The CHAIRMAN. And the proposed project is in front of the city of Memphis? General CRAWFORD. In front of the city of Memphis. The CHAIRMAN. On the opposite side of the river, as indicated by your pointer there, the levee line extends from Bird's Point or from New Madrid all along the eastern border of Arkansas, and the levees are very high opposite Memphis. There is a highway bridge and railway bridge, and on the left bank or the east side of the river there is a bluff, and Memphis is largely constructed on the bluff of the lowlands along the river front. General CRAWFORD. That is correct. The CHAIRMAN. So that opposite Memphis there is a very high levee line extending all the way down to the mouth of the White River and Arkansas River? General CRAWFORD. That is correct. The CHAIRMAN. Of course, the backwater of the St. Francis goes to Helena. What is the problem there and what is your proposed solution? General CRAWFORD. The problem is to provide an adequate harbor for the city of Memphis. The city, at a public hearing, requested that a dam be built across the head of Tennessee chute, which is a left-bank channel. They wish a dam constructed across the head of the chute, so that the flow will not pass through the chute. They requested a harbor protection dike on Presidents Island extending from the dam southwesterly across Presidents Island; a fill on Presidents Island to provide for future industrial sites; a harbor channel in Tennessee chute along the Tennessee side below the mouth of Nonconnah Creek, which is a small creek that comes into the Tennessee chute from the left bank; and then, a harbor channel along Presidents Island; further, a levee along the east side of Tennessee chute below Nonconnah Creek to protect about 7,680 acres of future industrial sites; a pumping plant to dispose of drainage in the future industrial areas; and the straightening and widening of Nonconah Creek. Proponents state the improvements requested will provide adequate and safe harbor facilities as part of the present Memphis Harbor and submit what we consider ample justification. The CHAIRMAN. This proposed levee there, after you have closed the entrance, is essential for the protection of this 8,000 acres of land? General CRAWFORD. Yes; the levee on the left bank is essential for that. The fill on Presidents Island will be essential to prevent the floodwaters from passing through Tennessee chute. It will also be necessary to enlarge the main channel to provide additional capacity of the main river in lieu of that we are taking away by closing Tennessee chute. The CHAIRMAN. And the Nonconnah Creek is one of the streams that enter from the left bank or the Tennessee side of the river, and Wolf River being above that, and that is part of the development along that river? General CRAWFORD. There is authorized improvement on both the Wolf and Nonconnah, Nonconnah having a levee and Wolf having a levee and flood wall and being improved also for navigation. The CHAIRMAN. And while Memphis is ordinarily thought of as being located on the so-called Chickasaw Bluffs, as a matter of fact with these streams entering, you have a definite flood problem, and there is a flood project that has been completed for the protection of the south Memphis areas, particularly, and that project is in operation at the preesnt time? General CRAWFORD. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Under the recommendations with respect to this project, will the local interests be required to make the usual contributions for rights-of-way for this proposed levee and for whatever maintenance will be required? General CRAWFORD. Rights-of-way and maintenance and operation after completion. The CHAIRMAN. And the Government will bear the cost of any channelization work there? General CRAWFORD. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And the Government will also close by dam the entrance to chutes? General CRAWFORD. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Davis, is there anything further you would like to bring to the attention of the committee? STATEMENT OF HON. CLIFFORD DAVIS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Chairman, you have so well introduced the proposed Memphis Harbor project and the matter has been so adequately discussed by Major General Crawford, the president of the Mississippi River Commission, that I feel that it would be a transgression upon the time of the committee for the representatives of the city of Memphis and county of Shelby to make further extended statements. However, I do want the Chair to know that we are grateful to him for his kindness in considering this matter in connection with the 1946 flood control bill. We know you in the Mississippi Valley and recognize in you the foremost authority on the control of the waters in this country outside of the leading Army engineers. I appreciate your kind reference to the Honorable E. H. Crump who is so interested in this project and who while a Member of the Congress sat on this committee. We consider the development of the Memphis Harbor as most important in keeping with the national program to harness the main streams to protect against destructive floods and to provide a very substantial return in keeping with the large amounts of money necessarily appropriated for flood control alone. Mayor Walter Chandler who immediately preceded me as the Representative from the Tenth Congressional District of Tennessee and who is now the chief executive of the city of Memphis, a city with an approximate population of 325,000, is present. While he is prepared to make an oral statement, his statement has been reduced to writing in order to conserve time. There is also present Mr. Frank Pidgeon, representing the Memphis Chamber of Commerce, and who in business life is a highly respected industrialist. We have here, also, Mr. W. B. Fowler, the long-time city engineer of Memphis, and Mr. Jack Carley, the liaison representative of the Memphis interests as they are related to the Corps of Engineers, the State of Tennessee and all others. He is the associate editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal which serves a very wide area in the Mid-South and reflects the views of all of the people of this section in support of this most worth-while project which by no means is to be considered local in nature. I do think, however, that Maj. Max C. Tyler, a very distinguished engineer and who has just retired as President of the Mississippi River Commission is prepared to make a statement of real benefit to the committee. He is well known as the Chair has just stated by all of the members of this great committee. He rendered splendid service to his country, speaks with authority, and will be able to cover much ground in a short time. If it be not inconsistent with the wishes of the Chair, I should like to present first General Tyler, then Mayor Chandler, followed by Mr. Frank Pidgeon, City Engineers Fowler, and Mr. Carley. Should the Chair or any members of the committee desire to ask them questions in connection with the matter to be presented, they are ready, willing and anxious to comply. The CHAIRMAN. General Tyler, will you please come around? It is a pleasure to have you. You know where to be seated, as you have occupied this seat most effectively and efficiently for many years in the past as the Assistant Chief of Engineers, as a division engineer, and as President of the Mississippi River Commission. General, will you give us in your own way simply the project under consideration? Mr. Davis may ask you any questions that occur to him. STATEMENT OF GEN. MAX C. TYLER General TYLER. Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, I feel that the President of the Mississippi River Commission has made such a clear statement that there is very little that I can say about this project unless you wish me to go into the background a little bit. The CHAIRMAN. In your own way you may make a statement. General TYLER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I can add little to the clear statement of the president of the Mississippi River Commission who is so ably and forcefully directing the work of the Commission. 1. The Flood Control Act of 1944 amended the act of 1928, as amended, by authorizing a comprehensive plan for the stabilization of the Mississippi River between Cairo, Ill., and Baton Rogue, La. The plan has four objectives, viz: (1) To stop the frequent retirement of the main-line levee defenses to set back locations. (2) To obtain a minimum channel depth of 12 feet for navigation. (3) To obtain greater channel capacity for carrying floods; and (4) To make it possible to develop harbors and water-front properties for the accommodation of river commerce at stabilized locations where the investments in such properties will be secure. 2. The cities of Memphis and Vicksburg were advocates of the stabilization program as shown by the following quotation from the 1944 report of the Mississippi River Commission-House Document 509, Seventy-eighth Congress, second session. The cities of Memphis and Vicksburg advocate stabilization of the river channel in order that harbors may have permanency of location, plan, and depth and so that sites on the river may be developed by industry with assurance that they will neither be destroyed by caving banks nor left a long distance from the navigation channel by some change in the river's course. STATEMENT OF GEN. MAX C. TYLER 3. The lower Mississippi River is doing a splendid job. During the war it has carried millions of tons of oil, gasoline, and sulfur to the industries on the Ohio, the Illinois, and the upper Mississippi. It has carried to the sea over 2,000 vessels built for war purposes in lake and up-river shipyards. But if the river is to do what it is capable of doing in the public interest and is to pay still greater dividends on the money the Government has invested in the inland waterway system, safe harbors must be built on the lower river where industries can create freight suitable for shipment by water or receive it, and where river craft may be built, serviced, and repaired. 