Senator CASE. I assume the operation of the gates is essential to flood control and to regulation for navigation and the power applied to them would be of benefit, but what you are saying is that benefit is not shown in revenues? General POTTER. That is right. Senator CASE. What was that figure that you gave there for the energy, the mill rate? General POTTER. 4.04 mills per kilowatt-hour of energy. POWER CHARGE Senator CASE. What is the rate the Bureau of Reclamation proposes to charge, do you know? General POTTER. There are several rates, depending upon whether it is a service charge or a capacity rate. The average figure I have heard is 52 mills. Senator CASE. For firm power? General POTTER. Yes, under certain schedules. Senator CASE. Then there would be a lesser rate for the dump power? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. You are starting power production next month? General POTTER. In March the President will start the first gen erator. Senator CASE. What is the production capacity of the first generator? General POTTER. It is a 40,000-kilowatt unit, 1 of 8. POWER CAPACITY Senator CASE. What will be the installed capacity? General POTTER. 320,000 kilowatts; eight 40,000-kilowatt generators. Senator CASE. It runs in my mind that I heard you were going to get 400,000. Is that a revised figure? General POTTER. No, sir. Mr. JOHNSON. That was at Garrison. General POTTER. There are to be five 80,000-kilowatt units at Garrison. Senator CASE. Five 80,000-kilowatt units at Garrison and eight 40,000-kilowatt units at Fort Randall? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. One of them at Fort Randall goes into operation next month? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. When will the next one go into operation? General POTTER. About every 4 months thereafter. Senator CASE. Until all eight are in operation? General POTTER. Yes, sir. In connection with Garrison, only the three are proposed initially. The other two will come later. Senator CASE. Are all of these contracted for now? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. The funds that you are requesting will take care of the commitments on the deliveries for the generators and other powerhouse equipment? General POTTER. Yes, sir. There is $22 million for the generators, $1.6 million for the turbines; $173,000 for transformers; and $293,000 for leads and switch gear. Senator CASE. If the funds are provided as programed, how much are you allowing for lands and damages? General POTTER. That is $265,800. That will bring it to 99 percent complete for land acquisition. Senator CASE. Does that reflect the application of the new landacquisition policy? General POTTER. No, sir. The new land-acquisition policy hardly pertains to Fort Randall, since practically all of the land acquisition was completed before it came into effect. There is this little amount still to go, but we do not see how the new land policy can greatly affect that figure. On a structure such as Gavins Point where no land acquisition has taken place, of course it is entirely different. Senator CASE. Let us revert to Gavins Point for a minute. LAND ACQUISITION Senator CASE. What is the presently estimated cost of land acquisition for Gavins Point? General POTTER. The figure I have is on the old policy, which is about 4,000 acres higher than the new policy, and the figure is $3,364,000 for the total land acquisition. Senator CASE. That was for a total acreage of how much? General POTTER. About 40,000, sir. Senator CASE. What is the land required under the policy as presently envisioned? General POTTER. It has not been completed for the whole reservoir due to the problems which have to be settled around Niobrara but it appears that the savings will be about 4,000 fewer acres. Senator CASE. In other words, close to 36,000 acres? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. The clerk advises me that last year when the presentation was made the estimate for land was 35,780 acres. When did it go to 40,000? General POTTER. Last year the taking line had not been completed and I personally had not known of the impact of some of the land taking laws up in the State of Nebraska. Senator CASE. In other words, the application for so-called new land taking policy will put you back to about the figure you had in mind last year? General POTTER. Approximately. Senator CASE. What actually will that do? Does that eliminate all possibility of having any areas that could be devoted to recreational use? General POTTER. No, sir. At the dam there will be a rather adequate area on the South Dakota side, I think. I could show you that area. The land-taking area on the South Dakota side will generally follow that road about this way [indicating]. Senator CASE. In every instance, or all along that line, will that give you control of the access to the shoreline itself? General POTTER. There will be sufficient access for our operations of the reservoir. I am thinking of taking the debris out, cleaning up the shoreline, and so on. Whether or not it will meet the desires of the State of South Dakota for recreational access will be determined in the meeting with Mr. Peterson and the district engineer at Omaha, Colonel Hayes. Senator CASE. There have been two different points of view expressed to me. One point of view is that they would like to have the Federal Government, since it is in the business, acquire enough land and make a good-size park. The other extreme is that those who are surrendering some of their land for the dam would like to have access to the dam so they can recoup some of their losses or at least make some profit from selling sites along the lake. Then there is a thought in between there that if the Government acquires sufficient land on the Gavins Point Reservoir so as to control the access to the shoreline, with such additional land areas as would be required to protect against the floodwater where it goes up in the bayous or gullies in time of high water, that that would provide some recreational opportunity and prevent the danger of speculation and exploitation by private capital. Where will this 36,000 acres, approximately, leave us with respect to those 3 points of view? AREA DEVELOPMENT General POTTER. With respect to utilization of the reservoir area by the normal visiting public, I think it will be quite adequate. With respect to the development of large recreational areas, wildlife areas, it will not take care of those. With respect to the speculation, I cannot say because the American citizen and especially these people with whom I have dealt are people of considerable vision and ambition. I presume some of them will develop cottage sites, camp sites, or convert their land to other commercial uses. Senator CASE. That is, those that would be within sight of the lake? General POTTER. Bordering the lake. Senator CASE. Will there actually be private land that will come right to the high-water mark? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. To what extent? General POTTER. Part way up the reservoir, and in my estimation out of the way of the best territory to be developed, out of the region. Senator CASE. Will Gavins Point have any special recreational advantages as compared with the other main-stem reservoirs? General POTTER. To my mind it is the greatest recreational potential that we have ever developed in a reservoir due to its extreme stability of pool. Senator ČASE. You are speaking for the Corps of Engineers? I mean, you have developed it as the Corps of Engineers? General POTTER. Among those I know of. SURFACE AREA OF LAKE Senator CASE. What would be the total surface area of the lake? General POTTER. About 33,000 acres, sir. Senator CASE. Why do you say that will be unique among voirs developed by the engineers? the reser General POTTER. Because this reservoir will be kept within a fluctuation zone normally under 2 feet; whereas, some of the reservoirs with large flood-control allocations fluctuate as much as 15 to 20 or more feet. This will have a relative constant pool. It has a capacity, sir, of only 540,000 feet, and I believe about only 60,000 acre-feet are dedicated exclusively to flood control. Senator CASE. Would that fluctuation of less than 2 feet be less than the normal? General POTTER. I would say it would be like a normal lake except we would never have to fear for evaporation, it constantly being supplied from Fort Randall. Senator CASE. The replenishment by the upstream flow going into it would offset evaporation? General POTTER. And downstream discharge. As the Senator knows, there is 100,000 kilowatts of electricity to be generated here. So we propose to run water through those generators at capacity. OPERATORS' QUARTERS Senator CASE. That was developed in the earlier testimony on Gavins Point. What are you planning in the way of operators' quarters at Gavins Point? I note you are requesting $70,600 for that purpose in 1955 out of an estimated total cost of $180,900. General POTTER. We would propose there would be operators' quar ters for the powerhouse people so that we would always have immediately adjacent to the powerhouse people who could be called in case of emergency. Senator CASE. How many homes are planned there? General POTTER. About eight. We would not propose to build quarters for the maintenance crew, et cetera. Senator CASE. How far will the powerhouse be from the city of Yankton? General POTTER. About 6 miles, sir. Senator CASE. You think you need eight family quarters at the powerhouse itself? General POTTER. Mr. Johnson informs me the figure is six. I would say yes, sir, because we will have close to a $6 million powerhouse and equipment to be operated. Senator CASE. Will those houses run $30,000 apiece? General POTTER. $20,000 to $25,000, though we have not approved any plans or specifications for them. I would be guided by the criteria set up by the Congress and Bureau of the Budget. Senator CASE. I am afraid the Governor's house at South Dakota did not cost that much. Mr. JOHNSON. Those figures include the roads and utilities. Senator CASE. How much do you have for roads and utilities? Mr. JOHNSON. About $47,000 for roads and utilities and about $25,000 for Government costs. Actual contract cost of each house is estimated to be $18,000. CONSTRUCTION OF COLD BROOK DAM Senator CASE. There are some questions I wanted to ask with regard to some of the other programs in South Dakota. Do you recall, General, when you built the Cold Brook Dam there were two or three private landowners below the dam who complained that their wells ceased to function? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. I think the first hope was after the dam was built and some water impounded the water level of the wells would come back and those wells would function again. What has happened? General POTTER. To my knowledge the wells have not come back as yet. Senator CASE. When was that dam completed? General POTTER. Actually, the final work was done last year. Senator CASE. But those people have been deprived of any water in their wells for a couple of years? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. Do you have authority to settle with them for that? General POTTER. I had hoped I did, but the damage is what legal people call consequential damage and I do not have that authority. Senator CASE. But the engineers agree that the loss or damage actually took place? General POTTER. It is my personal opinion that our grouting did have a great deal to do with that loss. Senator CASE. In the bill the language says, Provided, That not more than $5,750 of the amount herein appropriated shall be available for expenditure, in addition to funds heretofore made available for the Garrison Dam and Reservoir project on the Missouri River, to pay to the lawful occupants of properties within the taking area of the project for their improvements which will be rendered useless by the construction of the project, but for which compensation may not be made under existing law because of the occupant's limited right of occupancy. That made me wonder if you could not suggest some appropriate language to take care of that damage at the Cold Brook Dam. General POTTER. Similar language might be possible. I am just not enough of a lawyer to know. But I will investigate it, and a report will be made to you. Senator CASE. Could you also report, and leave it with the clerk of the committee, the estimate of an amount which would take care of the consequential damages referred to? General POTTER. Yes, sir. Senator CASE. When we were discussing towns, you referred to Pickstown and Riverdale as being isolated towns, and thereby the problem existed as to what advantage could be acquired from their disposal. Have you any plans with regard to Pickstown? General POTTER. I have studies underway at both of those towns, one at Fort Randall and one at Riverdale. Senator CASE. When will you be through with the facilities at Pickstown? General POTTER. The force at Pickstown is being reduced at the present time and the project should be in a completely operating status in 1957. Senator CASE. What was the total investment at Pickstown? |