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FLOOD CONTROL BILL OF 1946

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1946

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL,
Washington, D. C.

LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN

The committee met at 9:30 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, Hon. Will M. Whittington (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order.

We have under consideration today the lower Mississippi River Basin, including the Red River, and including additional authorization for the approved comprehensive plan for the White and Arkansas River Basin, which includes Red River below Denison Dam, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana-construction of levees and six additional flood-control reservoirs; Bayou Pierre-local protection in the vicinity of Shreveport, La.; La Fourche Bayou, La.-local protection along La Fourche Bayou; Pontchartrain Lake, La.;-local protection for Jefferson Parish, North Canadian River, Okla., local protection for Oklahoma City; Mississippi River, west Tennessee tributaries-local protection by diversion and levee construction; Boeuf and Tensas Rivers and Bayou Macon, Arkansas and Louisiana-local protection along those streams in Arkansas; and Big Sunflower, Little Sunflower, Hushpuckena, and Quiver Rivers and their tributaries, and on Hull Brake-Mill Creek Canal, Bogue Phalia, Ditchlow Bayou, Deer Creek, Steele Bayou, Mississippi-local headwater protection. We have had with us heretofore, and have now, the Chief of Engineers and the Assistant Chief of Engineers. Members will keep in mind that the Mississippi River Commission was in charge of the primary river and harbor improvements along the Mississippi River until 1928, when the Commission was placed under the supervision of the Chief of Engineers. Improvements for flood control primarily were related to navigation but in 1917 were authorized independently of navigation and were retained in the Mississippi River Commission. We have with us this morning the President of the Commission, Maj. Gen. R. W. Crawford, the district engineer at Vicksburg, Lt. Col. R. W. Sauer, and the chief engineer of the Mississippi River Commission, Mr. Charles Senour.

We are delighted to have with us the senior member of the Mississippi River Commission, Col. Ernest Graves.

General Crawford, will you give your full name for the reporter?

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. R. W. CRAWFORD, PRESIDENT, MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMISSION

General CRAWFORD. I am Maj. Gen. R. W. Crawford.

The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been President of the Commission?

General CRAWFORD. Since January 1, 1946.

The CHAIRMAN. Prior to the assumption of the presidency of the Commission, what were your assignments, giving us the date of your graduation from the Academy and the work you did following your leaving the Academy?

General CRAWFORD. I graduated in 1914 and was assigned to duty at the Washington Barracks, at that time at Washington, D. C., with the school and with the battalion stationed here. When the war broke out I went with the First Division.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the First World War?

General CRAWFORD. The First World War in 1917.

I served during the war with the engineers in the First Division and with the Thirtieth Engineers of the Chemical Warfare Service.

On termination of that war I came back to duty in the Office of the Chief of Engineers and served in the Construction Division, and later as assistant to district engineer in New York, and district engineers at Duluth, Hawaii, New Orleans, and Washington, D. C., for a total of 15 years, and then came back to duty with the Office of the Chief of Engineers.

Before this war broke out I was with the General Staff and worked in the War Plans Division. Shortly after the war broke out I joined the armed forces, and in January of 1942 I went to Egypt to relive the general who was the commanding general of the Services of Supply in the Middle East. When the war moved out from that area, I went to London and joined a preliminary staff of the Supreme Allied Command and stayed with the Supreme Headquarters of General Eisenhower until the end of the war, in charge of what we call G-4, which is administration, supply, and transportation.

The CHAIRMAN. In addition to being the president of the Mississippi River Commission, you are the division engineer?

General CRAWFORD. For the lower Mississippi Valley.

The CHAIRMAN. As division engineer, how many district engineers are under your supervision?

General CRAWFORD. I have three district engineers under my supervision, one at Memphis, one at Vicksburg, and one at New Orleans.

The CHAIRMAN. The Commission of which you are the president is charged with the prosecution of the project for flood control in the lower Mississippi Valley?

General CRAWFORD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Generally, these different streams, both from the east and west and north, all converge upon the lower Mississippi. That includes the principal eastern tributary, the Ohio, and its tributaries, in turn, such as the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and other lesser streams, and on the west it includes the Missouri River, and then as we come south. the White River and the Arkansas River, and then the Red. These streams drain about 41 percent of the United States from the vicinity of Yellowstown Lake on the west to the slopes of the Appa

lachian Mountains on the east. And the lower Mississippi River has to take care of all the water after it gets there. Is that right? General CRAWFORD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to have your statement covering the situation with respect to the lower Mississippi River. You may proceed.

