other flood-control works and (2) the operation of a Nation-wide network of automatic rainfall stations, the detailed data from which are an essential element in storm analysis. These projects are now financed wholly by funds transferred from the War Department.

The mutual need by the Corps of Engineers and the Weather Bureau for more frequent reports of rainfall during periods of storm and flood from a greater number of reporting stations than the Bureau has been in position to operate has resulted in the establishment of a number of cooperative reporting networks largely financed by funds transferred through the Corps of Engineers. These are outlined in the following table:

It is contemplated, as the plans of the Corps of Engineers develop, to extend this cooperation into all areas where the operation of flood-control works and the forecasting of floods in the public interest are dependent upon the prompt reporting of excessive rainfall.

The Weather Bureau, through its meteorological services, is making progress also in providing an important supplemental service to flood-control operations in the form of forecasts of storm rainfall in quantitative amounts. Such forecasts add to the allowable time for flood preparation and enhance the flexibility and dependability of control and relief operations of the Army as well as the flood forecasts and warnings of the Weather Bureau.

HEADWATER WARNING SERVICE

In June 1940 excessively heavy rains fell in northeast Nebraska and caused disastrous floods on the small streams in that area. The region is hilly and the run-off rapid, giving little time for warning or preparation. Loss of life and extensive damage resulted. At the suggestion of Congressmen Stefan and Curtis, a headwater warning service for northeast Nebraska was proposed and authorized by Congress during the fiscal year 1941, the cost to be taken from existing appropriations. The service provides for the direct reporting of heavy rainfall in headwater areas to the threatened communities below.

Similar services have been established in other headwater areas, including the Yadkin River in the vicinity of North Wilkesboro, N. C., where destructive floods occurred in August 1940; in the upper Allegheny River where the disastrous floods of July 1942 caused the loss of 15 lives, and in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, a heavily industrialized area, which suffered severely from floods in May 1942.

NEWLY ESTABLISHED RIVER DISTRICTS IN THE WESTERN STATES

The increasing importance of water in the economic life of the West has directed attention to the need for more accurate means of forecasting stream flow from melting snow. In that snowfall and subsequent melting are meteorological phenomena, the Bureau has felt under obligation to place its service and technical facilities at the disposal of irrigation and other interests. River district centers have been newly established at Spokane, Seattle, Billings, Helena, Boise, Medford, Pueblo, and Grand Junction. As no funds have been provided for this special service it will be 3 or 4 years before forecasting methods can be developed and put into operation.

STATEMENT OF LELAND OLDS, CHAIRMAN OF THE FEDERAL POWER COMMISSION

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Olds, for the reporter, give your name and official position, if you will.

Mr. OLDS. My name is Leland Olds, Chairman of the Federal Power Commission.

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to ask you, before you make your statement, you have already made a statement in connection with the Pensacola and other related dams in southeastern Oklahoma?

Mr. OLDS. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. On a former day of these hearings?

Mr. OLDS. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, we have under consideration the favorable reports here on projects that have been submitted since the former hearings under the Flood Control Act of August 28, 1941, and some of these projects involve power.

We recall your former very helpful and constructive statements with respect to power in projects previously approved and adopted by this committee and passed by Congress.

At this time I want to ask you if there are any changes with respect to the power developments in the reservoirs along the Connecticut River, in addition to the statements that you have formerly submitted to this committee?

Mr. OLDS. No, sir; I think that our recommendations on the Connecticut River are the same.

The CHAIRMAN. That goes generally for the New England area? Mr. OLDS. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, we have before us here a project, it is in House Document No. 702, Seventy-seventh Congress, second session, Susquehanna River and tributaries, that involves the construction of reservoirs at Gaines Lakes and South Plymouth.

I am wondering if you are familiar with the power possibilities or have you made any investigations with regard to those reservoirs, and have you any statement that you can furnish the committee with respect to power there?

Mr. OLDS. May I ask Mr. Olds to come up here and join me? We have got another Mr. Olds. He is no relative of mine.

The project that we are particularly interested in-that is the Raystown project.

The CHAIRMAN. That is a part of this project. It is going to cost $29,000,000.

