Representative TEAGUE. Thank you, sir; that is good advice. Senator ELLENDER. Last year, we were able to include in the public works bill 65 new projects. Except for the fact that this committee has been doing that for the past 2 or 3 years, it is possible that our complete public work program would dry up. It is my hope that this subcommittee will go along with me and include at least a few unbudgeted items. Representative TEAGUE. Thank you, sir. Senator KUCHEL. Next, Mr. Chairman, I would like to have the privilege of calling for a brief statement from the Honorable John Baldwin, of California. Senator ELLENDER. Mr. Baldwin, we shall be glad to hear from you, sir. SAN JOAQUIN RIVER (STOCKTON CHANNEL) STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN F. BALDWIN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA GENERAL STATEMENT Representative BALDWIN. Mr. Chairman, I want to express my deep appreciation to you for the opportunity to appear before your subcommittee today. There are several items for which I want to testify briefly. These pertain to the public works appropriation bill. There was included in the budget the sum of $500,000 for continuation of work on a navigation project entitled, "San Joaquin River (Stockton Channel)" under the appropriations for the civil functions budget of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I should like to support this budget sum and urge its approval. This sum is for levee revetment and setback work along the Stockton deepwater channel, and is urgently needed in order to protect the levees from wave wash from deepwater ships proceeding up and down the channel to Stockton. This levee revetment work was started several years ago, and it is urgent that it be completed as soon as possible. Until it is completed, there will be a constant danger of levee breaks and serious flooding caused by levees weakened from this wave wash from these deepwater ships. NAVIGATION STUDIES The budget also contained the sum of $600,000 for navigation studies under the section for the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, civil functions. Of this total sum, $25,000 pertains to a navigation study to determine the feasibility of deepening the channel from San Francisco Bay to Stockton, Calif., from a depth of 35 feet to 40 feet from San Francisco Bay to Antioch, and from a depth of 30 feet to 35 feet from Antioch to Stockton. I should like to urge not only approval of this sum, but that the amount for this San Francisco Bay to Stockton Channel survey be increased from $25,000 to $46,000. If only $25,000 is appropriated, this will leave $90,000 to complete this survey. At this rate of appropriation, it will require approximately 4 additional years just to complete the survey. By appropriating $46,000, the survey time will be reduced by approximately 1 year. This is extremely important. There are many tankers and bulk carriers which already are having difficulty navigating through this channel because of its inade quate depth. In fact, the newer and deeper draft tankers cannot even enter the channel until they have taken off a portion of their cargoes. This results in costly and inefficient handling of bulk and tanker cargoes. The speeding up of this channel survey is essential in order to make it possible for this channel to continue to serve the many industries and ports along the channel. SMALL FLOOD CONTROL PROJECTS As a final item, Mr. Chairman, I have been deeply concerned to learn that no funds were included in the budget for small flood control projects of $400,000 or less, under Public Law 685, 84th Congress. If this is not corrected, this will means that such small projects will not be able to be constructed during the fiscal year 1960. This will result in a serious pileup and backlog for this type of project. Many of these small projects are urgently needed. I have discussed this matter with the Corps of Engineers at a hearing held last week before the House Public Works Committee. They report that they could use approximately $4 million during fiscal year 1960 in the construction of new projects under Public Law 685. I should, therefore, like to urge that this committee approve the sum of $4 million for this purpose. Senator ELLENDER. I wish you would do what I suggested a few months ago. The way to get this $4 million in the bill is to get the House to, at least, agree to some figure, for these projects. Representative BALDWIN. I have already appeared before the House yesterday, and urged the appropriation of this sum, Mr. Chairman. Senator ELLENDER. A mere appearance does do some good as far as the House is concerned. Representative BALDWIN. I shall do everything I can do to help. Senator KUCHEL. May I present the Honorable John McFall, a Representative in Congress from California. STOCKTON CHANNEL PROJECT STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN J. McFALL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA GENERAL STATEMENT Representative MCFALL. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, I guess it would not be spring if I were not over here talking to you about new starts and new dam projects in the 11th Congressional District in California. I agree with everything you say. I hope that we can work in the House and add some of the projects to the budget. From the way it looks over there, I think that the committees are going to do it. I would like to offer for the record two statements from persons in my district who were unable to appear today, Mr. Loutitt and Mr. Ferrari. I would like to join with my colleague, John Baldwin, who was just before you, concerning the Stockton Channel increase from $25,000 to $46,000, which is the Corps of Engineers' capability. I would like to call to your attention the project that we have been working on for many years, New Hogan Dam, on the Calaveras River. Last year the House put in $230,000 for final plans and specifications for this dam. We are all ready to go. It was caught in the arbitrary limitation of no new starts, and it was characterized yesterday before Mr. Cannon's committee as the most urgent project in California which is not in the President's budget. I know that you know all about it, and I shall not burden you further with testimony with regard to it. PREPARED STATEMENTS Senator ELLENDER. The statements you referred to will be filed at this point in the testimony. (The statements referred to follow :) STATEMENT OF RECLAMATION DISTRICT 1614 AND OF CERTAIN LANDOWNERS CONCERNING NEW HOGAN DAM, SUBMITTED BY TOM H. LOUTITT Mr. Chairman, justice and public necessity require the construction of the New Hogan Dam on the Calaveras River and the survey of the Diverting CanalMormon Slough levees below New Hogan Dam. H.R. 4031 is a proposed congressional enactment providing for such improvements. By congressional vote in the fiscal year 1958-59, an item for New Hogan planning in the sum of $230,000 became part of the fiscal expenditure for such year. The same reasons which prompted Congress to act in 1958 still exist and should result in congressional action of an item of $1,500,000 to initiate construction of the New Hogan Dam, and $25,000 to institute survey of the Diverting CanalMormon Slough project. Detailed statements in support of the 1958-59 expenditure of Congress are to be found on pages 1184 and 1185 of the hearings before the subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, 85th Congress, May 13, 1958, and similar statements are incorporated in the proceedings relating to the hearings of the subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate, 85th Congress, May 14, 1958, beginning at page 2019. The New Hogan Dam and necessary flood control problems connected with the New Hogan Dam, relate to the Stockton Diverting Canal. The Stockton Diverting Canal is a Federal project. The Federal appropriation of funds for the Stockton Diverting Canal was made in the year 1902 by the 57th Congress. The Stockton Diverting Canal, whether it be regarded as a navigation project or a flood control project, has been, and is, a failure. It floods lands of certain real property owners at the protection of other persons. Substantial justice requires that this old Federal project, attempted with insufficient funds, be corrected at the earliest opportunity by those who constructed it; namely, the Government of the United States of America. The Stockton Diverting Canal is a completely artificial channel constructed under the supervision of the U.S. Army Engineers. It attempts to transfer water from the Mormon Slough (the southern stream) to the Calaveras River the northern stream). The Federal Government saw fit to construct a levee only on the west bank, which is the levee that protects the city of Stockton side of this artificial channel. The result is that the Stockton Diverting Canal floods lands immediately adjacent to the eastern side. The Stockton Diverting Canal has flooded these lands to a great depth and extent in the years 1911, 1938, 1955, and 1958. This inexcusable flooding by a Federal project is done without any easement rights, and without any compensation to the property owners. This continuing injury caused by the Federal Government under a Federal project of 1902 which only protects part of the city of Stockton should be corrected and solved by the building of the New Hogan Dam and the Stockton Diverting Canal-Mormon Slough improvements. Such contemplated structures will properly restrain the floodwaters of the Calaveras River and its tributaries. In December 1955, records show that part of the city of Stockton was saved from flooding at the expense of other real property owners, such real property owners being flooded to the extent of a depth of 120,400 acre-feet. In 1958, 9,800 cubic feet per second were held back by the western bank of the Stockton Diverting Canal. This letter is written for and on behalf of reclamation district 1614, a reclamation district consisting of 4,000 home-owners within the Calaveras River watershed in San Joaquin County, Calif., and is written for people owning real property bordering on the eastern side of the Stockton Diverting Canal. The proposed New Hogan Dam and improvements on the Stockton Diverting Canal-Mormon Slough are remedial and corrective legislation to correct an insufficient appropriation and an erroneous solution of a water control project that was exclusively a Federal project originating in the year 1902. The remedial legislation here proposed is a congressional responsibility which, when fairly placed before Congress in the year 1958-59, Congress immediately took the necessary measures to show that substantial justice is a continuing obligation ever predominant in our Government. Permit me to thank this committee for the favorable consideration it gave this same matter in 1958. It is hoped that the problem now confronting you has been adequately presented so that you may continue to enact the necessary remedial appropriations relating to the construction of the New Hogan Dam, and the survey of the Stockton Diverting Canal-Mormon Slough. OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE PORT, Stockton, Calif., April 20, 1959. To: The Subcommittees of the Appropriation Committees on Civil Functions (Department of Army, U.S. Army Engineers) of the House of Representatives and of the Senate of the United States. GENTLEMEN: The 1959-60 Federal budget contains an item of $500,000 for the completion of the levee protection work