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ternational Boundary and Water Commission, the dams required for the conservation and regulation of the greatest quantity of the annual flow of the river ***.

Page 32, paragraph 46b:

The findings supported the conclusion that from the viewpoint of the United States there is urgent need to: (1) Make available for use the optimum feasible quantity of this country's share of the waters of the Rio Grande in order to reduce, insofar as practicable, shortages in the irrigation supply and consequent crippling losses to the agricultural economy in this country along the river; *

Page 44, paragraph 52:

*** Under these provisions, each Section of the Commission determined the optimum feasible conservation capacity that would be required by its country at the Diablo Dam site, and joint determinations were made by the two sections of the Commission relative to the silt capacity and the flood-control capacity required at the site * *

Page 44, paragraph 53:

* The optimum feasible capacity for regulation of U.S. waters at the Diablo site was developed by the U.S. Section from a series of studies using various assumed conservation capacities operated in conjunction with the U.S. share of conservation capacity in Falcon Reservoir **

Page 45, paragraph 53:

*** Hence, conservation storage capacity for this country at the Diablo site in the amount found economically justified would permit essentially the optimum feasible regulation of U.S. waters above Falcon Dam * *

Page 62, paragraph 75:

*** To develop, under the terms of the 1944 water treaty, the additional storage essential for optimum control and regulation of the Rio Grande Page 69, paragraph 82(a):

* (2) conserve and make available for utilization in this country the optimum feasible quantity of its share of the waters of the Rio Grande * * *. Page 69, paragraph 82(c):

** To achieve the optimum feasible control and regulation at the Diablo site, the total reservoir capacity required amounts to 5,660,000 acre-feet, consisting of 2,110,000 acre-feet of flood-control capacity as jointly determined by the United States and Mexican sections of the Commission, in which each country would have an undivided interest; and 3,550,000 acre-feet of conservation and silt capacity, of which the U.S. share as determined by its section of the Commission would amount to 1,995,000 acre-feet * * *.

The approximate average annual unused runoff of rainfall on the Rio Grande above Laredo, Tex., in acre-feet per square mile from 1900 to 1913 was 23 and from 1924 to 1957 was 13. In order for the International Boundary and Water Commission to develop the quantities of probable future flows of the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman available for regulation and utilization by the two countries, the historical flows for each year were modified by the International Boundary and Water Commission by subtracting therefrom the estimated increased depletions which have developed to the present over those which actually obtained in each year beginning in 1900 and were further modified by deducting such additional depletions as they contemplated in the future. Such estimated average increased depletions over historical depletions at the Diablo Dam site is 691,000 acre-feet average annually and at Falcon Dam site is 1,171,600 acre

feet average annually. Soil and water conservation measures on the contributing areas of the Rio Grande watershed above Falcon Dam have seriously reduced rainfall runoff into the Rio Grande and there is every reason to believe that the providing of additional soil and water conservation measures on contributing rainfall runoff areas of the Rio Grande above Falcon Dam will be accelerated by the United States and Mexico in the future.

Conservation storage capacity in the proposed Amistad Dam project belonging to the United States is a necessity to prevent the U.S. share of water being reduced by reason of the construction of Amistad Dam. The 1944 treaty with Mexico provided that the water belonging to the country whose conservation capacity is filled and in excess of that needed to keep it filled shall pass to the other country to the extent that such country may have unfilled conservation capacity. The United States without conservation storage capacity in the proposed Amistad Dam project would, therefore, permit Mexico to store their water in the same above Falcon Reservoir that is in the Amistad project and require the United States to continually lose ownership of their share to Mexico in Falcon Reservoir downstream. The disastrous result would be that the United States would thereby have their present inadequate available share of Rio Grande water further reduced by reason of the United States failing to fulfill a treaty obligation in the construction of the Amistad Dam project.

On the average, water release from Falcon Reservoir, 300 miles downstream from the Amistad Dam site, requires "travel time" of about 1 week to run its 270-mile meandering course to the mouth of the Rio Grande at the Gulf of Mexico. All diversions in the United States from the Rio Grande below Falcon Dam to irrigate 750,000 acres of land to furnish domestic, municipal, livestock, and industrial water to 400,000 population (except for a source of mostly poor quantity water from a few wells, used in emergency during shortages of Rio Grande water) are made by pumps all along the Rio Grande banks with suctions from 3 to 60 inches in diameter.