STATUS OF PROJECT, FLOOD CONTROL, MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES General CRAWFORD. The project for flood control, Mississippi River and tributaries, begins at the Little River diversion just above the Commerce Hills on the west bank of the river a few miles south of Cape Girardeau, Mo. The actual top of the levee along Little River diversion which protects the head of the St. Francis Basin, is above the 1941 grade except for a very short stretch. The 1941 net grades, however, are about 1 foot above the 1928 net grade on about 15 miles of this levee. As more urgent work and funds permit, its crown will be widened to the new 25-foot width, and an impervious facing added to its riverside slope.

Beginning at the lower end of the Commerce Hills, the levee protecting the upper St. Francis Levee District follows the right bank of the river to Birds Point, Mo., opposite Cairo, where the Birds Point-New Madrid floodway begins. The levee above Birds Point. has been brought to full project dimensions. Between Birds Point and New Madrid the river-bank levee remains according to plan at 1914 grade. Existing law provides that about 10 miles at the upper end be degraded about 3 feet to correspond to 55 feet on the Cairo gage so as to admit flow automatically into the floodway at that stage. The degrading has not yet been undertaken. The floodway has been used once, namely, in 1937, at which time the water entered by way of natural, and later, by way of artificial crevasses. The planned capacity of the floodway was approximately 450,000 cubic feet per second for the project flood. In 1937 it carried from 210,000 to 670,000 cubic feet per second at various points along its course, flow entering at a number of crevasses downstream from the fuse plug.

The floodway which averages about 5 miles in width, is bounded on the west by the Birds Point-New Madrid set-back levee 34.5 miles in length, which has been brought to full project grade and cross section throughout.

The west-bank levee system is interupted at New Madrid by St. Johns Bayou. It resumes on the high ground of Sikeston Ridge and is continuous thence throughout the remainder of the St. Francis Basin, a distance of 227.8 miles to the mouth of the St. Francis River near Helena, Ark.

The lower 26 miles of this levee line, in the St. Francis backwater, do not require enlargement to the 1941 grade. Of the remaining 202 miles, 7612 miles have already been enlarged, 14 miles are under contract for enlargement, and 44 miles are scheduled for enlargement this coming season, comprising 11.8 miles from New Madrid to Point Pleasant, Mo.; work near Caruthersville, 4 miles; near Cottonwood Point, 4 miles and 24 miles extending about equal distances above and below West Memphis. Above the St. Francis backwater 13 miles of levee require no raise in levee grade. This leaves about 541⁄2 miles to

be enlarged following the next fiscal year. The work will be required between Sikeston Ridge and New Madrid: Point Pleasant and Missouri-Arkansas State line and from below Memphis to a point about opposite Hughes, Ark.-at an estimated cost of about $3,000,000.

After its interruption by the St. Francis River and Crowleys Ridge, the west-bank levee resumes on high ground above Helena, Ark., extends thence along the water front at Helena, and continues uninterruptedly to the mouth of White River where it loops to form the Laconia Circle. This stretch of levee is 74 miles in length. The 1928 and 1941 net grades on the upper 54 miles are identical, but about 52 miles of this stretch, in the former backwater area, have not been enlarged to the present approved cross section. The status of the remaining 20 miles is as follows: Two miles have been completed to the 1941 grade, about 41⁄2 miles are scheduled for construction under the fiscal year 1947 program, the remaining 131⁄2 miles will have to be enlarged with future appropriations at an estimated cost of about $800,000.

The White River backwater levee connects with the Laconia Circle levee and extends upstream along White River, looping back to join the main Mississippi River levee just south of Oldtown Lake. No further work is required upon the White River backwater levee beyond some possible future moderate grade adjustments not yet in the planning stage, and its connection with the Mississippi River levee by extension along Oldtown Lake, where drainage adjustments remain to be made by local interests (but where the ground is so high that scarcely any levee is needed). The cost of completing the White River backwater levee is estimated at about $500,000.

