projects that have taken that up. We are asking for additional authorizations now.

Mr. ROBERTSON. You said with $200,000,000 additional you could do certain things but with $300,000,000 you could add other units; is that correct?

General PICK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Any further questions, Mr. Robertson?

Mr. ROBERTSON. No.

The CHAIRMAN. Any questions by Mr. Allen?

Mr. ALLEN. No questions.

The CHAIRMAN. Any questions by Mr. Elliott?

Mr. ELLIOTT. Are there any irrigation benefits resulting from your dams or reservoirs?

General PICK. Yes, sir. There will be water provided in the Garrison Reservoir for irrigation. There will be water provided in the Harlan County Reservoir for irrigation. Plans are complete to provide storage of water in the Cherry Creek Reservoir for irrigation. We have a plan that we are working out with the Bureau of Reclamation now about how we might store irrigation water in the Kanopolis Reservoir.

Mr. ELLIOTT. All of those are subject to rules and regulations prescribed in the 1944 Flood Control Act?

General PICK. Yes, sir.

Mr. ELLIOTT. With regard to the levees that you mentioned, are those for agricultural purposes?

General PICK. Yes, sir; those are the levees on the main stream, and they will protect large agricultural areas as well as numerous

towns.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Then, the benefits from those levees would also apply to the 1944 Flood Control Act, the irrigation benefits?

General PICK. I do not exactly understand your question.

Mr. ELLIOTT. You are spending that money, as I understand it, for levee construction for benefit of agriculture?

General PICK. Yes, sir, the levees protect agricultural land.

Mr. ELLIOTT. That would be subject to the provisions of the 1944 Flood Control Act, for irrigation purposes?

General PICK. I do not quite understand your question.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that an arid region?

General PICK. I was going to say there was no irrigation in connection with the levee system.

Mr. ELLIOTT. These are river levees?

General PICK. Yes, sir. You see, there is no irrigation below Sioux City on the main stream, because the rainfall down there is sufficient

to grow crops.

The CHAIRMAN. Any further questions, Mr. Elliott?

Mr. ELLIOTT. No further questions.

The CHAIRMAN. Any questions by Mr. Morgan?

Mr. MORGAN. The additional funds you will ask for, will that include the Hickory Dam?

General PICK. No, sir. The Hickory Dam is not authorized at present. The Hickory Dam is included in the report which has just been completed, and it is in the hands of the local authorities, in

cluding the governor, for consideration. That project is not before the committee and it has not been authorized.

The CHAIRMAN. I can understand why you asked the question.

Any further questions?

Mr. MORGAN. No further questions.

The CHAIRMAN. Any questions by Mr. Davis?

Mr. DAVIS. No questions.

Mr. SCHWABE. General Pick, in outlining your plans for next year and considering these authorizations, and considering the possible effects of inflation, such as increased labor costs, construction cost, did you take into account that phase of it? Are you worried about that very much?

General PICK. No, sir. It is very interesting, I think, to note that most of our flood-control projects do not require a lot of manufactured materials. They are mostly earth materials which can be found readily. We do not require a lot of fabricated materials.

Mr. SCHWABE. For instance, in the construction of the Osceola Reservoir, it would probably not cost any more next year than you counted on a year or so ago?

General PICK. We hope not.

The CHAIRMAN. Any further questions?

Mr. ALLEN. General, nothing was said about these dams, multiplepurpose dams. Do you figure on any power?

General PICK. Yes, sir.

Mr. ALLEN. You propose to make them all multiple-purpose dams? General PICK. We will have power in the dams on the main stream. Mr. ALLEN. In other words, they are primarily for flood-control purposes?

General PICK. Flood control, irrigation, and navigation.
Mr. ALLEN. That is all.

The CHAIRMAN. We are delighted to have had your statement, General Pick. You have covered the situation fully. I may say, evidently, you have in mind that if you do not ask for it you will probably not receive it. We are glad to have your request for additional authorizations.

General Crawford, is there any other matter you would like to bring to the committee's attention?

General CRAWFORD. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Colonel Herb?
Colonel HERB. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. At this time we will be glad to have Mr. Warne of the Bureau of Reclamation. Mr. Warne, before you begin, I want to ask General Pick this question, with your permission.

General Pick, in the Missouri Basin is there anything in the work that is being done by the Corps of Engineers that presents or interferes with the soil-conservation work being done by them or is there coordination between the Corps of Engineers and the Department of Agriculture respecting the soil-conservation work?

General PICK. None of our work will in any way interfere with the soil-conservation program. We are working very closely with

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the Department of Agriculture representatives in the area in their program of soil conservation. We have worked out one project which will come before your committee at a later date that is going to be a combination project. The Army engineers will do part of it and the Soil Conservation people will do the other part of it as a combination flood-control and watershed treatment project.

The CHAIRMAN. What you say with respect to soil erosion and soil conservation and erosion retardation applies to any reforesting that may be done by the Forest Department?

General PICK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. So the people in the Missouri Valley, under the soil-conservation and the foresty programs of the Government, and under appropriations that are being made, are getting relief comparable to that extended to other sections of the country?

General PICK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And the matter of construction and operation under the Forest Service and Soil Conservation is coordinated with your work?

General PICK. Yes, sir; including all the agencies of the Government operating in there, Fish and Wildlife; REA; National Park Service, and all of them. We are coordinating all of our work with all other governmental agencies in the field and with the State and local bodies.

The CHAIRMAN. So there is not only coordination but there is correlation and cooperation and any other word that begins with "co" between you and the other agencies?

General PICK. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. My point is that there is no occasion for an authority over all the valley in order to provide the people in that valley the benfits they are entitled to.

STATEMENT OF HARRY TRUSTIN, CITY COMMISSIONER,

OMAHA, NEBR.

Mr. TRUSTIN. Mr. Chairman and members of the Flood Control Committee, my statement today will be brief, because my views and those of the city of Omaha have been brought before the appropriate committees of Congress, again and again, as the comprehensive program for the Missouri River Basin has progressed in legislation toward the goal for which we, in the valley, have hoped and petitioned for many years.

As a city commissioner, I speak for Omaha in stating that our interests are not purely local. Through many intercity and interstate meetings held over the past 3 years we have become familiar with the needs of our neighbors in the valley-and we have come to know the water problems of all 10 States of the basin.

The comprehensive program developed by the Army engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation-cooperating with all other agencies interested in land and water improvement-has been subjected to our closest scrutiny and examination. It has our fullest, most enthusiastic support, and may I express our appreciation to the Congress for approval of the program, and for the impetus given it through the

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