CONTENTS STATEMENTS, LETTERS, EXHIBITS, ETC. Bailey, James Michael, clerk to County Council for Montgomery County, Beall, Lindy N., chairman, Montgomery County Soil Conservation Dis- Page 9 Cairns, G. M., chairman, State Soil Conservation Committee for Maryland 10 Cook, Howard Lee, Jr., clerk, County Council for Montgomery County, 10 Denney, Alfred J. 500 09 8 Frank, Bernard, professor of watershed management, Colorado State 7 Freeman, Raymond L., Assistant Regional Director, National Capital Gordon, Hon. Kermit, Director, Bureau of the Budget. Harris, Kenward K., representing Citizens Council for a Clean Potomac and the Washington Canoe Club.. 26 Hewitt, John P., Director of Parks, Maryland-National Capital Park and Holum, Hon. Kenneth, Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Johnson, Carl J., Executive Director, Interstate Commission on the Krause, Keith S., Chief, Technical Services Branch, Division of Water 27 4 23 Schaub, Hon. W. F., Assistant Secretary of the Army, Financial Manage ment. Smith, Lathrop, Rock Creek Watershed Association. 18 Swigart, Charles, Assistant Director, Watershed Planning Division, Soil 11 Tawes, Hon. J. Millard, Governor, State of Maryland. Upper Rock Creek watershed work plan... 6, 13 Ware, S. J., chairman, Citizens Council for a Clean Potomac Watershed work plan......... 228 12375 Young, Hon. Gladwin, Acting Administrator, Soil Conservation Service, 3 UPPER ROCK CREEK WATERSHED, MARYLAND TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1963 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL-RIVERS AND HARBORS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in room 4200, New Senate Office Building, Senator Daniel B. Brewster presiding. Present: Senators Brewster, Gruening, Jordan, Bayh, and Pearson. Senator BREWSTER. The Subcommittee on Flood Control-Rivers and Harbors, of the Senate Committee on Public Works, will come to order. The purpose of the hearing this morning is to take testimony on the Upper Rock Creek watershed project. At the outset, I would like to thank the chairman of the committee for two things: First of all, for scheduling this hearing at an early date for a project that is of great interest to all Marylanders. And I would, secondly, like to thank the chairman for allowing the junior Senator from Maryland to act as chairman of this subcommittee. If there is no objection from my colleagues, we will proceed with the hearing. The first order of business will be the inclusion in the record of certain correspondence that we have received with reference to the Upper Rock Creek project. Listing, but not reading, we have communications from Kermit Gordon, Director of the Bureau of the Budget; a letter from the Governor of Maryland, Millard Tawes; from the Assistant Secretary of the Army; from the Department of Agriculture; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; Department of the Interior; the Montgomery County, Md., Soil Conservation District; Bernard Frant, of Colorado State University; from the chairman of the Citizens Council for a Clean Potomac; from Rev. Duncan Howlett, All Souls Unitarian Church of Washington, D.C.; and from Alfred J. Denney, Arlington, Va. This correspondence supports the project. And if there is no objection, it will be included in the record at this point. (The communications referred to follows:) EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington, D.C., April 3, 1963. Hon. LYNDON B. JOHNSON, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: Pursuant to the authority vested in the President by section 5 of the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1005), and delegated to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget by Executive Order No. 10654 of January 20, 1956, there are transmitted herewith the following plans for works of improvement which have been prepared under the provisions of that act: State Maryland.. Kentucky Watershed Upper Rock Creek. Buck Creek. With regard to the economic analysis of the Upper Rock Creek watershed project in Maryland, attention is invited to the inclusion of benefits from the increased recreational use of Rock Creek Park which is expected to result from the flood protection component of this project. The Bureau of the Budget believes that such recreational flood protection benefits should be included in water resources projects only in those cases where the public recreational resource is of a unique nature for which there is no readily available substitute, where there is heavy public demand, and where important recreational benefits will be lost if the recreational use is deferred because of floods. Congress, in authorizing the acquisition of Rock Creek Park as part of a program to preserve forests and natural scenery in the vicinity of the National Capital, indicated that Rock Creek was an area of unique natural beauty not readily available elsewhere in the area that should be preserved and protected for use by the public (act of June 6, 1924, Public Law 202, 68th Cong.). The Bureau of the Budget, therefore, believes that the Upper Rock Creek watershed project meets the criteria of the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, but that the special circumstances relating to this project should not be regarded as a precedent for broadening the concept of flood protection benefits in other water resources projects which do not involve such exceptional circumstances. Each of the above-listed plans involves at least one structure which provides more than 4,000 acre-feet of total capacity. DEAR MR. WILLIAMS: Under date of September 28 you wrote to me advising that in accordance with section 2 of Executive Order No. 10913 you were transmitting for my review and comment the watershed work plan for the Upper Rock Creek watershed. This plan, prepared by the Montgomery County Soil Conservation District, the Montgomery County Council, and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, has been reviewed and approved by the proper State agencies. You may consider this letter as my formal approval of the upper creek watershed work plan which I feel confident, when carried to completion, will have a very salutory effect upon the economic structure of the area in which it will be located. With kindest regards, I am, Hon. JOHN A. BAKER, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. J. MILLARD TAWES, Governor. DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEAR MR. BAKER: At the request of the Administrator of the Soil Conservation Service we have reviewed the work plan for Upper Rock Creek watershed, Montgomery County, Md., dated August 1962. The local organizations proposing the project request Federal assistance in constructing two reservoirs and improving 2 miles of stream channel. The estimated first cost of these engineering works is $1,884,676, of which $1,871,376 is |