conditions it is required to change the sill which was set up to be operated at 49 on the Red River gage or the Angola gage to that at a lower gage height or a lower elevation. I would like to call this committee's attention to the fact that in 1928 I opposed any floodway that was not necessary in any section. I do not believe it is right or proper to use lands in any State for floodways if it can be avoided. Following the flood of 1927, I appeared before these committees in Washington many times and advocated the adoption and use of reservoirs on these tributaries to prevent just such things as the use of the big floodways, taking out of use the most fertile lands in the United States. I still am of that same opinion, that is, that if reservoirs would be constructed and could be constructed by the Federal Government without a delay of a number of years, that is the ideal way to control floods. Time has proved that we cannot hope to get enough reservoirs to control floods. Therefore, we must resort to the use of floodways when necessary. The Overton amendment provided, after it was drawn here in Washington and passed through the Congress, that when 75 percent of the values in the areas of both the Eudora and the Morganza had been acquired, work could be started on either. It has been only 2 years now since that amendment was passed. During that time the engineers, to my knowledge, have made strenuous efforts to get those options. I know that they succeeded in getting more than 75 percent of satisfactory options in the Morganza. the same time, I realize that they have been able to get only about 25 to 30 percent in the Eudora, and I think that if they were called upon to exercise the 25 to 30 percent options in the Eudora they would throw out half of those. At We entered into the Overton amendment after we were called upon to change it at the last minute here in Washington because we put our faith in the Government engineers and believed that they could carry out the work as provided for in the amendment. It has now been about 2 years since that act has passed, and the options that they have acquired in the Morganza will begin to expire in the next several months. If they are allowed to expire it means that they will have to go back into all of this work again, and it will probably mean 2 or 3 years more of jeopardizing the people in south Louisiana or subjecting them to floods. The Overton amendment provided in addition to these changes that I have referred to for an expenditure of about $18,000,000 in the St. Francis Basin, which was off the main stem of the Mississippi River. That amendment provided for, and without the recommendation of the Chief Engineers, an expenditure of $12,000,000 in the White River backwater area. That same amendment provided for a total expenditure of approximately $48,000,000 for the construction of seven reservoirs, known as the Sardis group, in the upper Yazoo for the protection of the Mississippi. When it was learned, just before the final amendment was introduced, that it would be impossible to get any legislation for it unless we would correct it in order to provide that no work could start in the Morganza until work started in the Eudora, which we had to accept or else not get any legislation, and which is not an engineering question, it was agreed by all that while the work should be com pleted on the main stem of the Mississippi River, we in Louisiana did not oppose the bill in the St. Francis Basin getting the $18,000,000 We did not oppose the White River people getting their $12,000,000. I believe I had more to do with the people in the State of Arkansas getting their $12,000,000 than they did themselves. Senator Robinson did not want to insist on putting the White River Reservoir into that backwater area because the Chief of Engineers had not recommended it, but after a number of talks with him and others in Arkansas we finally won him over, and it went through and was passed successfully, and they are on that work today. We discussed the question of adding $48,000,000 for the reservoirs for the protection of the Yazoo to a bill that was for the purpose of building flood-control works on the main stem of the Mississippi River, and we were willing to let that $48,000,000 remain in there for the protection of that area. We did not oppose it. That is the only group of reservoirs today that Congress has provided for, so Congress pays for the lands and the floors of the floodways in addition to the construction of the reservoirs themselves. While on that, I had something to do with the omnibus flood-control bill. I gathered the engineering projects that were available at that time, every one of them was written into the omnibus flood-control bill, and that bill was passed 2 hours after the Overton amendment on the same day. There is no provision in any reservoir project in that bill that does not require local interests to furnish the lands in those reservoirs. The only group that has successfully passed the Congress is the group that was passed in the Overton amendment, and we did not raise any objection to it. I was delighted to see them get it. Senator OVERTON. Let me say to you in that connection that the Overton bill provided that the only local contribution to be required for the Yazoo River reservoirs was for the alteration of highways. Mr. JACOBS. That