Mr. TABER. Are they not kind of doubling up on us? Mr. DOMINY. These are credits which the United States has in those countries that have to be expended in those countries. This would be one way to put that money to good use, in our judgment. CONSTRUCTION AND REHABILITATION The appropriation estimate for this activity for fiscal year 1961 is $173,950,000. This amount, plus $870,750 of prior year funds and anticipated slippage in 1961 of $10 million, will provide a total program of $184,820,750, compared with the program for the current year of $144,755,397. The appropriated funds for this activity will be utilized to finance initial work on four new starts, construction contract earnings and associated costs on work underway at the end of the previous fiscal year, comprising 28 regular projects and 17 units and divisions of the Missouri River Basin project, a program for rehabilitation and betterment on 10 projects of which 2 are scheduled for completion in fiscal year 1961. Of the total number of projects under construction, nine regular and six Missouri River Basin project units are grouped under the "Drainage and minor construction" category because of their relatively limited programs. NEW STARTS The estimate for 1961 includes $4,173,000 for initiation of construction on four new starts: Vale project, Bully Creek extension, Oregon; lower Rio Grande rehabilitation project, LaFeria division, Texas; Almena unit, Kansas; and the Yellowtail unit, Montana and Wyoming, of the Missouri River Basin project. Each of these is vital to the economic development of the area in which it is located. Complete information will be provided when we reach the individual projects on the justifications. There is also included in the estimate $2 million for continuation of investigations on the Missouri River Basin project and $3 million for financing the activities of other Interior agencies participating in the multi-purpose Missouri River Basin program. Continuation of construction during 1961 at the rate provided in the justifications before this committee, will result in making available during the fiscal year water for the irrigation of 63,600 acres of new land and 61,200 acres of land now receiving an inadequate supply. Hydroelectric generating capacity will be increased by 48,000 kilowatts bringing the Bureau operated total nameplate capacity to 5,201,550 kilowatts. Of the total appropriation request of $173,950,000, $136,343,100 or 78 percent will be used to finance work on six projects and three Missouri River Basin units. However, the geographical locations of these projects and units represent a fair cross-section of the Western States in which the Bureau operates. 1960 PROGRAM During the current year we have scheduled for substantial completion the South Gila drainage facilities of the Colorado River front work and levee system; the Fort Cobb Dam and Reservoir and the Fort Cobb municipal and industrial water facilities of the Washita Basin project; the Vega Dam and Reservoir of the Collbran project; and the Howard Prairie Dam and Reservoir, Keene Creek Dam and Reservoir, collection canals, and Green Springs powerplant of the Rogue River Basin project, Talent division; the diversion works and canals of the middle Rio Grande project; and the storage basin and river pumping plant of the lower Rio Grande rehabilitation project, Mercedes division. Twelve projects in the drainage and minor construction status are also scheduled to be completed. On the Missouri River Basin project, during the current year we expect to complete the Boysen-Pilot Butte 115-kilovolt transmission line and substations, and Fargo-Grand Forks 115-kilovolt transmission line and substation of the transmission division; and the Fremont Canyon powerplant and switchyard of the Glendo unit. Three units in the drainage and minor construction status are also scheduled to be completed. 1961 PROGRAM Moving on to fiscal year 1961, with the funds requested we have programed for completion the pumping plants and the lateral system of the Wellton-Mohawk division of the Gila project; the first section of the southside canal of the Collbran project; the Prineville Dam and Reservoir of the Crooked River project; and the Wanship Dam and Reservoir, and Gateway Canal and diversion works of the Weber Basin project. Two units in the drainage and minor construction program are also to be completed. On the Missouri River Basin project, also during fiscal year 1961, the Owl Creek unit, the Gray Reef Dam and Reservoir of the Glendo unit, both in Wyoming, the outlet works extension of the Cedar Bluff Dam of the Cedar Bluff unit, and the Osborne Canal and laterals of the Webster unit are all to be substantially completed. The transmission division of the Missouri River project has scheduled for completion the Bismarck-Jamestown 230kilovolt transmission line No. 2 and substations, the Fort Peck-Dawson