D. R. Burnett, Chief, Division of Project Development, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, accompanied by H.T. Nelson, regional director, Boise, and E. L. White, regional project Page Everett Gunn, director, Mann Creek Irrigation District, Weiser, Idaho Herschel Jackson, secretary of the Board of Directors, Mann Creek Irrigation District, Weiser, Idaho... J. Karl Lee, Chief, Economic Branch, Division of Project Develop- Hon. Gracie Pfost, a Representative in Congress from the State of 46 MANN CREEK FEDERAL RECLAMATION PROJECT WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1962 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION OF The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 9:45 a.m., in the committee room, New House Office Building, Hon. Walter Rogers chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. ROGERS. The Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation will come to order for the consideration of pending business. The first item on the calendar this morning is the Mann Creek Federal reclamation project, H.R. 529, by the gentlewoman from Idaho, Mrs. Pfost. Let the record reflect this is to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Mann Creek Federal reclamation project, Idaho, and for other purposes. At this point in the record the reporter will include the bill, H.R. 529, together with the report from the Department of the Interior under date of January 22, 1962, over the signature of the Honorable Kenneth Holum, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, together with an attachment thereto. And the witnesses this morning will include D. R. Burnett, Chief of the Division of Project Development, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior; H. T. Nelson, regional director, Boise, Idaho, and E. L. White, regional project development engineer, Boise. Also to be heard are Herschel Jackson, secretary of the Board of Directors, Mann Creek Irrigation District, Weiser, Idaho; Everett Gunn, director, Mann Creek Irrigation District, Weiser, Idaho; Herbert Tarter, Weiser, Idaho, and C. J. Williamson, chairman, Mann Creek Irrigation District, Weiser, Idaho. (H.R. 529, together with the report and appendage, follow:) [H.R. 529, 87th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Mann Creek Federal reclamation project, Idaho, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the purposes of providing irrigation water for approximately fifty-one hundred acres, conserving and developing fish and wildlife, and providing recreational benefits, the Secretary of the Interior, acting pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 388, and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto), is authorized to construct, operate, and maintain the facilities of the Mann Creek Federal reclamation project, Idaho. The principal works of the project shall consist of a dam and reservoir, diversion facilities from the reservoir, and drainage facilities. SEC. 2. The base period provided in subsection (d), section 9, of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939, as amended, for repayment of the construction cost properly chargeable to any block of lands and assigned to be repaid by irrigators may be extended to fifty years, exclusive of any development period, from the time water is first delivered to that block. Costs allocated to irrigation in excess of the amount determined by the Secretary to be within the ability of the irrigators to repay within said fifty-year period shall be returned to the reclamation fund from such net revenues derived by the Secretary from the disposition of power marketed through the Bonneville Power Administration as are over and above those required to meet any other present capital costs assigned for repayment from such revenues. SEC. 3. (a) The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in connection with the Mann Creek project, to construct minimum basic public recreation facilities, but such facilities (other than those necessary to protect the project works and the visiting public) shall not be constructed until an agreement has been executed by the State of Idaho, an agency or political subdivision thereof, or an appropriate local agency or organization to assume the management and operation of the facilities. The cost of constructing such facilities shall be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable under the reclamation laws. (b) The Secretary may make such reasonable provision in the works authorized by this Act as he finds to be required for the conservation and development of fish and wildlife in accordance with the provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (48 Stat. 401, as amended; 16 U.S.C. 661, and the following), and the portion of the construction costs allocated to these purposes, together with an appropriate share of the operation, maintenance and replacement costs therefor, shall be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable. Before the works are transferred to an irrigation water users' organization for care, operation, and maintenance, the organization shall have agreed to operate them in such fashion, satisfactory to the Secretary, as to achieve the benefits to fish and wildlife on which the allocation of costs therefor is predicated, and to return the works to the United States for care, operation, and maintenance in the event of failure to comply with his requirements to achieve such benefits. SEC. 4. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for construction of the works herein authorized the sum of $3,225,000 (July 1960 prices) plus or minus such amounts, if any, as may be justified by reason of ordinary fluctuations in the costs of construction as indicated by engineering costs indexes applicable to the type of construction involved therein. There are also authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be required for the operation and maintenance of said works. Hon. WAYNE N. ASPINALL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D.C., January 22, 1962. Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, DEAR MR. ASPINALL: This responds to your request for the views of this Department on H.R. 529, a bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to constuct, operate, and maintain the Mann Creek Federal reclamation project, Idaho, and for other purposes. We recommend the enactment of this bill if it is amended as hereinafter suggested. The Mann Creek project would provide water for irrigation to serve an area of 5,060 acres of irrigable land along both Mann and Monroe Creeks, tributaries to the Weiser River, a few miles from the town of Weiser in western Idaho. Of the total acreage, 4,270 acres are within the boundaries of the Mann Creek Irrigation District, while the remaining 790 acres are in the Monroe Creek Irrigation District. Primarily, the project would provide a supplemental water supply to 4,465 acres. In addition a full water supply would be made available to 595 acres which are not now irrigated and which are dispersed throughout the Mann Creek Irrigation District. The principal works recommended are the Spangler Dam and Reservoir on Mann Creek, diversion facilities from the reservoir to the existing Joslin Ditch, and drainage facilities for the Mann Creek area of the project. The drainage facilities would be constructed by the irrigators after the project is placed in operation and the need for such facilities becomes evident. The existing distribution systems would be used and improvements and extensions would be the responsibility of the water users. Spangler Dam would be a rolled earthfill structure creating a reservoir of 13,000 acre-feet capacity of which 11,000 acre-feet would be for irrigation and 2.000 acre-feet for dead storage. The total estimated cost of the project facilities based on 1961 prices is $3,490,000, as compared with the estimate of $3,221,000, based on October 1957 prices, presented in our planning report (H. Doc. 444, 86th Cong.). Of this amount, $3,390,000 is tentatively allocated to irrigation, $65,000 to fish and wildlife and $35,000, being the specific cost of minimum basic recreation facilities including purchase of land, is assigned to recreation on a nonreimbursable basis. Farm budget studies demonstrate that the irrigators probably could meet their annual operating costs and repay a total of $1,014,000 in a 50-year period. It is recommended that the remaining reimbursable cost, $2,376,000, be repaid from revenues derived from the disposition of power marketed through the Bonneville Power Administration. These revenues accumulate from individual projects within the Bonneville Power Administration system only after full repayment with interest of the commercial power investment in those projects. Studies demonstrate that the $2,376,000 in required aid from power revenues could be made available from the Bonneville Power Administration system during the 50-year Mann Creek project payout period. To clarify the language on use of Bonneville Power Administration revenues, we recommend that the last sentence of section 2 be deleted and that there be inserted in its place the following: "Costs allocated to irrigation in excess of the amount determined by the Secretary to be within the ability of the irrigators to repay within the repayment period or periods herein specified, shall be returned to the reclamation fund within such period or periods from revenues derived by the Secretary of the Interior from the disposition of power marketed through the Bonneville Power Administration." In addition to the irrigation works, provisions for conservation and development of fish and wildlife and for basic recreation facilities are proposed. A fish trap would be built on Mann Creek near its confluence with Weiser River for collection of anadromous fish for transportation around the dam. The outlet works of the dam would be screened to prevent the loss of fish during periods of fow. The cost of these facilities would be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable. Basic recreation facilities would be authorized by this bill, with the Secretary to arrange for the operation and maintenance of the same by appropriate State or local agencies or organizations. The cost of constructing these facilities also would be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable. In order to clarify the terms of the bill in connection with recreation development, we suggest that the bill be amended by revising section 3(a) to read as follows: "SEC. 3(a). The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in connection with the Mann Creek project, to construct minimum basic public recreation facilities, and to acquire such lands as may be necessary for that purpose, substantially in accordance with the plan in the report of the Secretary of the Interior, but such facilities other than those necessary to protect the project works and the visiting public) stall not be constructed until an agreement has been executed by the State of Idaho, an agency or political subdivision thereof, or an appropriate local agency or organization to assume the management and operation of the facilities. The cost of constructing such facilities shall be nonreimbursable and nonreturnable under the reclamation laws." The total annual operating costs are estimated at $10,700 which are allocated to irrigation, fish and wildlife and recreation in the respective amounts of $7,600, $1,700, and $1,400. The fish and wildlife allocation is considered nonreimoursable, and the non-Federal agency which would operate and maintain the recreation facilities would meet the annual cost for those facilities. To eliminate the necessity for an annual appropriation of $1,700 for the fish and wildlife operating cost the irrigators would meet this cost. This would amount to a total of $85,000 over the repayment period and would justify a down*ard adjustment in the irrigation cost to be repaid by the water users. Thus, over 30-year period the water users' payments in addition to irrigation, operation, and maintenance costs would still total $1,014,000; however, this amount would now include $85,000 for fish and wildlife operating costs and $928,500 for repayment of irrigation capital costs. The financial assistance required from the Bonneville power system would remain unchanged. This adjustment in the annual repayment would be subject to consummation da written agreement between the Department of the Interior and the Mann Creek Irrigation District under which the district would be required to operate and maintain these facilities during the repayment period in a manner satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior. |