Right now, during this last spring, we had a brown-out. We had to curtail the use of electrical energy both in homes and in businesses. We had to turn off signs, and so on. We must have additional power. We need it now, in addition to flood control. One other thing the gentleman here asked about: Irrigation west of the mountains. Over there we have a heavy rainfall but the distribution is poor. The months of July and August are dry. So some of the expensive crops that are raised must have supplemental irrigation in order to produce them for food. We are large producers in the Willamette Valley of foods both frozen and canned. So with this additional water for irrigation, we can raise much more expensive crops. The old days of forage crops and hay and so forth are gone in that expensive land. So I say again this over-all project, the multiple purpose dams, will create the power that we need. By the way, we produced some 30 percent of the aluminum that was used in the war. The aluminum industry is a tremendous industry in Oregon and in Washington. The additional industry that will be attracted are those that require lots of power at low rates. We have one of the lowest commercial rates. anywhere. That will be the future of that country. Mr. JONES. One question at this point: What is your kilowatt deficit at the present time? Mr. MCKAY. I cannot say. I would refer you to Colonel Weaver. The CHAIRMAN. Governor, the gentleman is from the TVA. Mr. MCKAY. I am sorry I cannot answer, but I am sure the Army engineers can. The next thing, of course, is the storage of water for your irrigation system-irrigation and for navigation. In addition to combining the Snake River, you go up the Willamette River beyond Salem, which will produce barge transportation for products in and out. So the over-all project means the future to orderly development of the Northwest, which is the only remaining territory we have left to develop; and we welcome people out there. We also urgently request Congress to assist us in self-liquidating projects. The Willamette Valley project has suffered enough losses in the last 40 years to build this project and the loss now is accelerated becaue the additional people that live in the flood plain. I presume that and it is just a guess, but that will be liquidated fast because of the probability of floods. The floods that now occur will do three or four times as much damage as they did 10 years ago. Are there any questions the committee would care to ask me? Mr. ANGELL. Governor, in addition to the other benefits you mentioned, it will mean increased revenues in the way of taxes both for the Federal Government and the State government? Mr. MCKAY. That is right, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Are there questions by any other member of the committee? Mr. MACK. Governor, in your State, are the manufacturers, the chambers of commerce, the business people, the labor unions, the grange, the private power companies, as well as the public power companies, all in favor of power development in the Columbia Basin? Mr. MCKAY. Yes, sir. Mr. MACK. There is no division of opinion on that? Mr. McKAY. None whatever. It is a united opinion. I know of no opposition to this 308 revised report. The CHAIRMAN. Any statement by other members of the committee? Governor, we are glad to have had your statement for the record. You are familiar with the work of the engineers along the Willamette River and you referred to the benefits that would accrue from the reclamation projects. You have heard the statement here from the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers that their work is coordinated and that it fits in with the soil conservation work of the Department of Agriculture. What has been your observation and experience in that matter? Mr. MCKAY. I agree with the statements made that it is a thoroughly coordinated program between them; particularly in the last year or so we have worked along that line there through the interagency committee in the Northwest. It is thoroughly coordinated. There is no duplication whatever. The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have your statement; and now we will have Mr. Horan. Mr. HORAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The people of the State of Washington are fully aware of their great responsibilities in cooperation with others. At this time it is indeed a pleasure to introduce the Governor of the State of Washington, Arthur B. Langlie. The CHAIRMAN. Governor Langlie, if you will come around, we will be glad to have your statement. STATEMENT OF HON. ARTHUR B. LANGLIE, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON Mr. LANGLIE. Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee on Public Works, in the interest of brevity and trying to cover the subject, I would like to submit first this statement to you. As a long-time citizen of the State of Washington, a former mayor of Seattle, and twice Governor of the State, I have followed closely and with great interest, the efforts which have been made in the development of the Columbia River and its tributaries. You have before you the integrated plans of the Army engineers and Bureau of Reclamation. This planning has involved several years of study and effort on the part of these two Federal agencies; the officials of the seven interested States; and the people of the region, working together as provided for in sections 1 to 9 of the Flood Control Act of 1944 and subsequent legislation. These integrated plans involve some 60 projects comprising the essential basic control projects necessary to harness, and put to highest beneficial use, the water and land resources of one of the fastest growing sections of the United States, embracing all or part of seven States and beneficially improving a part of the Province of British Columbia. Two of the larger projects are already completed and have been serving the area well for a number of years-the Grand Coulee Dam and the Bonneville Dam. Of the 60 projects before us today, 11 are already approved and under construction by the Army engineers or the Bureau of Reclamation. Twelve more have already been authorized by the Congress for construction. Thirty-seven are before you as joint recommendations by the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation as representing their best judgment as to what is necessary to harness and put to use the streams of that river basin. An April 11, the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Engineers, the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation advised the President in part, as follows: In further pursuance of your requests, the two plans have been fully coordinated not only with regard to the physical features to be included in the plan of development, but also with regard to the policies and scheduling of the work to be done. The coordinated plan is comprehensive in scope and is designed not only to meet the most pressing current needs, but to provide as well a basis for incorporation of further projects into the program as they become necessary. It provides also for the inclusion, when prepared by the appropriate agencies, of plans for forest management, land treatment, protection, and propagation of fish and wildlife, recreational development, meeting needs and rights of Indians, and interagency procedures for coordinated operation of river-control projects. To my mind, this is real progress. It is a sound and realistic approach to a complicated problem-that of providing suitable machinery for voluntary cooperation as between seven sovereign States and a Federal Government which is in keeping with our democratic tradition. It is interesting to note that this program and this development grew out of a suggestion by a Secretary of the Interior in 1917, and a subsequent appropriation of $100,000 by the legislature of the State of Washington. In 1917, Franklin K. Lane, then Secretary of the Interior, wrote that "following all wars, there had always been a movement back to the land." This admonition challenged some of our citizens to start a study of how waters of the Columbia River could be diverted on to some of our vast areas of desert land. The first money to explore such possibilities was subsequently appropriated by the State of Washington. This was followed by more money raised by public subscriptions to further the ambition of the State and its citizens to merge our land and water resources into a new empire. I venture the assertion that few, if any, stream basins in the Nation have been the recipient of as much effective teamwork by citizens, State officials, and Federal agencies working together, as has the Columbia River Basin. Following the approval by Congress of an integrated plan for the development of the Missouri River Basin in 1944, and the enactment of measures at that time directing the Army engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation in the future to exchange views and compare notes among themselves and with all the affected States on stream basin development projects throughout the West, there was established the Columbia River Inter-Agency Committee, composed of one representative from each of the Federal agencies which had a primary responsibility and a representative of each of the affected States. As Governor of my State, I have attended numerous meetings of the Inter-Agency Committee as have the Governors of the other States in the basin. On April 24, at a meeting in Pocatello, Idaho, the Governors personally, or through their representatives, expressed them selves on the subject before us at which time we said in part, as follows: The two plans now suggested for the development of the area taken together will fulfill these immediate needs. The need for the development recommended in these reports is immediate-there must be no delay, nor should any act be countenanced which would contribute in any manner to such delay. We feel that an important ultimate part of the of the plan for the development of the Pacific Northwest must include consideration of the maintenance of soil fertility, the prevention of soil erosion, and so forth, but the immediate plan need not, and should not, be delayed pending the integration of the protection program that will ultimately be required. Such a program can later be correlated with the structures required immediately. We therefore urge, and in fact we consider it imperative, that every individual and every agency, State and Federal, do all in their power to bring these reports outlining the development of the resources of the Pacific Northwest before the present Congress expeditiously, and that the development of these resources through the existing agencies and in full cooperation with the States be urged. To these ends we pledge our whole-hearted and unqualified support. We are reading considerable these days in the press and in popular magazines about