County-Bismarck 230-kilovolt transmission line and substation addition, and the Havre-Shelby 115-kilovolt transmission lines and substations. The 1961 program for the rehabilitation and betterment of existing projects which have become obsolete or badly deteriorated will require $3,609,000 of the appropriated funds to finance work on 10 projects. UPPER COLORADO RIVER BASIN FUND For fiscal year 1961, we are requesting $71,600,000, which, with rather substantial carryover funds from the prior year, due largely to extended labor-management negotiations on the Glen Canyon unit, and initial underfinancing due to anticipated slippage and delays, will provide a sound program for the increasing construction requirements of the Colorado River storage project and participating projects. Mr. Chairman, may I go off the record for just a moment? Mr. CANNON. On the record. Mr. DOMINY. During fiscal year 1961 work will be underway on four units of the storage project and six of the participating projects. Two of these, the Curecanti unit and the Florida participating project, are the new 1961 starts. The importance and need for these new starts will be explained in full when we reach these projects in the justifications. Three of the participating projects, the Hammond, Smith Fork, and Seedskadee, were placed under construction during the current year and will be continued during 1961. SEEDSKADEE PROJECT as While Seedskadee was included in the 1960 program a new start, we have not actually gotten underway there, and we are not going to award contracts until we clear up a problem of trona which has been discovered to underlie the Seedskadee lands. Trona is a valuable material and they have discovered that there are several large veins of it beneath the lands which were to be irrigated as part of the Seedskadee project. The lands are checkerboarded between Union Pacific ownership and public lands and we have no control over the Union Pacific in any event. If this mining is to be undertaken, while it is 1,500 feet or so under the surface, we fear that there will be a subsidence on the surface if we take a vein of trona 8 to 12 feet thick out from under the land. This will have to be checked out, and if the mining is to be undertaken, we will have to find a way to have irrigation compatible with mining, or eliminate that part of the project where the mine is to be located. So we will not actually undertake construction until we get those things cleared up. We are working on it very actively at the moment. Mr. JENSEN. Is trona a product used by the military? Mr. DOMINY. Mr. Palmer, do you recall what the basic uses of trona are? Mr. PALMER. It is widely used primarily in ceramics and it has had wide application in the chemical industry as well as for ceramics such as glass, electric insulators, and so forth. Mr. DOMINY. I think the answer is that it may not be directly connected with the military; but, certainly, indirectly in connection with manufacturing processes identified with military requirements. Mr. JENSEN. It might be used as a substitute for other products? Mr. DOMINY. Yes, sir. Mr. CANNON. The witness will proceed. Mr. DOMINY. On the Flaming Gorge unit, 1961 will see completion of all highway relocations and continuation of work on concrete placing in the dam, switchyard, and powerplant construction and permanent operating facilities. The program for Glen Canyon provides for marked construction progress on the dam and reservoir, the powerplant and switchyard and start of the protective works for the Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Funds are provided to permit continuation of construction of the Navajo Dam at the scheduled rate and for completion of the right-of-way acquisition program and initiation of railroad and telegraph line relocations. Investigations will continue on the transmission division including discussions with all interested parties and advance planning will be continued on the Crystal Dam of the Curecanti unit and five participating projects. Quality of water studies will be continued. Definite plan reports on the Emery County and LaBarge participating projects are scheduled for completion in 1961. OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE The appropriated funds required for operating and maintaining the Bureau's irrigation, power, municipal and industrial and other facilities for fiscal year 1961, are estimated at $31,900,000. This compares with an appropriation of $28,402,725 for the current year. Substantial increases in replacements and additions, more funds for the Columbia Basin drainage work and for new facilities coming into operation in fiscal year 1961 account for this increase. The funds requested for 1961 plus some $3,800,000 to be advanced by the water users and others and $1,024,000 available from the revolving fund for the Fort Peck project are needed for the operation and