On the east or left bank of the river the project starts at Cairo, Ill., which, with the adjacent Cairo Drainage District, occupies a peninsula between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers which is converted into an island by Cache River which empties into the Ohio a short distance northeast and almost reaches the Mississippi a short distance northwest of the city. The city and drainage district are surrounded by a ring levee system. The Cache River is to be divorced from the Ohio by an extension of the Ohio River levee northward to Mound City, and is to be diverted into the Mississippi. The present Mississippi River levee at Cairo will be extended up the diversion channel to high ground near Mounds, Ill. Thus Cairo will be tied into ground above overflow by both the Ohio River levee and the Mississippi River levee; and the present levee along Cache River will become obsolete. The Cache diversion, which has been assigned to the Ohio River division, involves bridge construction and so could not be undertaken during the war. The Mississippi River front levee up to the Cache River levee has been brought to grade. The Ohio River front protection has not been completed except for 1.4 miles of set-back levee near the mouth of Cache River.

Right-of-way difficulties have interfered with the enlargement of about 1.3 miles of levee and of the 2.5 miles of flood wall which now protects the Ohio River front. Of the latter, about .85 mile has been offered to contractors, and another .85 mile will be offered soon for construction with fiscal year 1946 funds. For the remainder of the front now protected by flood wall the city plans to provide right-of-way for a levee in lieu of the present wall. The deficiency act of last December provided $1,000,000 for completing the flood wall. An addi

tional sum of about $1,000,000 will be needed to construct the levee which will replace the existing wall below Fourteenth Street.

The east bank of the river is unleveed between Cairo and Hickman, Ky., which is the head of the Reelfoot levee district. The Reelfoot levee extends from the Hickman Bluff a distance of 22.7 miles downstream to Slough Landing Neck where it ties into high land. A dike extends out along the Neck and is being raised for a length of 3 miles in order to prevent a cut-off. The city of Hickman is protected by a levee and flood wall which is to be raised about 6 feet at a cost of $600,000. The Reelfoot district levee is all up to grade except for 3.5 3.5 miles opposite chute of island 8 now under construction to project grade and section.

The east-bank levee resumes again physically at the end of the ridge along Reelfoot Lake, near Tiptonville, Tenn., and extends downstream at a grade 3 feet below the St. Francis Basin levee opposite, a distance of about 15.7 miles. This levee was recommended by the Mississippi River Commission in House Document No. 188, Seventysecond Congress, first session. Its construction was finally authorized as a flood-control, general, undertaking by the act of June 22, 1936, so it is not technically a part of the adopted project "Flood control, Mississippi River and tributaries."

The protection of the east-bank basins against small high waters is extended downstream to and beyond Booths Point by highway fills and small private levees, beyond which, above the city of Memphis the flood plain is too narrow and too much cut up by tributaries to lend itself to protection.

Protection of Memphis to a grade of 1.7 feet above the grade of the opposite levees protecting agricultural lands in Arkansas is being provided by a series of flood walls and levees along Nonconnah Creek and Wolf River supplemented by pumping plants, for evacuation of rainfall and sanitary sewage under a flood control, general, project authorized by the act of June 22, 1936, at a cost of $9,000,000. The levee and pumping plant along Nonconnah Creek have been completed, as have 2.1 miles of levee, and one pumping plant along Wolf River The recent deficiency bill provided $950,000 for the project, and $1,000,000 more is being asked for in the forthcoming appropriation bill. With these funds it is expected to build the remaining four pumping plants, and 0.54 mile of wall and 3.75 miles of levee along Wolf River. An additional $6,500,000 will be required to complete the remaining 0.65 mile of levee and 2.6 miles of wall along Wolf River. Beginning just south of Memphis and extending to Vicksburg, Miss., lies the Great Yazoo Basin, an area about equal in size to the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. It is protected against floods of the Mississippi River by a continuous levee line 271 miles long and 29 feet in average height, extending from the bluffs below Memphis to the bank of the Old Yazoo River just above Vicksburg. The western part of Vicksburg itself is subject to overflow, and is protected by a flood wall about 4,200 feet long supplemented by short levees. The wall and levees are to be raised about 6 feet under the project at an estimated cost of some $2,000,000. Two hundred and two miles of the Yazoo Basin levee are up to grade or under contract, leaving 69 miles still to be enlarged, of which it is planned to take care of about 30 miles this coming fiscal year. On about half of the remainder, the levee crown is already up to grade but the embankment

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