the various recommendations of the Hoover Commission on organization of the Executive Branch of the Government. In the Commission's Report on Reorganization of the Department of the Interior, the Commission is quite critical of the Corps of Engineers and of the Bureau of Reclamation and I presume with some cause, yet I wish to point out to the members of your two committees which have jurisdiction over these fields of activities that what the Hoover Task Force on this phase of reorganization recommends, is not, in any way, in conflict with the recommendations which we seven Governors of the Columbia Basin area are proposing. When you eliminate the dissenting statements of various members, and the minority report of the task force, the two recommendations that bear most upon the type of agency the Hoover Task Force proposes for development of the Columbia River, are these: RECOMMENDATION NO. 9 For the many reasons above, we recommend that the rivers and harbors and flood-control activities of the Corps of Engineers be transferred to the Department of Interior and that any Army engineers who can be spared from military duties be detailed to the Department in positions similar to those which they now hold in the Corps of Engineers. I do not at this time mean to favor or oppose the recommendation, I merely point out that whether or not Congress or the President put these recommendations into effect, the personnel is the same. It will be that of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers, whether under two heads or one. The other significant recommendation is: RECOMMENDATION NO. 11 The Commission recommends that a drainage area advisory commission be created for each major drainage area, comprising representatives of the proposed water development and use services of the Department of the Interior, the proposed Agricultural Resources Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture, and that each State concerned should be asked to appoint a representative. The purpose of these drainage boards should be coordinating and advisory, not administrative. I submit, gentlemen, that the above recommendation is a fairly accurate description of the make-up and purpose of the present Colum bia River Inter-Agency Committee, upon which I and the other Governors of the basin States have been serving, and which we desire to see continued in order that the views of the citizens and officials of the States may continue to be woven into various programs that will go to make up the final comprehensive and integrated resource development of the entire Columbia River Basin. May I summarize briefly. The present development that has taken place on the Columbia is considerable. These and all the plans for the future which we are here discussing, have come from the initiative of the local people and their State governments working together through Congress, with the existing Federal agencies, under present laws. This is not the time for any of us to consider abdicating our responsibility, or of accepting a rigid formula for exclusive Federal control. Two dams are completed, 11 are under construction, 12 more have been authorized by Congress for immediate construction. Before us is the joint recommendation of the two agencies that have been studying the remaining projects together in the spirit of the O'Mahoney-Millikin amendments to the 1944 Flood Control Act for 37 additional units. Under the terms of the above amendments, the plans of these two agencies have been submitted to public hearings throughout the area. They have been submitted to the Governors of the seven affected States. In spite of the fact that 90 days is permitted in which the governors are allowed to make comments on the plan, nearly every State has already indicated its approval of the general plan as the official blueprint of the over-all development program for the basin, with but minor reservations, where additional information is needed to make sure they are arriving at sound conclusions that are in the long-range interests of their people and their States. The plans before us have the approval of the Secretary of the Army, the Chief of Engineers, the Secretary of the Interior, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. Generally, the people and the organizations of my State who have been most actively engaged in resource development throughout the years favor the plans and the procedures outlined by the governors at their Pocatello meeting on April 24. Much of the support for authority legislation, which is offered as an alternative, is inspired from the Washington, D. C., level. The press is overwhelmingly for the procedure proposed by the seven governors. In closing, may I say that I strongly favor and recommend to your committee the approval and early authorization by Congress of the coordinated plan with certain qualifications pertaining to irrigation and power revenues and other power policy questions-which I have not yet had time to consider in sufficient detail to determine as yet just what course I believe will be in the best interests of the people and the States affected. Thank you for your attention. (Documents submitted by Governor Langlie are as follows:) Maj. Gen. LEWIS A. PICK, STATE OF WASHINGTON, Chief of Engineers, Department of the Army, Washington, D. C. DEAR GENERAL PICK: I have before me the revised 308 report of the Army engineers, likewise the memorandum of agreement between the United States |