maintenance of 65 projects or divisions of projects, including Missouri River Basin units, for continuance of work on the Colorado River front work and levee system, soil and moisture conservation operations and halogeton control on Bureau lands. As a permanent activity, the Bureau of Reclamation operates and maintains only power projects and the power facilities and other reserved works of multipurpose projects. Completed irrigation facilities are turned over to water users organizations for operation and maintenance as rapidly as the necessary agreements can be consummated. Pending completion or until such agreements are executed, the systems are operated by the Bureau with appropriated or advanced funds. I am pleased to be able to report to this committee that during fiscal year 1959 the Bureau turned over to water users organizations facilities to serve 25,808 acres. During the fiscal year 1960 we plan to turn over 49,449 acres and the 1961 program contemplates the release to water users for operation and maintenance of 76,492 more. Under its power program, the Bureau will operate and maintain directly or by contract during fiscal year 1961 (exclusive of Fort Peck project facilities), a total nameplate capacity of 5,201,550 kilowatts in 43 powerplants, an increase of 51,000 kilowatts over 1960, and approximately 9,814 circuit miles of transmission lines, an increase of approximately 683 circuit miles. In addition, 1,024 circuit miles of transmission lines and 30 substations with 330,550-kva capacity will be operated and maintained on the Fort Peck project in fiscal year 1961. These facilities are physically interconnected with the transmission system of the Missouri River Basin project resulting in an integrated operation. I should like to explain here that in order to reflect this integration clearly in the Bureau's program, the construction and operation and maintenance requirements of the facilities of the two projects have been merged under the transmission division of the Missouri River Basin project for the first time in fiscal year 1961. The construction funds required for transmission facilities, previously requested under the Fort Peck item, are included in the fiscal year 1961 allocation for the Missouri River Basin project. The operation and maintenance expenses for these facilities are also included in the Missouri River Basin program but are defrayed from the continuing fund established by the act of May 18, 1938. Of the total appropriation requested, approximately 90 percent will be returned to the United States from power and irrigation revenues and proceeds from the sale of municipal and industrial water. The balance, which is nonreimbursable and nonrevenue producing, is made up principally of the Colorado River front work and levee system, the program for soil and moisture conservation operations and flood control work. Now, that 90 percent reimbursement on this O. & M. item is reimbursable in the year in which it is expended, and it is actually in the Treasury before we expend it in most cases. GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES The estimate required to finance the general administrative functions of the Bureau is $4,320,000. This is slightly more than the $4,290,000 appropriated for fiscal year 1960 principally due to employee health benefit costs commencing in 1961. These nonreimbursable funds are used to finance the general overall management-type functions and activities of the Commissioner's Office in Washington, and Denver, Colo., and the seven regional offices. LOAN PROGRAM For fiscal year 1961 we are requesting $18,437,000. This amount provides funds to complete the financing of four small projects loans for which one year needs were appropriated in fiscal year 1960. It also provides the full financing requirements for five additional small projects loans for which applications have been approved by the Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs. Three of these have completed their 60-day qualifying period before the committees and the remaining two will do so within the immediate future. Finally, the request includes $220,075 for administration of the loan program, that is, for investigation of potential loans and for meeting administrative costs involved in negotiating contracts, answering inquiries and generally servicing potential applicants for loans under either the distribution system or small projects loan program. INCREASE IN BUDGET Mr. CANNON. It is to be noted here that while you have one or two minor decreases you are in the main requesting more money for 1961 than you requested last year. How much is the total request here in excess of your total request of last year? Mr. DOMINY. It is $54 million, plus, Mr. Chairman. $54,442,750 is the total increase. Mr. CANNON. At this point I will have included in the record a summary table. (The table referred to follows:) |