is right. Senator OVERTON. And also damages resulting from the alteration of highways. Mr. JACOBS. That is right. Senator OVERTON. As thus written it passed the Senate. It went to the House, and the Jenkins amendment was offered in the House and was adopted as part of the Overton bill. The Jenkins amendment required that the local authorities should furnish the lands and flowage easements not only for the reservoirs but also for the flood Senator OVERTON. Then the whole matter came up in conference between the conferees of the House and the conferees of the Senate. The conferees of the House were very insistent upon the Jenkins amendment. Finally we compromised the Jenkins amendment in this way: The conferees from the House realized, after considerable discussion, that it would be unfair and unjust to require States and local subdivisions to furnish flowage eastments for the floodways because the floodways are rather punitory in their character, and whatever area has to bear the burden of the floodway is punished to that extent. Finally it was agreed that all reservoirs in the Overton Act and in the omnibus bill should be placed upon the same basis; that is, that the same contribution should be made of lands, flowage easements, maintenance of reservoirs after construction, and cost of operation. That was finally what was agreed upon in the Overton Act. In 1937, a year after the Overton Act was passed, there came from the House a bill that had been passed by the House to amend the omnibus flood-control act. When it reached the Senate and was sent to this Committee on Commerce, an amendment was offered-I think by Senator Bilbo of the Committee on Commerce-that exempted the Mississippi reservoirs from the local contributions with the exception of providing for the alteration of highways. That amendment was agreed to in the Senate and was agreed to in conference between the Senate and the House conferees. So, your statement is correct that all reservoirs under the omnibus bill must be provided for by full local contribution, but the reservoirs in the Yazoo Valley are not required to have the local contribution that is required for other reservoirs under the omnibus bill. Mr. JACOBS. Senator Overton and members of this committee, following the 1928 act, among the first projects to be undertaken was the construction of levees on the south bank of the Arkansas River. The people in the levee district in southeast Arkansas were in such financial straits that they were unable to comply with the requirements. The State of Louisiana through its levee boards put up the necessary money and acquired the rights-of-way which enabled the Government engineers to construct the levees on the south bank of the Arkansas River and the Mississsippi River in the State of Arkansas, to an amount of $113,000, with an agreement that when those people were able they would reimburse the levee boards in Louisiana 50 percent of that amount. However, as provided for, and as was agreed upon later, all except about $8,000 or $10,000 of that money was reimbursed to the levee boards by the Federal Government. The reason I call the attention of the committee to that is that there was the necessity and importance of the maintenance of the levees on the south bank of the Arkansas River and the Mississippi River in the State of Arkansas for the protection of the State of Louisiana as well as for the Arkansas levee district. It is the belief of the State Board of Engineers of Louisiana that the fuseplug levees at the head of the Boeuf and Tensas Basins in Arkansas should be brought up to at least the 1914 grade and, I believe, the 1928 cross section, because the theory of fuseplug levees was meant to be a levee that would crevasse when water got up to the top of it, and the water in 1927 was 60%1⁄2 feet on the Arkansas City gage. Because of that belief, the Government engineers have agreed, and it has been written into the Overton amendment, to increase the fuseplug levees to the 1928 grade after these other works have been completed, and that was the thing that caused them to agree to that change. It is our belief that unless the Morganza floodway is constructed, the next major flood will overflow from 9 to 12 parishes in south Louisiana, and those parishes are the most thickly populated of any section in the alluvial valey outside the cities. We believe that while Congress, upon recommendation of the engineers, has passed the law, we are entitled to that protection, and the only protection we can be given by one more cut-off in addition to the 13 that have been made by the Mississippi River Commission under the direction of Brigadier General Ferguson is the cut-off at Morganza from the Mississippi River over to the Atchafalaya, a distance of about 15 miles as the crow flies, as compared to about 40 miles as the water now runs out of the Mississippi through that river and down the Atchafalaya. Senator, I hope that our friends in Mississippi will consider that condition which is existing in that section. I hope that our friends in Arkansas will likewise give us the same consideration that we have given them when their levees were in the condition they were in prior to 1928 and that they will assist us and assist you in the support of your amendment to permit the Morganza floodway to be constructed. There is just one