on the Stockton Deepwater Channel in accordance with recommendation in House Document No. 752, 80th Congress, 2d session. Since the budget was submitted it has developed that the U.S. Army Engineers now find that they can complete the above project for the sum of $250,000. In view of the above circumstances, we therefore request that your honorable bodies approve an appropriation in the sum of $250,000 as recommended by the U.S. Army Engineers, for completion of the levee protection work authorized by the above-mentioned House Document No. 752. We are also interested in a $25,000 item in the present budget for the 1959-60 year for an engineering study on the proposed 35-foot depth channel project of the Stockton Deepwater Channel. It is our understanding that the capabilities of the Sacramento District, U.S. Army Engineers, for this study amounts to $46,000, and we therefore request an increase of $21,000 to the present budget for this item. Respectfully submitted, NEW HOGAN DAM CHANNEL PORT OF STOCKTON, Representative MCFALL. In connection with the New Hogan Dam, there is, downstream from that dam, a channel which could be improved. We would like to have consideration of some $20,000 in survey money so we can determine what kind of a channel downstream from the dam we can add to it when we get the damsite. Thank you very much, Senator Ellender. (The statement referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN JOHN J. MCFALL Mr. Chairman and committee members, you have already heard the presentation of the California flood control delegation as to the urgent need for initiating construction of the New Hogan Dam which will provide flood protection for the city of Stockton and its environs and irrigation water storage to serve an area with a fast dropping water table. Let me summarize some of the background facts. First: This project was authorized by the Congress in 1944, some 15 years ago, and since that time the wisdom of this authorization has been shown repeatedly, particularly during the disastrous flood years of 1950, 1955, and 1958. Second: Although authorized for both flood control and irrigation purposes, the New Hogan Dam has such a high cost-to-benefit ratio, 1.7 to 1 overall and 1.3 to 1 for flood control, it would be a feasible project for flood control alone. Third: Your committee has recognized the need of this project on many occasions, voting a total of $740,000 which has been used for preliminary planning and for drawing plans and specifications. Most recently, you voted $230,000 in the current budget to complete the planning this year. It is now ready for construction. Fourth: There would be no saving whatsoever in delaying construction of this project. I believe you will agree it must be built eventually. It is now ready for construction. Delays will leave us unprotected from probable further flood damage and probably would add to the total project cost because of the inevitable rise in construction costs. Fifth The local interests have shown complete good faith in providing repayment assurances for the irrigation storage. As a further guarantee, the State of California has agreed to take over these repayment assurances and has actually appropriated $6.4 million to do so. the only two Federal projects in the State of California for which this has been New Hogan and Black Butte are done. Sixth: In the record is the testimony of the Army Engineers as to the need for this project and their capability for using $1,500,000 during the fiscal year 1960 to initiate construction. You will remember this project was omitted from the President's budget last year and was one of the 40-odd projects added by your committee. You included $230,000 for final plans and specifications, which was the total capability of the Army Engineers at that time. This year it has been caught in the "no new starts" prohibition again and if your committee makes further additions to the budget, I hope you will continue to give favorable consideration to the New Hogan Dam. Directly related to the flood-control work to be accomplished by New Hogan Dam is the construction of levees in the areas below the dam known as the diverting canal and Mormon Slough channels of the Calaveras River. discussed before your committee by Gen. W. F. Cassidy a year ago and I believe This was it was again referred to by Brig. Gen. Robert G. MacDonnell this year. The Calaveras River flood control job will not be complete until these low level channels have an adequate capacity to complement the New Hogan Dam. I understand the survey of this work will cost $40,000 and the Engineers have a capability of $25,000 in the coming year. Here again the project was not recommended in the budget only because of the arbitrary ban against new starts which at that time applied to surveys such as this. May I urge you also to consider the need for including funds for this survey in this year's bill. The project was authorized initially in 1944 and a review report recommended in 1956. The budget recommendation includes funds for a number of other projects in the 11th District of California and I commend them to you as desirable projects. Included are: Army Engineer funds for the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, Mokelumne River flood control studies, New Don Pedro Dam flood control studies, False River cutoff and 35-foot channel studies, Stockton Channel levee repairs, and maintenance work on the San Joaquin River, Old River, and Mormon Slough. Bureau of Reclamation funds for New Melones Dam power and marketing studies and for Consumnes River water control and development studies. Senator KUCHEL. Mr. Chairman, I am glad to present to the committee the Honorable Harlan Hagen, also of California. |