Mr. OLDS. The Raystown project is a very important project because of the control it establishes of the river all the way down through existing power plants, in addition to power that would be generated at Raystown.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, we have the report of the Corps of Engineers here with respect to the power possibilities and as I say that report is published in House Document No. 702, Seventy-seventh Congress, and my general question is intended to be whether or not you concur in the provisions for power that obtain in that report?

Mr. OLDS. We concur. Yes, sir. We have already made comments in the past, I think, but we concur in the general plan of development. The CHAIRMAN. I am just taking that up because that report has come to us since.

Now, I will ask you next with respect to the modification of the comprehensive flood-control plan in the Ohio Basin, so as to provide for the Rowlesburg Dam and Reservoir on the Cheat River, that is a project that is reported by the Corps of Engineers favorably, for defense reasons, at an estimated cost of $29,000,000, and it provides not only facilities for future power but as I recall and if I am incorrect I will thank you to refresh my memory, General Robins, it provides for the sale or transmission of power there, does it not? It contemplates that. General ROBINS. My recollection is that the power facilities were to be installed later.

The CHAIRMAN. You make provision for their later installation. General ROBINS. And also the transmission and sale of power, that is right.

The CHAIRMAN. I should have said that. That was my recollection. You concur generally, Mr. Olds, in the power probabilities and possibilities of that river system, as I recall.

Mr. OLDS. Very definitely. Our analysis indicates that the initial installation could be 85,000 kilowatts with an ultimate installation of 110,000 kilowatts. I think Rowlesburg also provides storage that will be useful in the river below.

The CHAIRMAN. If you want to extend that when you look over your remarks, I will be very glad to have you do it, because I am asking the question specifically as to projects on which there have been favorable reports.

Now, in the report on the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania and Maryland, not published, but with which you, I assume, and I am sure that you are familiar, I will ask you to state whether or not you concur in the power potentialities of that area and along those two streams?

Mr. OLDS. We concur, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. The estimated cost is $40,000,000 to the Govern

ment.

Mr. OLDS. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. We have under consideration presently, the King's River and the Tulare Lake project and the Pine Flat Reservoir, reported in House Document 630, Seventy-sixth Congress, third session, and we have under informal consideration related dams and reservoirs in the Kern River area, along the Kern River and along other

areas.

I am wondering if you have any report to submit to us that would give us any information supplemental and additional to the information that you furnished us along these rivers in your previous hearings?

Mr. OLDS. I think that we have furnished practically all that we have in previous hearings. I will check over it and see. Our men have been working on the matter.

The CHAIRMAN. If it develops that you have any additional supplemental statements, why we will be glad to have them in connection with that project.

Mr. OLDS. All right.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Have you checked on the Tule River?

Mr. OLDS. Those were included in the study of that area, in the study that we made.

Mr. ELLIOTT. And the San Joaquin River?

Mr. OLDS. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. I am glad Mr. Elliott asked you that question. I may say that I intended to ask you to extend your remarks there for the record, with respect to the Kings, Kern, and the other reservoirs and dams down there.

Mr. OLDS. We will do so.

(The statement is as follows:)

STATEMENT IN REGARD TO PROJECTS IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIF.

Information in regard to projects in the San Joaquin Valley requested by Chairman Whittington, of the Committee on Flood Control from Chairman Olds, of the Federal Power Commission, when the appeared before the committee on June 10, 1943, is as follows:

Pine Flat project on the Kings River, Calif.-The Pine Flat project is located on the Kings River in Fresno County, 4 miles upstream from the town of Piedra and about 25 miles easterly from the city of Fresno, Calif. The project as proposed by the War Department contemplates the construction of a reservoir having a total storage capacity of 1,000,000 acre-feet for the combined purposes of flood control, water conservation, and incidental power. The dam would be a concrete gravity structure 420 feet high and 1,500 feet long. The drainage area above the dam is 1,700 square miles, and the annual run-off is about 1,800,000 acre-feet. The development of hydroelectric power is not contemplated at present but provision will be made for penstocks for future use in the development of power. The immediate purpose of the dam and reservoir is to provide flood control and water for irrigtation. The estimated cost of the project is $18,200,000.

