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its water storage and distribution system upon the past and present free diversion of available water from the Rio Grande, it would not be consistent with experience or logic (nor with the intent of the treaty, as has been mentioned) to have the city's inhabitants pay for the flood control feature of the proposed Amistad Dam under the label or upon the basis of repayment for the storage features not needed by it or by its inhabitants.

It is our position that there should be no municipal repayment obligation with respect to the portion of the cost of Amistad allocated to conservation. The Amistad Dam project looms physically and legally distinct from the ordinary Bureau of Reclamation or Corps of Engineers project, as is hereinbefore elucidated.

STATEMENT OF C. I. HAVEN OF EDINBURG, TEX., MANAGER AND ENGINEER OF HIDALGO COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 1

My name is C. I. Haven. I am manager of Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, post office, Edinburg, Tex. I am a graduate civil engineer of the University of Illinois. I moved to Hidalgo County, Tex., in

September of 1920 and have resided there continuously since that time. I have been a farm operator and presently own open land and a citrus grove. I have been with the district as engineer and later as manager since January 1937. The district's pumping plant is located on the Rio Grande at Penitas, Tex., about 60 river miles below Falcon Dam. The district furnishes water for domestic use and to irrigate 35,000 acres within its boundaries and pumps water from the river for other water districts and individuals to irrigate 55,000 additional acres. The district also furnishes municipal water from its canals to the city of Edinburg, Tex., with a population of 19,000.

The district will in October of this year pay off the last of the bonds issued to improve the canal system by installing concrete canals and underground pipelines. The audit value of the canal system is $3,500,000 and the replacement value at present day costs would be in excess of $5 million.

The people in our district feel that they do not want to oppose the construction of Amistad Dam for humanitarian reasons but they also feel very strongly that they should not be called upon to pay for something that is a Federal responsibility under the treaty with Mexico. They are also opposed to any payment due to the fact that the falling water at the dam for generating electricity can be sold for enough money to pay the cost assessed against conservation storage, in a reasonable period of time.

In my present position as manager of the water district I am in close contact with many farm operators and know their economic condition is such that they cannot pay increased costs for water and continue to operate.

STATEMENT OF RICHARD WIESEHAN OF MCALLEN, TEX., PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF HIDALGO COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 1

My name is Richard Wiesehan. I am now and have been for the past 4 years president of the board of directors of Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1. I am also a resident owner and operator of Rio Grande Valley irrigated land in Hidalgo County, Tex.

In partnership with my brothers we own and operate approximately 900 acres of irrigated land. Farming operations began in 1925 by my father, now deceased. Our operation includes not only raising crops on irrigated land but also harvesting and packing vegetables for fresh market consumption. In our crop year of 1959 our expenditures for water and labor was in excess of $129,000, over $140 per irrigated acre.

In conversations with other landowners and farmers I find them all opposed to any repayment for conservation storage because the margin of profit has dwindled in recent years; increased labor and transportation costs are but two of the many items which have reduced margins of profit for farmers of irrigated land in this area. We do respectfully object to any increase in the cost of our irrigation water by reason of construction of Amistad Dam.

STATEMENT OF ELTON KEY, MISSION, TEX., A DIRECTOR OF HIDALGO COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 7

My name is Elton Key of Mission, Tex. I am a farmer in the western part of Hidalgo County, and a director of Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement District No. 7. This small district irrigates about 19,000 acres of lands. It is successor to a private irrigation company, and its lands have been irrigated for about 45 years. All of the revenues of this district come directly from taxes and water charges levied on the farmers.

We farmers in the Rio Grande Valley are literally fighting for economic survival. I believe my own case is representative. I own some land, I rent some land which I farm as a tenant, and I care for some groves belonging to others on a contract basis. During the past several years, except immediately following the flood of late 1958, water has been in short supply. In 1957, for instance, I farmed most of my land as dry farmland. In that year, I planted 30 acres of tomatoes instead of my usual 130-140 acres because of the scarcity of water in the foreseeable future.