thing more that I should like to call to the committee's attention, and that is this: Following the time when your amendment was passed by the Congress, I took it upon myself, because I thought it was my duty, to go up into the Tensas Basin and hold meetings among the people of that basin. I held a number of meetings. The people in the parishes of East Carroll, Madison, Tensas, and Concordia have been for a great many years my personal friends. I went into that section, held meetings, and did my utmost to persuade those people to assist the Government engineers in obtaining the necessary options. I lost a great many friends by that action. I find today that, because the Government engineers have been unable to get those options, the entire southern part of Louisiana is being left unprotected. As State engineer for Louisiana, I am doing my best in trying to get the protection for the State that Congress has agreed to give it. I think that is all I have to say just now, Mr. Chairman. Senator OVERTON. Mr. Jacobs, in connection with your last statement, none of us who were interested in the enactment of the amendment providing for the construction of the Eudora have undertaken to oppose the obtaining of options in the Eudora floodway, have we? Mr. JACOBS. No, sir. Senator OVERTON. On the contrary, many of us have endaevored to assist the Government and to persuade the landowners to grant the necessary options for the Eudora floodway? Mr. JACOBS. Yes. Senator OVERTON. You were very closely and intimately associated with me at the time we were considering the Overton bill, undertaking to have it enacted by Congress, and in drafting the bill and putting different provisions into it. Is it not true that you, I and all of us in Louisiana undertook to help every area in the lower valley as much as we possibly could-areas in Arkansas and Mississippi as well as areas in Louisiana-and that there was no request made by any of the advocates of flood-control legislation in any of those States that we did not undertake to comply with and, in fact, I think, did comply with and undertake to cake care of in the Overton bill? Mr. JACOBS. That is true, Senator. Senator OVERTON. One of the provisions of that bill was the provision that linked the Eudora with the Morganza. Was it not thought at the time that, while there was opposition to the construction of the Eudora, that opposition could be overcome and that the necessary options in the combined areas of the two floodways could be obtained within a reasonable time? Mr. JACOBS. I felt sure of it. Senator OVERTON. Was not that your information at the time? Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir. Senator OVERTON. Now that practically two years have gone by and we are confronted with a situation wherein we cannot obtain options in the Eudora, in order to authorize the construction of the Morganza the only requist we are now making of our colleagues in matters of flood control in the States of Arkansas and Mississippi is that they do not interpose any objection to the construction of the Morganza floodway because we cannot obtain the necessary options in the Eudora? Mr. JACOBS. That is correct. Senator OVERTON. Do you think we have a right to expect that they should cooperate with us in that particular as we have cooperated with them when it came to protecting their interests? Mr. JACOBS. I fully do, Senator. Senator OVERTON. The Morganza is situated entirely within Louisiana; is it not? Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir; that is correct. Senator OVERTON. Most of the Eudora is in Louisiana? Mr. JACOBS. Yes; most of it. Senator OVERTON. All of the west Atchafalaya is in Louisiana? Mr. JACOBS. Yes. Senator OVERTON. Louisiana has to bear these floodways; does it not? Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir; as much as we dislike it, we have accepted them, knowing that they are the only solution. Senator OVERTON. It is your thought that the people in other States in the lower valley ought not to undertake to direct us when we wish to construct a floodway as to exactly how it shall be constructed for the purpose of attempting to control the flow of these waters through Louisiana? Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir. Senator OVERTON. It is your view, is it not, that they should, through a spirit of cooperation, undertake to help us in the progress of this work and go along with the Morganza, and then we can take care of the Eudora problem later on if it can be taken care of; and if it cannot be taken care of the engineers can try to find some substitute for the Eudora? Mr. JACOBS. That is correct. Senator OVERTON. Those are all the questions I have. Senator MILLER. May I ask Mr. Jacobs some questions, Mr. Chairman? Senator OVERTON. Certainly. Senator MILLER. That little lecture that you and Senator Overton have just given is accepted in the spirit in which it is intended. However, I want to talk to you just a little about this matter. I think we all fully realize the fact that the principal part of these floodways all of some of them and the principal part of the Eudorais in Louisiana. You stated that it was necessary to build the Morganza floodway at this time to prevent overtopping or the topping of the fuse plug levee at the Atchafalaya. Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir. |