Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Now what levee district has jurisdiction along the main river from that point on south, and how far-that is the Atchafalaya Basin?

Mr. JACOBS. The Atchafalaya Basin Levee District extends down. on the west bank to Donaldsonville.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And on the east bank?

Mr. JACOBS. And on the east bank we have no levee district, as you know, south of Notchez, until you get to Baton Rouge. There was a little small district created in there, but it never did function; it never organized. And from Baton Rouge south, on the east side, we have the Pontchartrain District, with the exception of New Orleans.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And then south of Donaldsonville, what is it on the west side?

Mr. JACOBS That is the Lafourche District.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. How far does its jurisdiction extend?

Mr. JACOBS. That extends down about 10 miles below Algiers, which is directly across the river from New Orleans.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And Pontchartrain extends how far below the city?

Mr. JACOBS. It does not extend below the city; it extends to the city, to the upper city limits. Then in the city itself we have the Orleans City District, which extends to the lower city limits. Then we have, from there south, the Lake Borgne Levee District, which extends down to Bohemia Spillway, constructed by the Government in 1922, just about 4 miles below Pointe a la Hache. Then below the spillway, we have the Grand Prairie Levee District, which extends down to the lower end of the river.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And on the west side of the river, down to a point 10 miles below Algiers opposite the Lafourche District, what district has jurisdiction?

Mr. JACOBS. That is the Buras District.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. All the way down to the Gulf?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Now since the adoption of the Flood Control Act of 1928, what enlargements of the levees, if any, have been made by the Orleans Levee District, covering the front of the city of New Orleans-what substantial or general improvements?

Mr. JACOBS. They have enlarged several sections of the levees on the west side; none in the city. But, you see, the city of New Orleans is on both sides of the river there; the Orleans Levee District is on both sides of the river.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. On the front there?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Which comes in the Lafourche District, then? Mr. JACOBS. The Lafourche District-it comes down into the lower part of Algiers. Then, from that part down, is the levee district. I would like, however, to get the map and show what that section is. Mr. WHITTINGTON. What enlargements have been made by the Orleans Levee Board since they adopted the project?

Mr. JACOBS. They have enlarged two levees.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. But no substantial enlargements have been made?

Mr. JACOBS. No, sir. There is one levee there at the foot of Main Street, in the city of New Orleans, that they have now been considering building, that will have to be built a set-back and a lot of new revetment put in. That is in the city itself.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Is the Government doing the revetment?
Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Have they done any other revetment on the Orleans front since they adopted the project?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir; at different places.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. They have confined their work, then, on the Orleans Levee District, to revetment since they adopted the project? Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Now, then, has the grade of the levee in the Orleans Levee District been raised since 1928.

Mr. JACOBS. No, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. It is the same grade as it was then?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Under the adopted project, was there any provision made for raising the grade between the Orleans Levee District and the Bonnet Carre Spillway?

Mr. JACOBS. No, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. On either side of the river?

Mr. JACOBS. No, sir. In fact, it has been lowered. It has been lowered, because the elevation of 20 feet on the Carrollton gage will regulate the operation of the Bonnet Carre Spillway.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Has the grade itself been lowered?

Mr. JACOBS. The grade has been lowered; but, of course, the levee has not been lowered.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Where it turns over, have they done any work at all on the levee between Bonnet Carre and New Orleans? Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. What have they done?

Mr. JACOBS. They have built some new levees and enlarged levees. Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is the turn-over levee, is it?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Is that grade higher or lower than it was in 1928?

Mr. JACOBS. In some cases it is based on the 1914 grade, which was the grade prior to 1928; in other cases, they have reduced that grade.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. What would you say generally of the grade on the east bank between Bonnet Carre and the city of New Orleans; has it been raised or lowered, on the average?

Mr. JACOBS. They first started out, after 1928, by using the 1914 grade. That was the grade that was being carried out before the Flood Control Act.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. I understand that.

Mr. JACOBS. In other cases, they contended that because the water elevation in front of the city of New Orleans would never go higher than 20, therefore that they could reduce that grade slightly, and I think in several cases the grade was reduced approximately a foot to a foot and a half.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. On the average, what would be your judgment as to whether the grade is higher or lower-whatever the rea

sons may be in the relocations and turnover and enlargement now as compared with 1927?

Mr. JACOBS. Well, the grade is approximately the same with the exception of one or two cases-I think two cases, as I recall now. Mr. WHITTINGTON. On the west side, in that same area, on down to Algiers, has the Government enlarged that levee or not? Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. What about the grade over there?

Mr. JACOBS. They have practically been building to the old grade. Mr. WHITTINGTON. The grade has not been changed on either side, substantially?

Mr. JACOBS. Not substantially. In some cases they started to, but we objected and refused to get the rights-of-way for them; they recommended that it would be done and we refused to get the rights-of-way if it was done.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. As a matter of fact, the grades are substantially the same?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In the city of New Orleans, on both sides, tell me whether the grade is the same there, or higher, or lower?

Mr. JACOBS. I would say it is approximately based on the 1914 grade, which was the grade in use before the 1928 act.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Would you say generally the levees on both sides of the river, south of the city of New Orleans to the Gulf, have been enlarged?

Mr. JACOBS. They have been mostly-I would say 75 or 80 percent of the work done there is set back levees.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Has that been practically completed?

