WAPATO PROJECT

Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is the "Wapato project," for which you are requesting $35,000.

Mr. DODD. We offer the following justification in support of this item:

The Wapato project includes 145,445 acres of irrigable land of which 120,000 acres are under completed canals. The cost of construction to June 30, 1936, was $5,976,297.18. The estimated cost to complete the project as of June 30, 1935, was $1,400,000. A Public Works Administration allotment of $300,000 was made available for the fiscal years 1936 and 1937, which on June 30, 1937, will leave an estimated cost of $1,100,000 to complete. The following tabulation shows the items which make up the estimated cost of $1,400,000, the expenditures for 1936 and 1937, the estimate for 1938 and the balance to complete thereafter:

Main-drain enlargement, $7,500.-It is estimated that the main-drain enlargement will be done by contract and will not be completed until June 30, 1938. Twelve highway bridges are to be built across this drain. These bridges will not be included in the contract for the excavation of the drain but will be built by force account. It is estimated that the contractor will have completed one-half of the drain by the end of the fiscal year 1937 and that six of the bridges will have been built, leaving six bridges to be built later. The cost of these bridges is estimated at $1,250 each.

Subdrains, $52,500.-The original estimate for this item was $125,000, which has been increased $24,000, due principally to the necessity for installing larger culverts than were originally planned and to the difficulty of digging under water during the summertime. The completion of the drainage works is important as the construction of drainage canals has lagged behind the construction of irrigation facilities. The result is a large area of project land within which the ground water plane is so close to the surface as seriously to reduce the productivity of the land. This condition is further complicated by the fact that the high groundwater plane causes a concentration of alkali on the ground surface. This concentration increases yearly so that the longer the land is without adequate drainage the more difficult it will be to reclaim it when drainage is provided.

Metal turnout gates with measuring devices, $90,000.-These gates are to replace timber gates which are expensive to maintain and which include no means for measuring the flow of water. The metal gates proposed are equipped with measuring devices which make it possible to measure the flow of water through them as accurately as it can be measured over a weir. At most of the delivery points on the project there is not sufficient head to permit the use of weirs for measuring the flow. At these points the calibrated gates offer the only practical means of measurement; 183 of these gates, installed in March 1936, have been found to be very efficient. The original estimate for the cost of installing 2,000 of these gates was $120,000. The labor required was found to be less than was estimated and in some of the smaller ditches a shorter outlet pipe can be used making an estimated saving of $19,000 in the total cost of gate installation.

Ertension and enlargement of laterals, $35,000.-This includes the extension of laterals in various parts of the project to lands not heretofore served, the replacement of timber division boxes on pump unit no. 1 which are now badly decayed, by concrete boxes similar to those on pump unit no. 2, and the enlargement of laterals which have insufficient capacity. This is the only feature of the total program provided for in the 1938 budget.

Project office building, $15,000.-The present office building is an unplastered frame building. It is poorly lighted, difficult to heat, and is in a poor state of repair. It is inadequate as to size, part of the office being housed in the warehouse. It is proposed to construct a modern building of adequate size to house the project office force. There is ample space on the 13.3-acre tract which the Government owns in Wapato for the location of the proposed building. Located on this tract there are a large garage, machine and carpenter shops, warehouse, lumber yard with side track from the Northern Pacific Railroad and a number of cottages that are used as quarters for employees.

Mr. O'NEAL. Is that for extensions?

Mr. WATHEN. Yes, sir; extension of the canal system.

Mr. O'NEAL. It is not particularly an improvement of what they have now?

Mr. WATHEN. No.

Mr. O'NEAL. It brings more land into cultivation?

Mr. WATHEN. Yes, sir; it brings more land into cultivation.

Mr. LEAVY. Are there not some white people living on a part of this land?

Mr. WATHEN. The Wapato project is approximately 40 percent in white ownership.

Mr. O'NEAL. That part is reimbursable?

Mr. WATHEN. Yes, sir; to that extent it will be reimbursable.

ADMINISTRATION

Mr. O'NEAL. I notice the next item is "Administration", for which you are asking $60,000.

