the main channel of the river up to the highest limit possible for safety.

General MARKHAM. That is correct.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. General Markham, the recommendation for the St. Francis is confined to the headwater areas of that stream? General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And the same is true with respect to the Yazoo River system?

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. All of these rivers have been studied under the provisions of section 308 of the River and Harbor Act of 1927, and more especially under section 10 of the Flood Control Act of 1928?

General MARKHAM. That is the basis of our information.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And reports have been adopted and have been submitted to the Congress covering those two streams?

General MARKHAM. That is correct, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Both for the headwater area and for the backwater area?

General MARKHAM. Correct.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Under existing law there is a provision that in the event the local interests are able to contribute for improvement in the backwater area along those two streams and no other tributaries of the lower Mississippi, they shall do that?

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. But under existing law there is no provision for any Federal construction or aid, except as you have outlined, in the case of emergencies in the headwater areas of those two tributaries or any other tributaries of the Mississippi River?

General MARKHAM. An emergency period exhausts our authority. Mr. WHITTINGTON. I mean tributaries south of the mouth of the Ohio. I am not referring to the Ohio or the Missouri.

General MARKHAM. Along tributaries above backwater influence we can be of assistance in no respect except during an emergency.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In the case of the Yazoo River, and in the Yazoo Basin generally in that section of the Mississippi River, and on the east side, between Memphis and Vicksburg, you have made not one but three separate studies, as I recall, have you not, and submitted your final report as Chief of Engineers?

General MARKHAM. Yes; we have rendered our report.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In the report embodied in the bill pending it is recommended that after the studies you have made, which involve almost every conceivable method for solving the flood problem, including levees, including combinations of levees and diversions, including supplementary canals, including diversions along the foothills, you recommend as the most economical and sound method for the solution of that entire problem the matter of the construction of a series of sufficient reservoirs, and those reservoirs would be of earth construction, as I understand it.

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. They would provide for the "normal flow", as I use the term, of the Cold Water River, the Little Tallahatchie River, the Yocora River, the Yalobusha River, and the Skuna River, all tributaries of the Yazoo River System, without any interference?

General MARKHAM. Correct.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And of those reservoir experiments, as I understand it, probably the outstanding project that has been in existence for a good many years is what is known as the "Miami conservancy project ", and that method of construction has obtained in that river? General MARKHAM. Yes; and likewise we are working now in the Markingham conservancy area.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Yes. The dams for those reservoirs will be of earth construction and they will provide for a sluice gate for the normal flow of the stream, and in the event we should have a superflood to exceed in our calculations the capacity of the reservoirs, there is a spillway that will provide for the supplemental waters being carried off.

General MARKHAM. We could calculate the total we are working toward.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Under existing law the Chief of Engineers is authorized in an emergency-and that usually means in a high-water fight to assist in local high-water fights in maintenance, after the floods have been going along; and you have indicated the amount spent under existing law along the St. Francis River. Do you have at hand the amount spent along the Yazoo River and its tributaries? General MARKHAM. I have not that figure in mind.

Major OLIVER. We have spent in the Yazoo Basin about $78,000 on the repair of levees and about $80,000 in reimbursing levee districts for work they have done in the way of emergency repairs.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Does that include the upper Tallahatchie? It seems to me more than that amount was spent in one district up there.

Major OLIVER. That includes everything.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Since what date?

Major OLIVER. Since the passage of the flood-control act.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In 1928?

Major OLIVER. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. I had a recollection that in one area you probably spent more than that in 1928. You might verify that figure. Major OLIVER. Excuse me; you are correct and I am mistaken about that. The total amount spent there was $234,000.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. I rather thought I was correct about that. I asked you to verify that. I think if you will look into it further you will find you spent a considerable sum.

General MARKHAM. We will have that checked.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In your report respecting the Yazoo River— and that is the principal tributary, and the only major tributary of the lower Mississippi River south of Cairo to the Gulf of Mexico. General MARKHAM. Correct.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You gave figures as to the maximum flood and the amount of reduction in the maximum, or, generally, the maximum flood along the Mississippi River from this river. You have reported here that the local interests along the Yazoo River have, in an effort to provide for flood control and to protect that area there, expended and incurred obligations outstanding to an aggregate amount of $22,000,000.

General MARKHAM. That is the record in our office.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And it is your view that, in existing circumstances, they have gone the limit.

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In addition to having incurred that burden for flood protection along that tributary of the Mississippi River, at the same time the people in that valley have contributed during the years, and are contributing now, for maintenance of the main line levee along the Mississippi River.

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. There are two flood problems along the Yazoo as there are along the St. Francis. The major flood problem along the Yazoo River is from the Mississippi River. The area of the Yazoo Basin to which my questions are now directed is approximately four and a quarter million acres?

General MARKHAM. That is my recollection.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. With something like 2,000,000 acres in cultivation.

The project recommended here for the Yazoo River system would result in the protection of approximately a million and a half acres of land, would it not?

General MARKHAM. A million six hundred thousand is my recollection.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. I said, approximately.

General MARKHAM. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Something like 45 percent of which is in actual cultivation, that being substantially 40 percent of the entire area in that basin?

General MARKHAM. That is right.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That would be protected by this project. As I have said, and as you have given in your statement in chief, those people up there have, under existing circumstances, gone the limit. But, even so, your recommendation provides that they go further, does it not?

