The Texas City industries obtained a surface water supply several years ago from the Brazos River. This large industrial complex now uses very little ground water and its total use of surface water is approximately 47 million gallons per day. In the Texas City area there are unusually large industrial water users including American Oil Refinery, one of the largest in the Nation, Republic Oil Refinery, and Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Co. These industries were using well water until the land upon which their plants were situated began to subside because of excess pumping and closeness to Galveston Bay. The Texas City area has every advantage that the Lower Colorado Basin offers and in addition a deep-water port. Additional sea walls are to be constructed in the Texas City area. It has taken at least 40 years for this demand for industrial water to develop. The Texas City industries and the new plant now being built on Chocolate Bayou above mentioned account for most of the increased demands for surface industrial water in the Texas City, Galveston, and Houston area during the past 15 years. At page 8 of the report of Freese & Nichols (opponent's exhibit 8) it is stated: "Presently, Harris County industries are using approximately 100 million gallons per day from private wells. It is assumed that such well water use by industries will continue indefinitely into the future and will continue to be a charge against the overall supply of domestic quantity of water available to Harris County. "The city of Houston is supplying some 50 million gallons per day of untreated San Jacinto River water from the end of its Lake Houston Canal through a 60inch conduit and tunnel (two 30-inch pipes in tunnel under the ship channel to the industrial water distribution system of certain industries on the south side of the ship channel. (See accompanying map.) The city has contracted to supply up to 75 million gallons a day to these industries." It has taken over 40 years for said demand for surface industrial water to develop in the Houston area. It is a well-know fact that most industries prefer water from wells. Most of the surface water is used for cooling purposes. The costs of treatment of it for other purposes usually make it cost more than well water. Most of the industries that would locate in the three-county area probably would prefer ground water which they would have available in an abundant supply (p. 5, opponent's exhibit A). All of the large oil, gas, chemical, paper pulp, and metal extraction companies have already built plants where large quantities of industrial water are available to them. Most of these have from time to time enlarged their present plants rather than building plants at new locations. The Humble, Dow Chemical, American Oil, Sinclair, Gulf Oil, Cities Service, Texaco, Jefferson Chemical, and other plants have recently been enlarged. Goodyear is now building a plant near Beaumont. Some of the large oil companies without refining capacities are selling out to, or merging with, the larger companies that now have refining and marketing facilities. The number of new industrial users of large quantities of surface water seeking sites on the gulf coast probably will be few during the next 20 years. New companies can obtain large supplies of industrial surface water cheaper than elsewhere, in the Houston area, or at Baton Rouge, La., or at Plaquemine, La., where Dow Chemical Co. built a large plant not long ago. The competition between the suppliers of industrial surface water in the next 20 years in the gulf coast area will be greater than it has been in the past 20. The city of Houston's big Livingston Reservoir on the Trinity River will be completed. Conservation storage sufficient to provide over a million gallons per day supply is contemplated from the reservoir that probably will be contructed at Millican on the Navasoto River, a tributary of the Brazosi River. The Ferguson crossing site on the Navasoto was approved by Congress. On account of opposition, a restudy has been made and the U.S. Army Engineers have approved the Millican site for this huge reservoir. The Brazos River Authority has several hundred thousand acre-feet of surplus industrial water it can deliver from Belton Reservoir and Whiteney Reservoir. It has been appointed agent by the city of Waco to sell its surplus of over 75 million gallons of industrial and municipal water a day. Proctor Reservoir and other reservoirs to be built on tributaries of the Brazos River will contain large conservation storage capacities. Huge conservation storage is also to be built on the Neches and Sabine Rivers during this period. All of the water under the control of the Brazos River Authority in the reservoirs on the Brazos River and its tributaries can be flowed through the system of American Canal Co. to the Pasadena-Texas City-Pelican Island-SeabrookWebster, and Galveston area. The new missile base is near Webster and this area appears the next for large industrial development. The water from the huge Millican Reservoir can also be flowed, either down the Brazos to its mouth or down a canal to Oyster Creek and then to the Freeport area and other places in Fort Bend, Brazoria, Harris, and Galveston Counties. Several hundred thousand acre-feet of surface water heretofore used for irrigation of rice from the Colorado, Brazos, Trinity, Neches, and Sabine Rivers, throughout the war period and until acreage allotments on rice were required under the price-support program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are now available for industrial use in the lower basins of each of said rivers (p. 6, opponent's exhibit A). My client American Canal Co. each year during said period, furnished sufficient water to irrigate approximately 26,000 acres of land planted to rice. The acreage now irrigated by this system is approximately 12,000 acres of land, per annum. The rice acreage irrigated by Southern Canal Co. each year during said period was approximately 12,000. For the past few years it has been irrigating about 4,000 acres per annum. The pumpage of water from wells between the Houston area and the Colorado lower basin during said period was 207 million gallons a day for