4. There are certain points on the lower river famous in our military and political history and in the history of the river as a navigation route where good harbors are a vital need now and where they can be provided and maintained, or maintained where already in existence, at reasonable cost. These points are: Baton Rouge, Vicksburg, Greenville, and Memphis. The river is being stabilized in its new cut-off location at Greenville by extensive revetments in order to preserve the excellent harbor in the old bend way channel in front of Greenville. Vickburgs needs are under consideration by this committee. 5. The stabilization program authorized by the 1944 act contemplates fixing banks by revetments and dikes and the development of a single efficient channel by dredging and the closure of chutes and back channels, working downstream from points already fixed. The chute closure, the revetments, and the channel dredging of the Memphis harbor plan are such works and constitute an application of the principles and methods of stabilization contemplated by the Mississippi River Commission's 1944 report. The river is divided just below the Memphis bridges by Presidents Island. Up until 1904 Tennessee chute or the east channel was the main channel. Now it carries only about 6 percent of the low flow and 30 percent of the bank-full flow. Best channel conditions will result from the concentration of all flow in the west channel by the closure of Tennessee chute as proposed. The stabilization authorized by the 1944 act must proceed by sections of river or reaches and in each section the work must proceed downstream from a point already stabilized. Memphis is such a point. The city front is stabilized by revetment and must be held on account of the high property values and the two existing bridges and one under construction. Memphis is the proper starting point for the stabilization of the river from Memphis to Helena and the first step should be the closure of Tennessee chute and the revetment of banks as contemplated by the harbor plan. 6. This harbor plan is not of local concern only. It will increase the efficiency of water transportation reaching Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Texas, The CHAIRMAN. Is it not true that the same situation obtains on other rivers? For instance, I have in mind Portsmouth, Ohio. That city is located on the bluffs, but the manufacturing and industrial area along the river and back of this area here, the railroads enter Memphis, and they cannot go around the bluffs. There is at present this proposed revetment work, and the river swings away from the city, leaving what we call chutes, and you propose to close the head of the chute next to the Memphis side of the river, and then you propose to construct a levee across that island between that chute and the main river? General TYLER. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. What would be the distance between that levee and that dam at the head of the chute and the levee on the other side of the river, on the Arkansas side? General TYLER. It is about the same distance as several other places on the river. I do not have the map in front of me, but it looks like it is 212 to 3 miles. The CHAIRMAN. Then there will be the channelization work, and you will enter from the south end of the chute? General TYLER. The end of the chute, just as it is done at Greenville. Mr. DAVIS. 325,000. Mr. Chairman, after this fine statement made by General Crawford, supported by General Tyler, I feel it is hardly necessary for us to add cumulative statements. But I do want you and the committee to know that Maj. Walter Chandler of Memphis is here, a former member of Congress. I should like for him to speak briefly, from the public standpoint, in support of this project, if it is in order. The CHAIRMAN. Is there any further statement you care to submit, General Tyler, in support of this project? General TYLER. No, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Any questions by Mr. Allen? Mr. ALLEN. General, you feel, then, that these inland harbors on inland waterways represent a wise expenditure of funds? General TYLER. There is no question about it in my mind. The dams that have been constructed in the late years in the vicinity of Pittsburgh had as one of their main objectives the creation of safe harbors in that area. On all of the canalized rivers the pools make excellent harbors. They are not carried in the law as harbors, but that is what they are. Industry on those pools has a stable location and slack water for the movement of their commerce and the mooring of their commerce, and for the construction of wharves, tipples, and all that sort of thing. It is only on the lower Mississippi, on those streams where you cannot build dams and have to regulate the river, that this kind of development is so vitally essential. The CHAIRMAN. It saves the people the big expense of unloading if they have the harbor to go right up there with the barge and unload? General TYLER. It does that; but it more especially makes it safe to build something and to realize that if you do spend money on a terminal or on a wharf, the investment is secure and that you will not find yourself several miles from the river in a few years or will not find yourself caged into the river. Mr. ALLEN. You have about the same situation at Baton Rouge as you have at Memphis? |