This land that I farm has been farmed as irrigated land for years. It was irrigated long before Falcon Dam was built. But the continuous impounding of the waters of the Rio Grande upstream, and the continuous expansion of irrigated acreage, has continuously diminshed the water supply available to the old irrigated tracts. This has reduced our revenues, but it has not reduced our water district taxes or water charges. These have increased, because we have had to improve our irrigation facilities to use the now scarce water supply more efficiently, and we now bear the considerable expense of a court allocation of the water available for irrigation.

These two factors, the scarcity of water and increasing costs, have put the farmer of the lower Rio Grande Valley in a financial squeeze. I am in debt, and I have been in debt for years. The same is true of everyone I know who is wholly dependent on agriculture for his livelihood. The economic pressures on us farmers have been increased by the price structure; growing costs have risen steadily, while the prices paid the farmer for vegetables and citrus fruits have been almost uniformly poor.

Amistad Dam will not increase our water supply; in fact, it will create the threat of further expansion of the irrigated acreage upstream. Although we recognize the necessity for such a dam, we respectfully suggest that the dam should not be allowed to decrease our water supply, which is inadequate now, and its cost should not be borne by us.

We do not have the financial means to pay any more water charges. We certainly cannot survive with less water. Amistad Dam will not help us. We respectfully ask you that it be authorized in such a way that it will not hurt us.

STATEMENT OF REX FLANAGAN, EDINBURG, TEX., PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, HIDALGO COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 15

My name is Rex Flanagan. I live near Edinburg, Tex. I am president of the board of directors of Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement Districe No. 15.

I own 70 acres of irrigated land and operate 850 acres of irrigated land. Of this amount, 170 acres is comprised of citrus groves. The balance is used in the production of cotton, vegetables, and sorghum grains.

I represent 32 landowners residing in the following States: Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Nebraska.

All of this land is heavily bonded for roads, schools, and water delivery facilities. The land in the lower Rio Grande Valley comprises about 95 percent of the irrigated land that uses water from the Rio Grande River. I feel that Amistad Dam is necessary for flood control but do not feel that it should be used as a conservation storage dam, and if same is used for that I feel that the water should be reserved for the lands now under irrigation below said dam. I also feel that if the United States and Mexico build the dam as a conservation storage dam that the cost of same should not be the responsibility of the people using the water but the responsibility of the two nations.

STATEMENT OF E. E. GIBSON, EDINBURG, TEX., MANAGER, HIDALGO COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 15

My name is E. E. Gibson. I am manager of Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement District No. 15 comprising 31,000 acres of irrigated land. This land is heavily bonded, in fact each acre of land is bonded for $120 per

acre.

I feel that conservation storage in Amistad Dam will be such a negligible amount that the district or our property owners should not be asked to help finance the $12 million, more or less, set aside for conservation storage in Amistad as we have no assurance that we will benefit by this water.

As the records show, each acre of land irrigated in the Rio Grande Valley uses approximately 2 acre-feet of water per acre to raise its crops, and anything that holds our water above will tend to cause us to lose water that we would otherwise get and badly need as we have over 700,000 acres in lower valley under irrigation.

STATEMENT OF ELDIN LONGWELL, EDINBURG, Tex., a DIRECTOR OF THE HIDALGO COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 15

My name is Eldin Longwell. I am a director of Hidalgo County Water Control and Improvement District No. 15. I am also a member of the board of the LaSara Independent School District, and I am on the board of directors of the Texas Citrus Mutual, a citrus growers' organization comprised of approximately 2,000 members.

I own 240 acres of irrigated land. I farm 890 acres of irrigated land. Of this amount, 200 acres is in citrus groves. Of the land I farm, there are 35 owners residing in the following States: Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, California, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

All of this land is heavily bonded for roads, schools, and water delivery facilities. The land in the lower Rio Grande Valley comprises about 95 percent of the irrigated land that uses water from the Rio Grande River. I feel that Amistad Dam is necessary for flood control but do not feel that it should be used as a conservation storage dam, and if same is used for that, I feel that the water should be reserved for the lands now under irrigation below said dam.

I also feel that if the United States and Mexico build the dam as a conservation storage dam that the cost of same should not be the responsibility of the people using the water, but the responsibility of the two nations.