irrigation of rice (p. 5, opponent's exhibit A). The board of water engineers considers 2 to 3 acre-feet per annum per acre of land sufficient for irrigation of rice. The acreage irrigated by wells has been likewise greatly reduced on account of acreage allotments, leaving a huge surplus of available ground water. The surface water used for rice irrigation during said period in the lower watershed of the Colorado averaged 265 million gallons per day (p. 7, opponent's exhibit A). No doubt there has been approximately the same percentage of reduction in the acreage planted to rice annually in this area as in Brazoria, Galveston, Harris, Fort Bend, Chambers and Liberty Counties, in which my clients furnish irrigation water. My clients now have much more industrial water available now than they had during said period. My client, American Canal Co. of Texas would be willing to make a 50-year contract to deliver as much as 150 million gallons of industrial water per day at very low rates. About one-half of this it could contract to purchase from the Brazos River Authority and has a firm and dependable supply from the Brazos River above Rosenberg, Tex., for the other one-half. It and Richmond Rice Association have the oldest permits on the Brazos, and their points of diversion are above the points of diversions of Briscoe Irrigation Co., South Texas Water Co., and Dow Chemical Co. who have permits for the diversion of several hundred thousand acre-feet of water per annum. Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc., report of June 1961 (opponent's exhibit A) wrote: at page 8 "The above comparison clearly shows that the Houston zone has a surplus water supply now and the surplus will increase much faster than the demand for many years." and at page 9 "The water supply in and near Houston is not only abundant; it is also among the least expensive in the country. * ** The low cost enables Houston to deliver untreated water to industry at rates as low as 1.2 cents per 1,000 gallons a unique attraction to water-using industries." and at page 11 "From the picture as formed, it is clear that the Houston zone has no present or potential shortage of water. This zone has water supplies available for new uses now, and projects planned or under construction will provide enough water for a threefold increase in use by the end of this century. This will permit the area around Houston to become the top water-using industrial area in the country. "The Houston zone does not merely promise abundant water supplies. These supplies are readily available to industries anywhere within this zone, and raw water is offered at the lowest rates for which water can be obtained from existing water systems in any of the 100-odd major industrial areas of the country." The proponents of the Columbus Bend project contend that the barge canal in the Bay City area connecting with the intercoastal canal will cause a great and rapid influx of industries. They will probably be as dissappointed as were the residents of Anahuac, Southern Liberty County area. These people succeeded 89821-62 in getting the Government to build a large barge canal from the Houston ship channel up the Trinity River Basin to a point below Liberty in Liberty County, Tex. In this area, the Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District has senior appropriations of water from the Trinity River and Lake Anahuac which stores 25,000 acre-feet of water. This district could make long-term contracts to supply at least 100 million gallons of surface industrial water per day, at very low rates. This barge canal and water supply have been available for several years, and I know of no industry that has taken advantage of it. The people of Galveston have also been greatly disappointed in their failure to attract large industries to their Pelican Island industrial sites, where deepsea shipping facilities are available. They voted a bond issue and spent several million dollars in providing a causeway, transportation and other facilities for industries on Pelican Island. American Canal Co. of Texas could furnish industrial water for these industries up to 150 million gallons per day. If any plants have been constructed on this island, I've never heard of them and I'm sure there are none using large amounts of surface water. Should the Bay City barge canal attract some industries, it is probable that they will not be large users of surface water and will prefer an underground water supply for several reasons. Should the population of this area increase, no doubt underground water will be used for municipal purposes. Houston, Galveston, Bay City, Wharton, and most cities and towns along the gulf coast between the Colorado and Trinity Rivers now use well water for municipal uses. There seems to be no reason why they should change to the use of surface water during the next 20 years, when there is an abundant supply of pure underground water available in this entire area (p. 5, opponent's exhibit A). CONCLUSION 1. If a municipal or industrial water supply from the Columbus Bend project is ever needed, in reasonable probability no part thereof would be used before the year 1980. 2. The Lower Colorado River Authority in reasonable probability would never receive from the proceeds of the sale of water from this project, the sum of $14,236,000 plus the interest thereon, it would be obligated to pay the United States. 3. The Lower Colorado River Authority would be making an unauthorized and reckless contract to pay said sum with interest out of trust funds to be derived from hydroelectric operations now existing. 4. If the Lower Colorado River Authority ever paid the United States, it would lose the difference between 22 percent per annum and the rate the Government is required to pay for money over a 50-year period. 