List of firms from whom purchases have been made by the Mason-WalshAtkinson-Kier Co., the contractor-Continued Pennsylvania-Continued. Pittsburgh: Blaw-Knox Co. Carnegie-Illinois Steel Co. Mine Safety Supply Co. Wilmerding: Westinghouse Air Brake Co. Bellingham: Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Co. Everett: Canyon Lumber Co. Seattle: Alaska Junk Co. H. J. Armstrong. Colby Steel & Engineering Co. Dohrmann Hotel Supply Co. Hallidie Machine Co. Hill & Van Dyke. C. Kirk Hillman. Isaacson Iron Works Keystone Steel & Wire Co. Macintosh & Truman. National Grocery Co. Nelson Iron Works. Northwest Bolt & Nut Co. Northwest Steel Rolling Mills. Pacific Coast Forge Co. Pacific States Trading Co. Pacific Water Works Supply Co. Seattle Hardware Co. Seattle Tent & Awning Co. Star Machinery Co. Sundfelt Equipment Co. Sussman, Wormser Co. Wallace Bridge & Structural Steel. Western Gear Co. Spokane: Asbestos Supply Co. Barton Chevrolet Co. Bearing & Rim Supply Co. Brown-Johnston. Building Supplies, Inc. B. J. Carney & Co. Chase Engineering Co. Exchange Lumber & Manufacturing Co. General Machinery Co. General Paint Co. Gill Automotive Service. John W. Graham & Co. Gregg-Soderberg Lumber Co. Roy E. Hotchkiss Co. Hughes & Co. Inland Motor Freight. List of firms from whom purchases have been made by the Mason-WalshAtkinson-Kier Co., the contractor-Continued Washington-Continued. Spokane Continued. Jensen-Byrd Co. Kilmer & Sons. McClintock-Trunkey Co. Pacific Fruit & Produce Co. Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. Pohl Auto Spring Works. Potlatch Lumber Co. Remington-Rand, Inc. Riegel Bros. Roundup Grocery Co. St. Louis Brass & Iron Works. Shaw & Borden Co. Jas. Smyth Plumbing & Heating Co. Spokane Concrete Pipe Co. Spokane Metal Co. Spokane Paper & Stationery Co. Sullivan Machinery Co. Spokane: Tinling & Powell Co. Underwood-Elliott Fisher Co. Union Iron Works. Washington Brick, Lime & Sewer Pipe Co. Washington Corrugated Culvert Co. Washington Machinery & Supply Co. Washington Water Power Co. Western States Grocery Co. White Pine Sash Co. Wenatchee: Webb-McDonald Tractor & Equipment Co. West Virginia: Parkersburg: Baldwin Shovel Co. Wisconsin: Milwaukee: Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. Harnischfeger Corporation. Koehring Co. Milwaukee Brush Co. South Milwaukee: Bucyrus-Erie Co. Mr. SCRUGHAM. Are there any further questions on the subject of reclamation? If there are no further questions, we thank you very much, Mr. Page, for your very complete statement. As a final statement, will you give us a statement in regard to the Elephane Butte power situation, because the committee will probably have occasion to refer to it later. Will you give us the status of this matter? ELEPHANT BUTTE DAM Mr. PAGE. Many years ago the Bureau built the Elephant Butte Dam to provide storage for irrigation and incidental power facilities which could later be developed by the construction of the Caballo Dam. The Caballo Dam recently was placed in construction as a joint enterprise of the State Department and the Bureau of Reclamation. When this dam is completed and ready to reregulate the river, it will be possible to produce at Elephant Butte Dam something in the vicinity of 100 million kilowatt-hours of electric energy per year from an installation of 24,000 kilovolt-amperes. I mention this because I anticipate that there will be a request made of Congress for an appropriation to start the construction of the Elephant Butte power plant. The allocation which was made for the Cabello Dam to the Bureau of Reclamation was made with the provision that the repayment would be accomplished by power revenues from this proposed plant at Elephant Butte Dam. We will have a million-dollar investment in the Caballo Dam which cannot be returned until the Elephant Butte power is developed. A visit to the project recently has convinced me that there is a market for power at a rate which will return the cost of the power investment, amounting to approximately $2,500,000. Mr. LEAVY. Where is that located, Mr. Page? Mr. PAGE. Elephant Butte is near El Paso, Tex. These revenues will return the investment in power facilities, approximately $2.500,000, which includes our investment of $1,000,000 in the Caballo Dam, with interest, within a reasonable period of time, probably less than 50 years. Therefore, I ask that the committee consider it as a business venture, because with an investment of, perhaps, $1,500,000 more we will be in a position to recapture an investment of $2,500,000 or more with interest. Mr. RICH. Will you give us a break-down of that in figures, showing just what has been spent, and if we spend $1,500,000 more, how we are going to get the $2,500,000 back? Mr. PAGE. Yes, sir. I can put a statement in there showing just what is contemplated in the way of power development. It will be built in connection with the original Rio Grande project. The statement is as follows: Expended to date and chargeable to the proposed Elephant Butte power development in the construction of Caballo Dam... Proposed expenditures: Power plant at Elephant Butte Dam... Total..... $1,000, 0x 1. 000, 00 600,000 2,600 00 Based on stream flow records for the last 12 years, the power output of the proposed 24.000 kilovolt-ampere plant at Elephant Butte Dam will make available 90,000,000 kilowatt-hours at the power plant under operating conditions or 80,000,000 kilowatt-hours at the load center annually. If sold at 2.3 mills per kilowatt-hour at the plant, the revenues will amortize the cost of the plant, the transmission line, interest during construction, and the investment of $1,000,000 in Cabalio Dam in 30 years, with interest at 3 percent, and in addition will take care of operation and maintenance charges. This same result can be obtained by sale of the power delivered at the load center for 257 mills. The cost of production at the station of the principal utility company in the market area, which operates a modern steam plant, is 375 mills per kilowatthour The load in the El Paso area has increased to 163,530,000 kilowatt hours in 1935 from $4370,000 