STATEMENT OF MARK REDFORD, EDCOUCH, TEX., GENERAL MANAGER, HIDALGO AND WILLACY COUNTIES WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 1

My name is Mark Redford. I reside at Edcouch, in Hidalgo County, Tex. I am a landowner and also for the past 18 years have been manager of an irrigation district in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I have been actively engaged in farming and truck growing in the valley since 1926. Since 1954, I have been general manager of Hidalgo and Willacy Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, having its territory in the counties of Hidalgo and Willacy in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

This district has been in operation for 21 years, supplying water from the Rio Grande River for irrigation and domestic purposes on 69,100 acres of land within its boundaries, and supplying water for domestic and municipal needs to the city of Raymondville and the villages of LaSara and Lyford in Willacy County and the villages of Hargill and Monte Alto in Hidalgo County.

There are approximately 4,000 farm units in said district. This district has an investment of over $6 million in its plants and facilities paid and payable out of bond issues, of which there are $1,875,000 in bonds still outstanding. Of course, said district is absolutely dependent on the U.S. share of water from the Rio Grande for its supply and in many previous years the supply has been inadequate because of drought.

I am thoroughly familiar with the sentiment of the people within my district, based on a great deal of study and consideration which has been given to the proposal to construct a dam between Del Rio, Tex., and the point of discharge

of the Devils River into the Rio Grande. They realize that it is necessary to prevent the destruction and devastation wrought by periodic floods but, they are opposed to the payment of conservation storage that would result in the impounding of the lower valley water supply some 600 miles upstream from the point of diversion and use, merely on the possibility of an average annual increase of 86,000 acre-feet conserved for beneficial use. This would greatly encumber, delay and hinder the release and delivery of water for use in this area, and would also subject some to hazards of unauthorized diversions between the proposed Amistad Dam and Falcon Reservoir and they would oppose it if it should involve the element of repayment or reimbursement to the Government of the cost of construction of this storage facility by water users in this area. They feel that from the standpoint of water conservation and the prevention of waste from floods and overflows, it would be more effective and economical to construct a series of storage dams across the Rio Grande River near the mouth of the river in Cameron County at an estimated saving in water of 140,000 to 200,000 acrefeet per year that would otherwise waste into the Gulf of Mexico.

STATEMENT OF RALPH T. AGAR, SAN BENITO, TEX., GENERAL MANAGER,
CAMERON COUNTY WATER IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 2

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Ralph T. Agar, of San Benito, Tex. I am manager and engineer of Cameron County Water Improvement District No. 2, a 78,180-acre district; am engineer for the San Benito Cameron County Drainage District No. 3, a 91,000-acre district; am a director on the irrigation panel of the Texas Water Conservation Association; am a vice president of the Lower Rio Grange Water Committee.

I have been connected, both directly and indirectly, with the water situation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley for the past 52 years; the district with which I am now connected began operating as the San Benito Land & Water Co. in 1906, when construction started on the canal system.

Many factors have tended to reduce the flow of the Rio Grande since the early development here in the lower valley, such as the impoundment of streams in Mexico, Elephant Butte Dam in the Rio Grande, etc., so that now any additional impediment to the flow would seriously affect the entire economic structure of our Lower Rio Grande Valley.

We, in the lower valley, have been water conscious for many years, opposing any additional filings with the State board of water engineers for diversions from the Rio Grande, however, many permits were granted over our opposition for flood waters only.

Prior to the completion of Falcon Dam, we were told by Commissioner Lawson and his chief hydrographer, Mr. Karl F. Keeler, that Falcon Reservoir would supply water for about 610,000 acres on the U.S. side of the river. Water is now being allotted by the 93d district court in Edinburg to 770,633 acres, an excess of 160,633 acres over the acreage for which water is sufficient. This is caused by the lack of, or the determination of water rights, and the battle between riparian and appropriative water users. This is the problem we are attempting to solve in court. I am attempting here to show that any additional diversions from our present water supply would prove hazardous.

The construction of Amistad Dam in the Rio Grande below the confluence of the Pecos and of the Devils River could completely stop any water from reaching Falcon Reservoir, and because water rights have not been determined in Texas could encourage new developments and additional withdrawals, sufficient to seriously affect our water supply here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

A computation made from the gage readings reported by the IBWC in their annual bluebooks for the floods of 1903, 1923, 1932, 1944, and 1954 convinces me that the greatest flood of record, that of the year 1954, would not have caused damage to the lower valley, except to the crops and improvements located in our $11 million floodway system. This is the flood, caused by Hurricane Alice, which caused heavy damage to the Laredo and Del Rio areas.