Mr. DODD. This item is proposed to cover the salaries of engineers and clerical help, office equipment, rents, the purchase of stationery, telephone and telegraph service, and miscellaneous administrative expense required in connection with the prosecution of the construction program contemplated by the Indian Irrigation Service during the fiscal year 1938.

This program embraces projects of major and minor magnitude, varying in size from small subsistence tracts of a few acres to major developments such as the Flathead project with an area of some 130,000 acres. Each and every project regardless of size represents a vital part of the land-use program which in turn forms a part of the plan having as its objective the conservation and orderly development of all resources of the reservation so that the Indians thereon may support themselves with self-respect on a basis comparable with their white neighbor.

The recent drought has emphasized the importance of the small irrigation systems in connection with subsistence farming. The success of these developments and the benefits derived therefrom will depend first of all upon the care and skill with which they are planned and developed. The development of plans and the supervision of construction is relatively much higher on small projects than it is on the larger projects. It is expected that the surveys, plans, designs, and advertisements for materials, as well as the supervision of construction, will be handled largely through the offices of the supervising engineers. Regular employees in these offices now paid from Public Works funds will be paid from this administration fund and in addition it will probably be necessary to increase the forces somewhat.

This overhead expense of $60,000 represents less than 3 percent of the total cost of the construction program here presented.

Mr. O'NEAL. I notice that there is new language in that item. ard a greatly increased amount for printing and binding. I would like to have you explain that, and also the personal services item in the District of Columbia.

Mr. DODD. The appropriation for the present year provides $50 or for administration expenses in connection with a program involving a gross outlay of $730,900. That is, $730,900, exclusive of the $ for administrative purposes.

Mr. O'NEAL. Yes.

Mr. DODD. We are requesting an increase of only $10,000 in the administrative costs. We are asking authority to use this appropnation for necessary printing and binding expenses, chargeable to the work undertaken for the various construction items in this program, because the printing and binding appropriation for the Department is insufficient to cover that. We probably would use nothing like $5,000, but we set that up as the maximum limit. There are nun, erous forms, documents, and other papers that we find it necessary to print, most of that work being done in the Government Printing Oilce. Mr. O'NEAL. What amount was spent for printing during the past year?

Mr. Dopp. We estimated approximately $500. This will be largely for charts, blue prints, and photographic work. We cannot sperd any part of this appropriation actually for printing in the Government Printing Office, because we have no authority. We have to have that specific authority in this item.

Mr. O'NEAL. How do you explain the increase from $500 to $5,00 Mr. DODD. Simply because we have a number of forms and a number of reports that must be printed, and the Department printing fund is insufficient to meet those costs.

Mr. O'NEAL. Why is the increase this year greater than in the past" Mr. Dopp. I may say that this $5,000 was set up for a program of more than $4,000,000. The Budget has allowed us only $2,090,0, and there would be no objection to reducing the printing limitat.on there, because of the lower amount of the appropriation, to $3,0),

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Mr. O'NEAL. How much more of a force do you expect to have in the District of Columbia this year than you had during the past year" Mr. DoDD. We do not expect to increase the force in the District of Columbia. We will carry one engineer at $3,500, one clerk at $1,800, and one clerk-stenographer at $1,620. It may be necessary at some time in the year to detail one or more people from the fix, i to the Washington office to handle temporary assignments, but most of the work will be done in the field.

Mr. O'NEAL. How many new employees do you contemplate it w be necessary to employ"

F Mr DoDD. We actually show a fewer number of employees for 10% than we had for 1937. We had 133 employees for the present ? wai year, that is, on a permanent personnel basis. This year we will have 127, or 6 fewer employees in 1958 than we have in 1937.

Mr. O'NEAL You mean there was an unexpended balance for 1% 75 Mr. Dopp. No, but we were starting this program somewhat ne and it required some extra people at the beginning of it, and some of them will be dropped. If you will notice the tabulation on page 151. of the bill, there are a great many fractional employees throughout

Those fractional people represent some temporary employment on an annual-salary basis rather than on a per-diem basis.