Mr. JACOBS. No; there is still a great deal of work to be done down there. They contend, Mr. Whittington, that that is a gift if they do anything below the Bonnet Carre Spillway; that anything in the way of construction below the Bonnet Carre Spillway is not included in the act and is in the way of a gift.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You have completed, south of New Orleans, approximately three quarters of the levees, have you, in the Algiers district, south of the city of New Orleans, on both sides?

Mr. JACOBS. You say are three quarters of them brought up to the finish?

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Yes; are they or not? I just want to get an idea.

Mr. JACOBS. No; I would say about 50 percent of them are to the grade.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Now, from Bonnet Carre north, in the Lafourche Basin, on the east side, has that levee been completed to Baton Rouge?

Mr. JACOBS. About 65 percent, in the Pontchatrain district.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. On the west side, from Bonnet Carre up to Old River, has that been completed?

Mr. JACOBS. I would say about 80 percent. That is in pretty good shape.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Then, from Old River, on the Arkansas side, what percentage of the levee has been completed?

Mr. JACOBS. About 75 percent.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And what has been done on the Atchafalaya; has anything been done down there?

Mr. JACOBS. Nothing has been done down there. We are not permitted to raise the grade. The grade remains at the old grade of the old section under the act, with the exception of one levee that became threatened and was about to cave in, and they have set it back.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Has the Government done any work at all along the Atchafalaya levee?

Mr. JACOBS. On the main river it has.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. On the main river it has?

Mr. JACOBS. They have set back on some cases some six or eight levees.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Have they enlarged any others?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes; they have. In one case there is about 41⁄2 miles of levee enlargement, where the levee was smaller than anywhere else on the river, down close to the lower end of the levee side.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And the levees along Bayou Vidal and Bayou Alexandria have been practically completed?

Mr. JACOBS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. How about to the south bank of the Arkansas? Mr. JACOBS. The south bank of the Arkansas is completed.

The CHAIRMAN. Now Mr. Nunez wants to get away, and he would like to make a short statement.

STATEMENT OF A. SIDNEY NUNEZ, STATE SENATOR, NINTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA, CHAIRMAN FINANCE COMMITTEE, BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE PORT OF NEW ORLEANS

Mr. NUNEZ. Mr. Chairman, before proceeding with my remarks, I have with me a statement prepared by Judge Perez, who is also from my district and, as you know, was up here to attend this hearing. The judge was called back to New Orleans and had to leave last night and has prepared this statement, which I would like to have read by the clerk and made a part of the record. It is a general summary of the conditions affecting the levee districts below New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

The CHAIRMAN. You request that it be made a part of the hearing? Mr. NUNEZ. I would appreciate it.

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it is so ordered.

(The statement above referred to will be found at the conclusion of the remarks of Mr. Nunez.)

Mr. NUNZ. I am representing both Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes. There are four levee districts in my senatorial district-the Lake Borgne Basin levee district; Grand Prairie levee district, and Buras levee district and, as you know, the Lafourche levee district, which extends down to almost a point where West Point a la Hache is located.

I intend to confine my remarks practically to the conditions existing in the Lake Borgne Basin levee district. Judge Perez, in his statement, summarizes the general conditions as affecting the other districts in the lower part of the district.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You are president of the Lake Borgne levee district?

Mr. NUNEZ. I was president of the Lake Borgne levee district

for 5 years.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. What is your connection at the present time? Mr. NUNEZ. State senator, representing St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You are not connected with any levee boards? Mr. NUNEZ. I am on the flood control committee. The Lake Borgne levee district extends on the east bank of the Mississippi River from the lower boundary line of Orleans Parish to Bohemia spillway, a distance of 47.8 miles, and includes all the lands in St. Bernard Parish and all that part of Plaquemines Parish on the east bank.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Let me ask you for the record: At Bohemia spillway, what is the type of construction?

Mr. NUNEZ. The Bohemia spillway is simply an open gap about a mile wide in the levee, which was formerly the Bohemia plantation at that point.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is what you mean by spillway; you just took the levee out?

Mr. NUNEZ. That is all it is.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. And you let the water through?

Mr. NUNEZ. That is correct.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is an unusual spillway.

Mr. NUNEZ. I somewhat agree with you; but it was more of an experiment at the time.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In other words, you have not any spillway in the usual sense.

Mr. NUNEZ. Absolutely not.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. It is just an outlet through the levee?

Mr. NUNEZ. The Lake Borgne Levee district, if you recall, Mr. Whittington, is the district in which the main levee crevasse, the man-made crevasse, occurred in 1927, when it became necessary to dynamite the levee at the point known as Carnarvon, presumably to save the city of New Orleans. We never have been able to agree with that conclusion though.

Prior to 1927 this same district and the same locality was the victim of the Poytras Crevasse.

The adoption of the Flood Control Act, which offered great hopes to the people in that section that had been burdened with heavy taxes for both maintenance and construction, when it was possible to construct levees, gave them a ray of hope and they immediately proceeded to furnish rights-of-way as called upon by the Federal engineers. In fact, we furnished 12 rights-of-way, involving a cost of approximately $86,000 to $90,000. Of that amount, there is still due $29,000, which the levee district has been unable to finance.

Under the constitution of 1921-I think it is act 16-provision was made by the State to provide for payment of rights-of-way by the levee boards in the various districts. In that act, it was specifically provided that one quarter of a mill on the dollar would be set aside for payment of the land damages. Not knowing or assuming that there would be any great number of levee set-backs, or removal of levees, where it required excessive payment for lands taken for