This district does not object to the construction of Amistad Dam for flood control purposes, nor for hydroelectric purposes, if the Government or the upper valley interests desire to construct it, but we do object to paying any portion of the cost or to having our present water supply impaired in any way.

STATEMENT OF G. H. LOOP, BROWNSVILLE, TEX., PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, CAMERON COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 5 Gentlemen of the committee, I am G. H. Loop of Brownsville, Tex. I have resided on my own farm of 102 acres about 3 miles out of Brownsville, for 38 years. My brother and I also farm 300 additional acres around my home. We grow cotton, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and other vegetables, and I also have 10 acres of citrus trees.

I am the president of the board of directors of Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 5, commonly known as the El Jardin Water District. Our water district takes water from the Rio Grande River about 5 miles below Brownsville, Tex. We then transport it through our canal system and furnish domestic and irrigation water to about 2,000 people and 19,300 acres of irrigable land, all within our district. We also operate and maintain a drainage system throughout the water district.

Our El Jardin district is the last water district pump on the Rio Grande River. We have our water stored in Falcon Dam, and after it is released it takes from 7 to 8 days to reach our pumps.

Falcon Dam and the Rio Grande River are truly our lifeblood. We have no other source of water. As it is, we still live on the ragged edge of trouble from year to year as to our water supply. For example, in 1956 there was a severe water shortage in Falcon, so that we were without irrigation water and had to haul domestic water in truck water tanks from the city of Brownsville.

We simply do not want Amistad Dam to any further diminish our supply of water coming into Falcon Dam. If that happens our livelihood would be seriously damaged or destroyed. We have insufficient rainfall to make crops. We must have water from Falcon Dam and the Bio Grande River to live.

All of us farmers and water users at the end of the River certainly want our fellow Texans around Laredo and Del Rio, Tex., to have a flood control dam. They need it for protection of life and property. But we feel that conservation storage in Amistad Dam is not necessary, and we feel it will shorten our available supply of water in Falcon Dam.

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As we farmers in the El Jardin district understand it, conservation storage in Amistad Dam is supposed to give an average increase of about 86,000 acre-feet of water here, for which we water users will have to pay about $12 million. El Jardin Water District already has a bonded indebtedness of $424,000, which is a debt of $212 per acre of each and every acre in our district; and in addition, we pay State, county, school, and drainage district taxes on our lands and homes. We just don't see how we can help pay an additional $12 million for conservation storage in Amistad Dam for a small estimated increase of water in Falcon, which we don't believe will ever get to Falcon.

If the Congress decides the United States will have to provide for conservation storage in Amistad Dam if Mexico does the same, then we will not fuss at you. But we simply state to you, with all the sincerity we know how to use, that we American water users below Falcon Dam should not be required to pay for conservation storage in Amistad, and above all, we ask you to protect our present annual supply in Falcon Dam, so that we will not get less water than we are now getting from Falcon. Please protect us on this, as we will be destroyed if Amistad Dam shortens our present annual yield of water from Falcon. We feel that you will do your best for us.

STATEMENT OF LEO T. MOSES, LOS FRESNOS, TEX., DIRECTOR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, CAMERON COUNTY WATER CONTROL AND IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. 6 Gentlemen of the committee, my name is Leo T. Moses. I am a farmer, residing on my farm about 2 miles from the town of Los Fresnos, in Cameron County, Tex. I farm 290 acres of land and grow cotton and various winter vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, carrots, and cabbage.

I am a director on the board of directors of Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 6, and am secretary of the board. Cameron County Water Control and Improvement District No. 6 is an organized irrigation district, taking water from the Rio Grande River just above Brownsville, Tex. We furnish water for 21,000 acres in our district, and we also pump water from the Rio Grande River and transport it to Cameron County Water Control and Improvement Districts Nos. 10, 11, and 12, and to Cameron County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1 of Port Isabel, Tex., which furnishes domestic water

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