Cunningham, Glenn, a Representative in Congress from the State of Curtis, Hon. Carl T., a U.S. Senator from the State of Nebraska.. McBroom, James T., Chief, Division of Technical Services, Bureau Morrison, Frank B. Hon., Governor of Nebraska, accompanied by Beermann, Hon. Ralph F., a Representative in Congress from the 1 53 12 23 Hruska, Roman L., Hon., a U.S. Senator from the State of Nebraska__ 28 148 Lauritsen, Walter P., Grand Island, Nebr., attorney for Nebraska 60 Peterson, C. Petrus, executive director, Nebraska Reclamation Asso- 149 Reed, E. C., director, the University of Nebraska Conservation and 51 Welsh, William E., secretary-manager, National Reclamation Asso- 102 月 IV CONTENTS Page. Additional data submitted to the committee: Interagency Committee on Water Resources, Subcommittee on Evaluation Standards, report of---- 141 Nebraska Legislature Resolution No. 14__ Communications submitted to the committee: 41 Aronson, J. Hugo, Hon., Governor of the State of Montana, letter dated Blair, J. T., Jr., Hon., Governor of the State of Missouri, letter dated Chamber of Commerce, Central City, Nebr., letter dated June 25, 1962_ Davis, John E., Hon., Governor of the State of North Dakota, letter dated April 23, 1960 Docking, George, Hon., Governor of the State of Kansas, letter dated Freeman, Orville L., Hon., Governor of the State of Minnesota, letter dated April 18, 1960-. Grand Island Industrial Foundation, Inc., letter dated June 12, 1962-. Herseth, Ralph, Hon., Governor of the State of South Dakota, letter Hickey, J. J., Hon., Governor of the State of Wyoming, letter dated City of Kearney, Nebr., letter from___ 58 59 85 Chamber of Commerce, Kearney, Nebr., letter dated June 4, 1962__. 86 McNichols, Steve, Hon., Governor of the State of Colorado, letter dated 57 56 57 56 56 82 83 55 National Wildlife Federation, letter from Thomas L. Kimball, executive director___ 102 Nebraska Game Forestation and Parks Commission, telegram from 101 MID-STATE PROJECT, NEBRASKA MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1962 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 a.m., in the committee room, New House Office Building, Hon. Walter Rogers (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. ROGERS. The Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation will come to order for the consideration of pending business set for hearing this morning on S. 970 and companion House bills, H.R. 3957, by Mr. Cunningham; H.R. 4337, by Mr. Martin; and H.R. 4598, by Mr. Weaver; to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Mid-State reclamation project, Nebraska, and for other purposes. Now, for the purposes of the record, S. 970, together with H.R. 3957, will be printed in the record and proper reference will be made to the other bills. This will be followed by the reports from the Department of Interior under date of May 24, 1961; by the Department of the Army, dated June 20, 1961. (The two bills referred to above, S. 970 and H.R. 3957, follow :) [S. 970, 87th Cong., 1st sess.] AN ACT To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Mid-State reclamation project, Nebraska, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to construct, operate, and maintain in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) the Mid-State Federal reclamation project, Nebraska, for the principal purposes of furnishing a surface irrigation water supply for approximately one hundred and forty thousand acres of land, aiding in the replenishment of the groundwater supply of the area for domestic and agricultural use, controlling floods, conserving and developing fish and wildlife, and producing hydroelectric power. The principal works of the project shall consist of a diversion dam on the Platte River, a main supply canal, an interconnected reservoir system, hydroelectric power facilities, wasteways, pumps, drains, canals, laterals, distribution facilities, and related works, including, on a nonreimbursable basis, minimum basic recreational facilities. SEC. 2. The Mid-State project shall be integrated, physically and financially, with the other Federal works in the Missouri River Basin constructed or authorized to be constructed under the comprehensive plans approved by section 9 of the Act of December 22, 1944 (58 Stat. 891), as amended and supplemented, and shall be a unit of the Missouri River Basin project therein approved and authorized, and the authorization for the appropriation of funds for the accomplishment of the works to be undertaken by the Secretary of the Interior under said authority shall extend to and include funds for the construction of the Mid-State project. SEC. 3. The interest rate used for computing interest during construction and interest on the unpaid balance of the capital costs allocated to interest-bearing features of the project shall be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury as of the beginning of the fiscal year in which construction is initiated, on the basis of the computed aveage interest rate payable by the Treasury upon its outstanding marketable public obligations, which are neither due or callable for redemption for fifteen years from date of issue. SEC. 4. For a period of ten years from the date of enactment of this Act, no water from the project authorized by this Act shall be delivered to any water user for the production on newly irrigated lands of any basic agricultural commodity, as defined in the Agricultural Act of 1949, or any amendment thereof, if the total supply of such commodity for the marketing year in which the bulk of the crop would normally be marketed is in excess of the normal supply as defined in section 301 (b) (10) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, unless the Secretary of Agriculture calls for an increase in production of such commodity in the interest of national security. Passed the Senate September 21, 1961. FELTON M. JOHNSTON, Secretary. [H.R. 3957, 87th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Mid-State reclamation project, Nebraska, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to construct, operate, and maintain in accordance with the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto) the Mid-State Federal reclamation project, Nebraska, for the principal purposes of furnishing a surface irrigation water supply for approximately one hundred and forty thousands acres of land, aiding in the replenishment of the groundwater supply of the area for domestic and agricultural use, controlling floods, conserving and developing fish and wildlife, and producing hydroelectric power. The principal works of the project shall consist of a diversion dam on the Platte River, a main supply canal, an interconnected reservoir system, hydroelectric power facilities, wasteways, pumps, drains, canals, laterals, distribution facilities, and related works, including, on a nonreimbursable basis, minimum basic recreational facilities. SEC. 2. The Mid-State project shall be integrated, physically and financially, with the other Federal works in the Missouri River Basin constructed or authorized to be constructed under the comprehensive plans approved by section 9 of the Act of December 22, 1944 (58 Stat. 891), as amended and supplemented, and shall be a unit of the Missouri River Basin project therein approved and authorized, and the authorization for the appropriation of funds for the accomplishment of the works to be undertaken by the Secretary of the Interior under said authority shall extend to and include funds for the construction of the Mid-State project. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Hon. WAYNE N. ASPINALL, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, DEAR MR. ASPINALL: This responds to your request for the views of this Department on H.R. 3957 and H.R. 4337, bills to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Mid-State reclamation project, Nebraska, and for other purposes. There is also pending before your committee an identical bill, H.R. 4598. We recommend the enactment of any of these measures. It is the purpose of these bills to include the Nebraska Mid-State unit in the Missouri River Basin project so that the construction, operation, and mainte nance of the proposed Mid-State development may be undertaken by this Department and be integrated, physically and financially, with the other Federal works of the Missouri River Basin project. Our legislative reports to your committee dated April 24, 1959, on H.R. 973 and H.R. 3662, 86th Congress, and on April 20, 1960, on H.R. 8985, 86th Congress, previous proposals regarding the development, supported the construction of a multiple-purpose project to serve the lands within the boundaries of the Nebraska Mid-State Reclamation District. In those legislative reports and that of June 19, 1958, on H.R. 10825, 85th Congress, we commented in detail on the physical plan described in the Mid-State project report, dated April 25, 1958, which was prepared for the district by consulting engineers employed by it. Representatives of this Department have had opportunity over a period of years to confer with the district and its consulting engineers regarding the project plan and our general agreement upon the physical plan of the project was confirmed by the testimony of the Department's witnesses in the hearing conducted by your committee during the 2d session of the 86th Congress on H.R. 8985. Should the Congress enact legislation along the lines of these bills, we would expect to construct the unit substantially in accordance with the physical plan in the project report, except as detailed studies in connection with the preparation of a definite plan report, which is to be undertaken after authorization, might indicate the desirability of making minor modifications in any of the project features. There was attached as part of the legislative report on H.R. 8985, 86th Congress, dated April 20, 1960, a financial evaluation statement on the MidState development as a proposed unit of the Missouri River Basin project. That document remains a current valid statement of project analysis and findings. Within the limitations of the basic data available, the same criteria were used in the statement as those which are normally used by the Bureau of Reclamation in the evaluation of the economic justification and financial feasibility of units of the Missouri River Basin project. The total estimated cost of the project is $81,467,000, which is the same as that reported in our letter on H.R. 8985, 86th Congress. Water user payments and conservancy district revenues will pay all operation, maintenance, and replacement costs. Within a 40-year period, $30,763,800, or 59 percent, of the nearly $52 million irrigation allocation will be repaid by the district. The balance of about $21,200,000 would, in the event repayment arrangements with the water users are not extended beyond the end of the 40-year contract period, be recovered from basinwide power revenues. As with all other irrigation units of the Missouri River Basin project, the repayment arrangements with the district will be reanalyzed when the 40-year repayment contract period ends. As to the effect of authorization and construction of the Mid-State unit on Missouri River Basin project power revenues, we offer this information: The most recent economic analysis (December 1958) of the authorized Missouri River Basin project indicates that surplus power revenues will be available in sufficient amounts to retire this additional obligation. The study shows that the last power facility will be in operation by the year 2000 and that the commercial power investment will be paid out by the year 2022. Thereafter, some $32 million annually of net power revenues will be available to assist in the repayment of the irrigation costs of the Missouri River Basin project units. The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection to the presentation of this report from the standpoint of the administration's program. Sincerely yours, Hon. WAYNE N. ASPINALL, JAMES K. Carr, Under Secretary of the Interior. DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, Washington, D.C., June 20, 1961. Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Reference is made to your request for the views of the Department of the Army with respect to H.R. 3957 and H.R. 4337, 87th Congress, bills to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the Mid-State reclamation project, Nebraska, and for other purposes. These bills would modify the Missouri River Basin project authorized by the Flood Control Act approved December 22, 1944 (58 Stat. 887, 891), as amended, |