5. The project would replace 25,000 acres of land that are now being used for their highest and best use and deprive the economy of over $36 million of farm and ranch income, before a gallon of industrial or municipal water will be needed from the proposed reservoir. In the best interests of the taxpayers of the Nation and the many people whose economic interests would suffer greatly from this project, I request that this honorable committee make a report recommending a vote against the bill introduce by Representative Clark Thompson, for authorization of constructing the Columbus Bend project. OPPONENTS' EXHIBIT 8 ESTIMATES OF DEMAND FOR DOMESTIC QUALITY WATER IN SAN JACINTO RIVER BASIN, TEX. 1. Purpose of study The purpose of the study is to estimate the probable liability of demand in the San Jacinto River Basin for water of a quality suitable for domestic use. For the purposes of this study, the San Jacinto River Basin is defined as the tributary areas draining into Galveston Bay as differentiated from Trinity Bay and specifically as the watersheds of the San Jacinto River, Cedar Bayou, and Clear Creek. 2. Quality requirements The domestic raw water supply should be as free of bacterial pollution as possible and in no case should have bacteria counts which would overload the domestic water treatment plants. The bacterial quality of the present Lake Houston supply is well within such a limit and its drainage area, a considerable portion of which is national forest, is one of the cleanest drainages in the State. Chemically, the domestic water supply should meet the limiting standards of U.S. Public Health Service and preferably should not exceed 85 parts per million in hardness. The chemical constituents of the San Jacinto River water fall well within the limits established by the U.S. Public Health Service. The San Jacinto River water has an average hardness of approximately 60 parts per million which compares with approximately 85 parts per million in Houston's well-water supply. Since a substantial amount of industrial water is delivered through the domestic raw water canal system and through the treated water distribution systems, it is important that the domestic supply also be of suitable quality for industrial use. Most industries are particularly interested in having minimum dissolved solids, hardness and turbidity and any reduction in these constituents has a definite economic value to most industries. The San Jacinto River water is of excellent quality for most industries. The Humble Refinery at Baytown uses San Jacinto River water without treatment except for minor special purposes. 3. Period of study The water demands have been studied through the year 2010 or approximately 50 years in the future. It is believed that 50 years is a minimum period for which long-range plans should be made for the water supply of a large and growing urban community and that any water supply plans should fit into and facilitate the long-range plans. 4. Principal demands on domestic quality supply The principal demands on the well and surface supply of domestic quality water are: (a) Domestic water requirements.-This is the principal demand on the well and surface supply and constitutes a major portion of the total demand for water of domestic quality. (b) Industrial demand on wells.-Industries in the Houston area are using approximately 100 MGD (million gallons per day) of well water and will probably continue to do so. All of the available well water is a part of the total supply of water of domestic quality and any industrial use of well water is a charge against the overall supply of well and surface water of domestic quality. (c) Industrial water distributed through city systems. Of necessity any industrial water commingled with and delivered along with the domestic quality water is a demand on the total supply of domestic quality water. Of this same nature is the water being sold by Houston from its Lake Houston Canal to the industrial water system of certain industries along the south side of the ship channel. These industries are now using approximately 50 MGD of San Jacinto River water under contracts for 75 MGD of raw water. (d) Domestic and industrial water demand in Crosby-Baytown-Cedar Point area. The San Jacinto River Authority has assumed the responsibility for delivering the surface water requirements of this area and is now supplying the surface water needs from the San Jacinto River. The authority proposes to continue furnishing this area with domestic quality water from the San Jacinto River for both domestic and industrial purposes. (e) Domestic and industrial water demand in Conroe-Cleveland-Huntsville area. The San Jacinto River Authority expects to provide an ample supply of water to meet the domestic and industrial water requirements in the San Jacinto River watershed above Lake Houston. Such requirements will constitute a charge against the total domestic quality water available for use in the San Jacinto River Basin. In this same category are riparian uses from the river and irrigation uses under existing water permits from above the Lake Houston Dam. 5. Domestic water use in Harris County The accepted method of estimating the future domestic or primarily household water use of a community is to estimate the probable populations in future years and to apply to such populations the probable per capita domestic water use for the respective years. The best indication of the future rate of growth of a metropolitan area, such as Harris County, is its past rate of growth particularly as it .approached its present population. Harris County has had an average rate of population increase for the past 50 years of 5.02 percent per annum. During the past 17 years, 1940-57, the average rate of population increase has been 4.71 percent per annum. It is characteristic of most large metropolitan districts in the United States that they show a declining annual rate of population increase as they get older and larger. The growth pattern of the Chicago metropolitan district, after it reached Harris County's 1957 population of 1,157.000, is probably the best available guide as to the future population of Harris County. As shown by the accompanying population graphs, the population growth of Harris County closely paralleled the population growth of the Chicago metropolitan district as the two graphs approached a population of 1,157,000. For the census decades following the reaching of a population of 1,157,000, the Chicago metropolitan district showed average annual rates of growth approximately 4.4, 2.9, 3.9, 1.6, 0.4, and 1.2 percent for the six successive decades. FREESE & NICHOLS |