The gross area dependent on the Kings River for irrigation water is about 1,000,000 acres and the distribution system is practically complete. The maximum area actually irrigated in any one year to date is estimated at 750,000

acres.

The potential power at the dam has been estimated by the Commission staff to be 120,000 kilowatts of capacity to operate on the peak of a variable daily load curve with a reregulating dam downstream from the plant. A suitable site for the reregulating dam is located near the town of Piedra.

The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors in 1939 estimated the annual charges for the project, including $40,000 for operation and maintenance, at $880,000 and benefits without power as follows:

The conclusions and recommendations of the Commission in regard to the Pine Flat Dam and Reservoir as set forth in a letter to the Secretary of War and

dated January 5, 1939, and printed in H. Doc, 630, Seventy-sixth Congress, third session, are as follows:

"The Commission concurs in the recommendation of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors for the construction by the United States of the Pine Flat Dam and Reservoir as an element in the Kings River and Tulare Lake project, to regulate the flow of the Kings River for the reduction of flood heights and for other beneficial purposes including power development."

Isabella Dam and Reservoir, Kern County, Calif.-The War Department prepared plans for the Isabella Reservoir project under authority of the 1936 Flood Control Act as modified by the Flood Control Acts of 1937 and 1938. The project is described in the survey report of the district engineer, Sacramento, Calif., entitled "Survey Report, Flood-Control, Sacramento and San Joaquin River Valleys, Calif.-Kern River Group-Proposed Flood Control Improvements" dated June 13, 1939.

The report of the district engineer, division engineer, and the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors was received by the Federal Power Commission about April 1, 1940.

If the recommendations of the Board of Engineers is carried out a dam would be constructed on the Kern River at the Isabella site located about 50 miles northeasterly from Bakersfield, Calif., creating a reservoir of 550,000 acre-feet capacity, and provision would be made for the possible future installation of power facilities at the dam. The total first cost as estimated by the Board of Engineers is $6,800,000. The project would be operated primarily for flood control with incidental use of stored water for the improvement of irrigation. Regulation of stream flow would also materially increase the output of downstream power plants.

The benefits resulting from the proposed project as estimated by the district engineer would be:

Average annual flood-control benefit...

Average annual value of improvement of irrigation supply.
Average annual value of increased power___

Total average annual direct benefit_--_.

$732, 700 153, 100 32,000

917, 800

On the basis of the district engineer's estimate of the total first cost of $6,055,000, the ratio of annual benefits to cost would be 2.8 to 1. This ratio is slightly modified by the increase in the estimated first cost by the Board of Engineers to $6,800,000.

The project as proposed by the War Department comprises a main dam and an auxiliary dam. Crest gates will be provided on the spillway for regulation of run-off from melting snow during the period from May 15 to October 1. Gross storage capacity to top of crest gates would be 550,000 acre-feet. Drainage area above the dam is 2,080 square miles. The main dam would be a multiple arch concrete structure 165 feet high and 1,880 feet long with a small concrete gravity section at each end of the dam. The auxiliary dam would be a rolled earth structure 73 feet high across Hot Springs Valley.

One feature of the project that requires further study is the method of supplying water to the Borel power plant downstream from the Isabella Dam. The conduit that now carries water to the plant crosses the Isabella Reservoir area. From the reports of the War Department and from studies by the staff of the Commission, the Commission concluded that a multiple-purpose reservoir project at the Isabella site on the Kern River in California is a desirable element in a plant to develop comprehensively the water resources of the Kern River; that its construction should be authorized; that further study should be directed to methods of reservoir operation, provisions for power at the site of the project, and the relation of the project to the Borel power development and to other power plants downstream; and that the enabling legislation should contain a provision with respect to the determination and collection of benefits to downstream power plants.

Kaweah and Tule Rivers, San Joaquin Valley, Calif.-In a survey report prepared by the War Department and dated April 30, 1940, it was proposed to construct two dams and reservoirs for flood protection and water conservation and irrigation but without provision for present or future hydroelectric power. The two dams are on the Terminus Dam on the Kaweah River and the Success Dam on the Tule River.

Both dams would be rolled earth structures; pertinent data for the two projects is as follows: