Senator CORDON. Is there any navigation on the river at that point? Colonel STARBIRD. No, sir, there is not.

Colonel STARBIRD. The next project is the second of the recommended resumptions insofar as flood control projects are concerned. It is a project for local protection, basically for channel clearance and construction of a rather low levee wall, and the construction of certain appurtenant works in the city of Adams, Mass. This is a project which was initiated in 1950 and was interrupted in 1951.

Senator CORDON. Is this also a project initiated by the Appropriations Committee?

General CHORPENING. That is right, sir.

Senator CORDON. I would like to have the record show the Appropriations Committee has done a little bit of work on its own from time to time when it found the need was there.

Senator ELLENDER. I think we had it in in the past three appropriations and the House saw fit to delete it.

Colonel STARBIRD. This project has one unit completed. It is the unit at the "Y" where a main tributary comes into the Hoosic River, in the middle of the city. It is a unit alone of only limited usefulness. Until we have the other units completed, the protection given is really relatively small.

The project has an estimated cost of $5,406,000, of which $844,000, or 16 percent, has been appropriated to date. No funds were, of course, appropriated in fiscal year 1954.

The amount recommended for fiscal year 1955 is a total of $560,000 to initiate and complete channel work and flood walls on the main stream of the Hoosic River from the end of the completed work at Murray Street downstream for a distance of 800 feet.

Senator ELLENDER. Your whole recommendation was accepted by the Bureau of the Budget?

Colonel STARBIRD. The full recommendation, which was overceiling, was accepted. It is the amount necessary to provide the next useful unit of the project.

Senator ELLENDER. The whole amount you recommended overceiling was acceptable to the Bureau of the Budget?

Colonel STARBIRD. That is correct.

Senator ROBERTSON. But the ratio of the benefit cost is a little narrow?

Colonel STARBIRD. The benefit-cost ratio on this project is 1.35 to 1.

LOCAL CONTRIBUTION

Senator ELLENDER. Is there any local contribution?

Colonel STARBIRD. There is a substantial local contribution in the form of the normal four assurances. It is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $625,000 initial cost, exclusive of the cost of maintenance and operation which they will have to take over.

Senator ELLENDER. I hope we can get it through this time.
Senator CORDON. I join in that hope.

Colonel STARBIRD. The next project is in Minnesota. It is the Aitkin Cutoff and diversion project, a project to give local protection both to the city of Aitkin and to a rather large agricultural area along the river for a distance of some 30 to 35 miles. The project is basically the construction of a main cutoff channel about 6 miles long to cut off 24 miles of river and the construction of certain subsidiary diversion channels.

The amount recommended for this project in fiscal year 1955 will bring the project to completion. The project has a cost of $1,776,300. That is a reduction of $167,700 since last year, due to favorable bids on the project.

Senator CORDON. Let us have that figure again. I have total estimated Federal cost of $1,769,600.

Colonel STARBIRD. You are correct. I should have stated the figure as being $1,769,600.

We have had appropriated to date $1,269,600. The amount_recommended for fiscal year 1955 is $500,000. This project has a benefit

cost ratio of 1.26 to 1.

We carried over into this fiscal year approximately $800,000 but that figure reflects funds in the amount of $265,000 that were loaned to another project and repaid early in fiscal year 1954. However, we have reduced the funds available, even including the repayment to about $308,000 at the present time and will reduce it to the neighborhood of $187,000 by the end of the fiscal year.

Senator CORDON. Is this a continuing contract?

Colonel STARBIRD. Yes, sir.

Senator THYE. Your project is very nearly completed; it is about 89 percent completed?

Colonel STARBIRD. It is well along.

Senator THYE. You hope to finish it this year, barring some unforeseen flood situation?

Colonel STARBIRD. That is correct.

Senator THYE. You made a savings by favorable bids so that the project will not cost as much as you originally thought it would. There will be a little balance left?

Colonel STARBIRD. You say "as much as we originally thought." My answer is there was a saving of $150,000. However, I should explain I am only covering the change from that estimate contemplated last year. I am sure there has been an advance in cost over the years since the project was originally planned.

Senator THYE. What you estimated last year, you have a savings

over that?

Colonel STARBIRD. That is right.

Senator THYE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am very, very familiar with the area. When I was Governor there was one time when the flood was so severe we had to get the State guard to take equipment up there and not only haul fill into the high places but in some instances they had to haul the cattle out of the flooded area in order to save them. The river is meandering throughout that flat country. You have a channel 6 miles long and it takes care of almost 30 miles of river. So you see that winds in through there so slow, when your floods came it flooded that entire area.

I believe when this job is completed it will be a great benefit to that entire area of Minnesota because it will assure those producers in that flat area adjacent to Aitkin that they can go on and plant their crops without being flooded every time you get a heavy rain.

General CHORPENING. I personally visited this project this fall, and I was extremely well pleased with the progress of the work and especially with the fine cooperation that existed between the local interests and our people.

Senator THYE. We do have a little trouble up in that area trying to finance some bridges over the new channel. The county does not have the finances and that is the one problem we are faced with now. How do we get some bridges across that new channel to accommodate the necessary travel? But other than that, the people up there are just very thankful and grateful. It is just a financial problem in the county. But they are grateful for the project and what the Government has aided them in accomplishing. And the engineers have done an excellent job.

Senator ELLENDER. May I ask about Aitkin, Minn.?

That is within ceiling?

Colonel STARBIRD. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. What did you recommend?

Colonel STARBIRD. We recommended completion with $506,700. Senator ELLENDER. So you will do it with $500,000.

Colonel STARBIRD. Yes.

Senator CORDON. The next 3 projects have already been discussed, I believe. We go to page 468 now.

RIO GRANDE FLOODWAY (ALBUQUERQUE UNIT), N. MEX.

Colonel STARBIRD. The Rio Grande Floodway project is a project for the protection of the lower portion of the city of Albuquerque, N. Mex., and I might mention that this is the business and communications area as well as a part of the residential area; also for the protection of about 30 square miles of very highly developed agricultural land in a large number of holdings along the river.

Construction was initiated this fiscal year. The project has an estimated cost of $5 million, of which $693,500, or 14 percent, has been appropriated to date, including $300,000 appropriated in fiscal year

14.

The project has a benefit-cost ratio of 1.3 to 1. The amount reco.mended for appropriation in fiscal year 1955 is $500,000.

The amount carried over into fiscal year 1954 was $208,000. The amant available on December 31 was $434,000. We will reduce our carryover to substantially zero by the end of this fiscal year.

Senator CORDON. Is this the project where the bed of the river is today higher than the surrounding terrain?

Colonel STARBIRD. That is true of this project, sir. It is a project for the improvement of local levees back to the original grades but with a better section. The bed of the river has built up as much as several feet and in some cases is higher than the area behind the ex.sting levees.

Senator CORDON. Are those people down there going to be faced with the problem of building up levees and letting the river build up its bed?

Colonel STARBIRD. This is part of a plan which involves the construction of reservoirs not only for flood control to reduce the tremendous floods but also reservoirs to catch the silt and debris in the upper areas. Incidentally, the height of the levees here is based on the height that would be required to control the flood considering the sedimentation involved, and based on reservoirs being completed. Serator ELLENDER. This amount of $500,000 is within ceiling? Colonel STARBIRD. It is within ceiling, sir.

Serator ELLENDER. The full amount?

Colonel STARBIRD. No, sir. We recommended $800,000.

Senator CORDON. The next project.

BATAVIA, N. Y.

Colonel STARRIRD. The next project is in New York on a stream called Tonawanda Creek.

Serator CORDON. What page is that?

Colonel STARBIRD. Excuse me; Batavia is the name of the project. It is a project for the protection of the city and includes channel widening and clearing and removal of two structures now obstructing channel flow. The project has an estimated cost of $793,000. It is a new start. No money has been appropriated for construction to date. However, $41,000 has been appropriated for planning.

This is a project where the local interests must provide the normal four assurances that I described earlier. Their contribution thereby will run quite high. It is estimated to cost $231,000, exclusive of maintenance and operation.

The project has a high benefit-cost ratio, 2.6 to 1.

Senator ELLENDER. All this is over ceiling?

Colonel STARBIRD. This is over ceiling. The amount recommended by the budget for this project for fiscal year 1955 is $300,000.

Senator CORDON. I note an item, "Total estimated local contributions, $4,000." What is that?

Colonel STARBIRD. That is a contribution in the form of cash, sir. In addition to taking on the normal 4 assurances they must, in this case, as provided for in the original authorization, give $4,000 toward the removal of the 2 existing obstructing structures, a pier and a small dam, existing structures that are in the channel.

Senator CORDON. Is it not unusual to set out a cash contribution? I have never seen this before.

General CHORPENING. No, sir. This happens occasionally where there are some very specific reasons why the local interests should pay for doing certain things. That was the way it was recommended originally.

Senator CORDON. Set up the way it is here, it is very misleading.

General CHORPENING. We show only the local contribution on these sheets when it is, in fact, a cash contribution as required by the authorization toward work which we will carry out. We do not show the amounts covering expenditures for their work and real estate they must provide.

Senator CORDON. The next item.

Colonel STARBIRD. The next project is Corning, N. Y. It is a supplemental project to a completed one, the supplemental being one to conduct a creek which now overflows frequently through a developed area behind levee protection that has already been completed. The total estimated cost of the overall project is $3,656,000. Of that amount, $3,156,000, or 86 percent of the funds required, have been appropriated to date. That includes an appropriation of $200,000 in