SUMMARY OF PROJECTS

Mr. O'NEAL. I would like to ask you to supply, if you do not have it with you, a priority list of these irrigation items, indicating which items. will be completed, with the amounts in the bill. In other words, you have given them in general, but I would like to have a succinct statement, showing those that will be completed with the items in the bill and those continuing over the next few years.

Mr. WATHEN. The information requested is as follows:

Summary, Indian irrigation construction items approved by Budget, showing classification and priorities of projects

1 New projects where additional funds will be required to make this expenditure useful. Projects that will be complete within themselves, or where no further funds will be necessary to make this expenditure useful. iProjects now under construction but where additional funds will be required to make this expenditure

useful.

NEW PROJECTS IN IRRIGATION

Mr. LAMBERTSON. How many of these projects are new projects? Have you counted them?

Mr. WATHEN. In irrigation?

Mr. LAMBERTSON. Yes.

Mr. WATHEN. There are no strictly new projects. They are all working projects, or they have been started. These are merely requests for funds for completion. There will be new land brought in on some of it.

I have here a tabulation which I will be glad to offer for the record, if you care to have it inserted, showing each one of our projects in each State, and the amount proposed for expenditure for the fiscal year 1938, which is the amount you have been considering in your Budget, and then the amount that has been spent on each of those projects to date, and then the amount required to complete them. Mr. LAMBERTSON. I personally would like to have it. I do not care whether it is in the record or not.

Mr. LEAVY. I think that is part of the data you asked to have put in the record.

Mr. WATHEN. Yes; that is practically the statement.

Mr. O'NEAL. However, it is operative at the present time, is it not, Mr. Wathen?

Mr. WATHEN. It is being operated at the present time to the lit of the water supply that is available. They are short of water each year, however, and the Indians now are indicating a desire to place the the entire area under cultivation. All of the white landowners desire to put their lands into cultivation, and that is particularly true t...s year, on account of the new sugar beet factory that has been insta, ed by the Holly Sugar Co. at Hardin, Mont., which gives them an easy market for their sugar beets. The $500,000 to complete the prot should be expended over a period of two years, $200,000 the first year and $300,000 the second year.

Mr. O'NEAL. To serve how many farms?

Mr. WATHEN. It will augment the water supply for the entire 63,000 acres.

Mr. O'NEAL. Has there been a real shortage of water up there" Mr. WATHEN. Yes; there has been an acute shortage of water Last year there were only 2,366 acres irrigated by Indians, 14.8 acres of leased, and 6,979 acres were irrigated by white owners, making a total of 24,153 acres that were irrigated, out of a total area of 63,365 acres. That was the water supply that was available last year It was simply sufficient water for 24,000 acres.

BLACKFEET IRRIGATION PROJECT, MONTANA

Mr. Dopp. Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a brief statement concerning an item which is not in the bill, but which we have submitted to the Bureau of the Budget. Heretofore the committee Ess asked us to inform them when we have deficiencies or supplemer i s items pending. Since this budget was compiled, we have submitted to the Bureau of the Budget an item of approximately $90,000 for rehabilitating the Blackfeet irrigation project in Montana. I do not know whether this item will come before this committee or the deficiency committee, We merely bring it to the attention of the committee at this time so that you may know we are considering it

Mr. O'NEAL. You will present a justification to us at the proper time, should it come before the committee.

Mr. Dopp. Yes, sir.

Mr. LAMBERTSON. You did not present that with the regar appropriation to the Budget?

Mr. DoDD. No, sir; this is something which has developed after we made up our regular budget.

MOAPA IRRIGATION PROJECT, NEVADA

Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is "Moapa irrigation project, Nevada, " for which you are requesting $20,000.

Mr. DoDD. The Moapa project, Clark County, Nev., comprises an ultimate irrigable area of 625 acres with 355 now under constricted works. Flood control and drainage are both urgently needed. Utr present conditions crops are frequently damaged or totally destroyed by floods and one-half of the land is already swamp and alkated. If the drainage is not provided, the total area will become worthless, in