There are no control works in the Rio Grande to regulate the amount or rate of flow of the water after it has been released from Falcon Reservoir. Because of the 1 week of "travel time," it is necessary each day in ordering the proper amount of water to be released from Falcon Reservoir to carefully and almost impossibly anticipate 1 week in advance, weather, rainfall, channel changes, pump breakdowns, and runoff from rainfall over uncontrolled drainage areas below Falcon Dam, so that the diverters will have available at their individual pumps adequate water on the days required without unnecessary surpluses being wasted into the Gulf of Mexico. All such water saved from being wasted into the Gulf of Mexico is water conserved in like amount in Falcon Reservoir for the benefit of everyone downstream.

Preliminary Examination and Survey Report, "Feasibility of Channel Control Dams, Lower Rio Grande" (85th Cong., 1st sess., H. Doc. 233), finds that three channel-control dams on the Rio Grande below Falcon Dam would provide a total of about 23,000 acre-feet of channel storage capacity; would permit conservation of an annual average of 140,000 acre-feet of the waters which without channel control dams would otherwise waste to the Gulf of Mexico (with or without the

construction of Amistad Dam); the first cost would amount to $7,218,000, and the resulting cost-benefit ratio would be approximately 7 to 1.

The channel-control dams would be located in the delta of the Rio Grande, in the lower 126-mile section of the river. This section of the river forms a part of the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. On the U.S. side, adjoining this reach of river, are Hidalgo and Cameron Counties, Tex., which contain a major part of the irrigated lands in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and include among the important valley cities, McAllen, Mercedes, Mission, Harlingen, San Benito, and Brownsville, Tex.

Above Fort Quitman, Tex., about 80 miles below the Texas-New Mexico line, virtually all of the flow of the Rio Grande is consumed by irrigation use. From this point to the Gulf of Mexico, some 1,160 river miles, the contributing drainage area is approximately 139,900 square miles. The preponderance of runoff from this watershed is controlled by the Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande, located about 270 miles upstream from the mouth of the river, and by dams located on both the United States and Mexican main tributaries. Below Falcon Dam and upstream from the lower end of the section under study, there is an uncontrolled drainage area amounting to 3,874 square miles. The principal tributaries in this area are Los Olmos Creek in the United States, which enters the river just below Rio Grande City and drains an area of 535 square miles; the Rio San Juan, which enters the river from the Mexican side opposite Rio Grande City and drains an arca of 206 square miles below Marte Gomez Dam; and the Mexican tributary Rio Alamo, which enters the river about 22 miles upstream from the Rio San Juan and drains an area of 1,663 square miles.

The uncontrolled watershed above the section of the control dams consists largely of low rolling hills. The remaining terrain consists of almost level flood plains adjacent to the river. The soils are largely sandy, silty, and clayey loams, partly covered with low brush in the uplands. Much of the flood plain, areas along the river have been cleared and are cultivated.

The Rio Grande, in its delta, is well entrenched in a comparatively narrow, meandering channel with generally steep banks averaging from 20 to 30 feet in height, and comprised of silty materials. The channel width ranges from about 250 feet to more than 700 feet. The river gradient averages about 0.6 foot per mile. Typical of a delta region, the terrain slopes gently away from the river on both sides.

It is readily apparent that the highly justified three-channel-control dam project, when compared to the conservation features of the proposed Amistad Dam project, would annually yield nearly twice the amount of water for approximately one-half of the cost; would provide regulation of the rate and amount of flow below Falcon Dam; would provide a supply of water to all diverters below Falcon Dam within 1 day in lieu of 1 week of travel time, and maximum feasible conservation would be effected compatible with international and other requirements.

It will be sincerely appreciated if you will give favorable consideration to the facts and recommendations presented herein in your consideration and action on H.R. 8080 by including at Federal cost

all U.S. share of conservation storage space in the Amistad Dam project to provide conservation storage and regulation of the greatest quantity of the annual flow of the Rio Grande as provided under the terms of the 1944 treaty obligation with Mexico, and recognize that any additional conservation storage space requiring local non-Federal financial contributions would best be accomplished by construction of the channel storage dams below Falcon Dam as described in House Document 233, 85th Congress, 1st session, Preliminary Examination and Survey Report, "Feasibility of Channel-Control Dams, Lower Rio Grande."