kilowatt-hours in 1933 Disposition of the power in that area would depend upon growth of the load and substitution of power from the Elephant Butte plant for that produced by more expensive methods in the El Paso area Concentrating plants at copper mines in the vicinity of Silver City, Deming and other cities and towns in New Mexico offer other outlets As an indication of the possibilities of disposal of this power, the Chino Copper Co, of Silver City N Mex, has shown an interest in the purchase of the entire power output from the Elephant Butte plant. Mr. SCRUGHAM. Were estimates covering this item presented to the Bureau of the Budget? Mr. PAGE. They were, but they were not included in the Budget, and I mention it because I anticipate that they will be submitted in Some other bill. Mr. LEAVY. Is this on the Colorado River? Mr. PAGE. No; it is on the Rio Grande River. Mr. RICH. I did not know that they had enough water in the Rio Grande to make a power development. Mr. PAGE. Yes; it has a very nice little power development below the storage dam, built by the Government at Elephant Butte. Mr. LEAVY. Was there another one on the Colorado River? Mr. PAGE. Yes. The Bureau is building a dam on the Colorado River in Texas as a combination flood-control and irrigation and storage project. Mr. LEAVY. On the Colorado River? Mr. PAGE. On the Colorado River of Texas. It was one which was a part of the program proposed by a local State authority, and for wach the authority obtained a P. W. A. loan and grant of $15,000, . In addition the Bureau of Reclamation was given an allotment of $5,000,000, which is being spent for flood protection and storage. Five million dollars is not adequate to build the dam which is now under construction and eventually, in some manner, $5,000,000 additonal must be obtained. Mr. RICH. Now, suppose you get this $2.500,000 to complete the Elephant Butte plant, and you get the money back, it is the policy on these reclamation projects to get the money in and then you use *e earnings as a revolving fund to do something else? Mr. PAGE. No, sir; only by appropriation of Congress. We have to authority to spend revenues or repayments unless appropriated by Congress. Mr. RICH. The Members of Congress are pretty liberal spenders, tough, if you have anything coming back. You have found that o it, have you not? Mr. PAGE. We sometimes question whether they are so liberal. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1937. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY STATEMENTS OF DR. W. C. MENDENHALL, DIRECTOR; JULIAN D. SEARS, ADMINISTRATIVE GEOLOGIST; J. G. STAACK, CHIEF TOPOGRAPHIC ENGINEER, TOPOGRAPHIC BRANCH; G. F. LOUGHLIN, CHIEF GEOLOGIST, GEOLOGIC BRANCH; P. S. SMITH, CHIEF ALASKAN GEOLOGIST, ALASKA BRANCH; N. C. GROVER, CHIEF HYDRAULIC ENGINEER, WATER RESOURCES BRANCH; AND HERMAN STABLER, CHIEF ENGINEER, CONSERVATION BRANCH Mr. SCRUGHAM. The next witness will be Dr. Mendenhall. Mr. F.zpatrick, of the committee, will conduct the examination. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. FITZPATRICK. Do you wish to make a statement on your regular appropriation, Dr. Mendenhall? Dr. MENDENHALL. Is it desirable to make a general statement about the Survey and its functions? Mr. SCRUGHAM. I suggest that you make a general statement and then put your prepared statement in the record. FUNCTIONS AND ACTIVITIES Dr. MENDENHALL. The Geological Survey has existed since 1879. It has five principal operating units set up largely along functional lines. It is the principal geologic entity of the Government. It is the consulting geologic group for the Government. The staff consists of engineers and geologists. Geology was the earliest of its functions. It maps the geology of the United States. It has a staff of paleontologists, mineralogists, physical chemists, and geologists who are competent to handle all phases of geological problems that come up. It cooperates with the State geological surveys by supplying them with types of personnel which they are not able to supply for themselves, or through cooperation by helping to solve problems inside of the States which the States themselves are unable to solve without aid. Its activities are Nation-wide. They extend to the Territory of Alaska, and to some of the outlying possessions. So, first of all, it is the principal geological unit of government. TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS Early in its geological work it found that topographic maps were essential to the mapping of a mining camp and to the unraveling of the problems there, and to the sort of study necessary to see whether there might be extensions of the ore bodies that were being mined, or whether similar ore bodies might be found elsewhere. Therefore, one of our very early activities was the making of topographic maps, mainly for our own use, and as these maps were printed and made available other people found them useful. We have perhaps 4,000 such maps now in existence. A little less than half of the United States is mapped with topographic maps of all types. With the growth in numbers of these maps, there has been a growth in uses, and a growing recognition of the fact that these maps are essential to almost all studies of land problems, problems of national defense, of floods and flood control, of mineral resources, of road construction, and of planning in general. So that there is now an overwhelming demand for them that greatly embarrasses us, because we cannot adequately meet it. Nevertheless, we are issuing and distributing three-fourths of a million copies of maps each year, chiefly by sale. STUDIES OF WATER RESOURCES There also came into existence very early, work on the water resources of the country. The work was first confined to the measurement of stream flow, and later it was extended to the study of underground supplies and the quality of water. That work and its results have been widely recognized as essential in the development of irrigation and municipal supplies, in studying hydroelectric power possibilities, and the determination of what can be done to control floods. |