General MARKHAM. It requires them to take care of roads and make some other adjustments.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. The Yazoo Basin is required to furnish rights of way for roads that may be constructed in the valley and provide rights of way for ditches, and to provide for reimbursement for any damages because of road location.

General MARKHAM. Correct. It is practically a million and a half dollars, if I recall correctly.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That reference is on page 12 of your report, and the amount is substantially a million and a half, or from a million and a half to two million dollars.

It is your view and the view of the Corps of Engineers that that is the soundest and the best way to protect this substantially 40 or 50 percent of the largest of the four great basins of the lower Mississippi Valley?

General MARKHAM. We think anything less would be palliative, or only ameliorative, and insufficient.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And in addition to the local interests being required to contribute this amount of approximately $2,000,000, the local interests along the Yazoo River as well as along the St. Francis River, and as is now the case along the main line of the Mississippi River, are required to provide maintenance, are they not?

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Then there will be the same burden imposed on the people along these two tributaries as now obtains along the Mississippi River, on the local interests?

General MARKHAM. That is approximately correct.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. General Markham, with respect to the modification of the main project, your report is divided into three sections, the northern section, the middle section, and the southern section. As I understand it, there are no recommended modifications for the northern section.

General MARKHAM. No, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That extends generally from the mouth of the Ohio, or, of course, more properly speaking, from Rock Island to Cape Girardeau, and generally from Cairo to the mouth of the Arkansas River. The middle section extends generally from the mouth of the Arkansas River to the mouth of the Red River, in the vicinity of Baton Rouge.

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And the lower section, or the southern section, includes the lower Mississippi River, south of the mouth of the Red and the Atchafalaya Rivers.

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. I have in mind more particularly the middle section, and I will ask you to state for the benefit of the committee, or to describe generally, the two recommendations, the combination of which you recommend in place of the so-called "fuse-plug system.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, as I understand it, that is shown on the map you have there, and you can indicate to the committee what you propose to do. You might tell the committee first what you mean by the fuse-plug levees, and the extent of them as shown. by this map.

General MARKHAM. As matters now stand, there is a so-called "fuse-plug" levee running up in this territory for about 32 miles. Mr. WHITTINGTON. When you say "this territory ", you mean from approximately the mouth of the Arkansas to what point south? General MARKHAM. Down to Luna Landing. That length of levee is about 3 feet lower than the levees elsewhere. As matters now stand, if a superflood came down the river combining, as was the case in 1927, the great outpourings of the Arkansas and the White, and, of course, the Ohio and the other tributaries, it is expected with that levee that the excess water would escape there. In the event that nothing obstructs or intervenes, if the fuse plugs in this territory break, water would overflow this entire territory, covering all this green area that you see on the map, covering everything.

The former proposal was to continue the fuseplugs as such, and to build guide levees on the orange lines.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Without meaning to interrupt you, those guide levees have not been constructed?

General MARKHAM. Those guide levees have not been constructed because, in the first place, the people would not have them.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And consequently no compensation has been paid to those people for the probable operation of the fuseplug levees.

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General MARKHAM. Correct.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. While it occurs to me, General, if you will pardon me, for the record I will ask you to state the gage at which the fuseplug levee is intended to operate at Arkansas City, and the comparative gage at Vicksburg.

General MARKHAM. That fuseplug would overflow, as I recall, at 60.5 feet on the Arkansas City gage, which corresponds to 56.5 feet on the Vicksburg gage. In the circumstance of the water exceeding those heights, this entire area would be overflowed.

If we had constructed the guide levees indicated in orange on the map, these levees would have confined the water to this area [indicating on map]. In the restudy we came to the belief that if that area could be conserved and protected, the United States would be saved the cost of constructing the guide levees in the Boeuf, and that we should come down lower on the river and direct the water out of here [indicating on map] into a floodway of such a width as would serve the purpose.

Mr .WHITTINGTON. When you say "take the water out of here", you mean out of the Eudora flood area?

General MARKHAM. Yes; into the Eudora floodway.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. What would be the length of that flood area? And will you please describe the method of determining that, and the method of construction, and the proposed height of that flood area, or the intake therefor?

General MARKHAM. We would either put a rock-filled weir with a sand top on this weir, in such a position that if the water rose and created a breach in the sand top; the rock weir would stop the overflow at a gage corresponding to 51 feet at Vicksburg, or put in gate structures that could take water out at a lower depth, and be controlled by opening and closing. The question as to whether we would put in gates or a rock-filled spillway is a matter we would rather not be confined to at present.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. As I understand it, the recommendation in your report provides for this alternative in the construction of that intake for the spillway at Eudora.

General MARKHAM. Yes, sir; we could either build a rock-filled spillway that would take the water off at or above 51 feet, or we can build gates that would take it off earlier.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. While you have two alternative methods of construction for the intake, when, under either, will that determination be made at the Eudora floodway?

General MARKHAM. With our knowledge of what water was behind, we would operate this spillway or not, depending upon whether or not we saw the necessity, based upon what we would predict to be the ultimate height of the water behind us. We thus might find that the water would go down the river without exceeding 56 or 58 feet on the gage with no opening of the spillway at all. If, however, we saw that there was a superflood behind, we could open the gates as quickly as we thought necessary to accomplish the earliest and best relief of water as it came down. Therefore, we would begin to operate at 51 feet or as soon as the necessities meant that operations should begin.

If the flood were of lesser volume, and thus we expected lesser height and no disastrous height down in the lower valley, the spillway would not be opened at all.