I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to present this to you.
Mr. SELDEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Smith.

Are there any questions? If not, Congressman Kilgore, will you present your next witness?

Mr. KILGORE. The next witness is Mr. Arthur A. Klein of Harlingen, who individually represents the Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1; the La Feria District No. 3: Adams Gardens tract No. 19; and Rice tract No. 16.

Mr. SELDEN. We are glad to have you with us, Mr. Klein, and you may proceed.

STATEMENT OF ARTHUR A. KLEIN, HARLINGEN, TEX., ATTORNEY FOR CAMERON COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 1, LA FERIA WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT, CAMERON COUNTY NO. 3, CAMERON COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 19, AND CAMERON COUNTY WATER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 16 Mr. KLEIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I am Arthur A. Klein. I am an attorney, landowner, and water user in the lower Rio Grande Valley. I represent four water irrigation districts in Cameron County-the last county through which the Rio Grande flows.

The Harlingen district, officially known as Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, has been diverting water from the Rio Grande since 1906, encompasses some 40,000 acres around the city of Harlingen.

The La Feria district, officially known as La Feria Water Control and Improvement District, Cameron County No. 3, has 32,000 acres within its boundaries near and around the city of La Feria.

Adams Gardens tract, known as Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 19, lies between Harlingen and La Feria while Rice tract district, a much smaller district, lies west of Brownsville.

These water districts have an aggregate acreage of approximately 85,000 acres in Cameron County.

Our district directors and our water users wish to go on record as favoring the Amistad Dam project as a flood control project. We flood control project that it will save countless millions of dollars in damages and hundreds of lives during flood stages. We realize, however, as Colonel Hewett does in his report, that the United States has a treaty obligation to build a dam for "the con

servation, storage, and regulation of the greatest quantity of the annual flow of the Rio Grande," and certainly this is an obligation, not of the water users, but of the U.S. Government.

We in the Rio Grande Valley feel that the Falcon Dam is and will continue to be of great and immeasurable benefit to us in stabilizing our water supply.

Based on this stabilization of water supply the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of Interior has recommended, and there are now underway four great rehabilitation projects involving expenditures in excess of $25 million in four irrigation districts.

The Harlingen district which I represent has been in operation since 1906, recognized the need of conserving water and has entered into a contract with the United States to borrow $4,600,000 or an average of $115 per acre indebtedness.

The La Feria district, which has been in operation since 1908, has now made final arrangements to borrow $5,750,000 for rehabilitation-in an effort to conserve water. This will mean a debt of $180 per acre.

The Mercedes district, ably represented here by Mr. Parish and Mr. Smith, lying to west of us, has entered into a contract with the Bureau for a complete rehabilitation at an estimated cost of $10,800,000 and with its present indebtedness means $180 an acre indebtedness.

The Donna district lying near and around the city of Donna in Hidalgo County is borrowing $4,500,000 or an indebtedness of $150 per acre.

In addition to the $25 million which will have to be paid back to the U.S. Government by these four districts, practically every other district has capital indebtedness-a total in excess of $20 million for all the districts at the last calculation. One district, El Jardin district-Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 5-has $212 per acre indebtedness. Several other districts are in serious need of rehabilitation, having been in operation for over 50 years with dirt canals, and that will mean expenditures of more money for our water users to repay.

What I am leading up to is that there now exists today a very heavy charge against the water users in my districts and in my neighbors' districts that is going to be difficult for us to repay.

Another project that affects our water users in the Rio Grande Valley, and one that has many advantages to us as outlined by Colonel Smith, is the three-channel or beartrap dams to be located below Falcon Dam, at a cost of $7,500,000, and there is no doubt that the water users will have to pay for this conservation and storage project. What we are telling you is this: We want the Amistad Dam as a flood control project; however, we believe it is a treaty obligation to build a multipurpose dam but we do not want to be charged with the conservation storage and assessed the sum of $12 million or so that the Bureau of Budget is recommending.

We feel that we in the valley have a heavy enough burden at the present time in paying for the debts we now have, and that adding another $12 million or possibly more for conservation storage in the Amistad Dam will reach the point of diminishing returns. You must realize that the net profits to our farmers in the Rio Grande Valley

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