STATEMENT OF HERBERT G. WEST, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, INLAND EMPIRE WATERWAYS ASSOCIATION, WALLA WALLA, WASH.

The Inland Empire Waterways Association is an organization composed of farmers, farm cooperatives, businesmen, chambers of commerce, port districts, and county and city governments, representative of all the territory in eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Idaho, contiguous to the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The territory in which it is primarily interested lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades, more clearly defined as the Columbia River Drainage Basin. The association is a nonprofit corporation with a voluntary membership in 32 counties. It was incorporated in the State of Washington in 1934.

The association endeavors to represent the Interior Pacific Northwest in all matters affecting its economic life, more particularly in transportation, flood control, hydroelectric power, conservation and use of natural resources, and in the development of new and larger economic opportunities for the people and enterprises of the region.

At our annual meeting in September of 1943, we adopted a resolution requesting the Senate Commerce Committee to request review of the 308 report on the Columbia River Basin. It was our contention then, as it is today, that the future economic welfare of this region is dependent mainly upon two factors:

1. Transportation.-Its advantages or absence will in a large measure determine the growth and development of the interior and fix its population and prosperity.

2. Water. The conservation, control, and economic use of our surplus water, conserved in source streams. It is our contention that this vast water could and should be used for irrigation, power development, and maintenance of channel depths in lower water stages.

On behalf of our membership, I would, at this time, like to compliment the Corps of Engineers on the thorough manner in which they carried out the resolution of the Committee of Commerce of the United States Senate. It has been our pleasure to have appeared at many hearings conducted by the Portland district office of the Corps of Engineers on various aspects of this broad development program. I have always been impressed by the full cooperation of other governmental agencies, such as the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Bonneville Power Administration, Federal Power Commission, the Forestry Department, and the various State departments. The report now before us is fully representative, in our judgment, of the views of the various departments, including that of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It demonstrates to our complete satisfaction the democratic manner in which the Corps of Engineers proceeded to produce this report through the full and complete cooperation of the other governmental agencies charged with their respective responsibilities in the region. Everyone familiar with the economics of the Pacific Northwest, or who has any association with the marketing of our agricultural and manufactured commodities, is aware of the handicaps concerning high freight rates generally assessed in the area.

Although we are interested primarily in the development and improvement of navigation, which has been the goal of our association, the need for the overall conservation and development of our water resources has increased steadily from year to year, paralleling the population growth and industrial expansion of the Pacific Northwest region.

In view of recent events, (1) the disastrous flood of May and June, 1948, and (2) the serious power shortage of the present time, it is more imperative than ever that some comprehensive plan to coordinate the development of the Columbia Basin water resources be adopted with out delay. Such a plan has been recommended by the Corps of Engineers in the Review Report on the Columbia River and Tributaries. In the opinion of the Inland Empire Waterways Association no better program for the present and the future development of the vast resources of this region has been presented, nor is it likely that a more comprehensive plan coordinating all the phases of development will be devised.

The 1948 flood caused damages estimated in excess of $100,000,000 in addition to taking 50 lives. While floods of this magnitude are unusual, the annual estimated loss is $26,000,000 for the Columbia Basin as a result of lesser general floods and numerous severe floods of Columbia River tributaries. The multiplepurpose storage reservoirs recommended by the Corps of Engineers offer a practical solution for this yearly problem, which will become greater as the popula

tion becomes more dense and lands bordering the streams are utilized and expanded by industry and agriculture. The development of an adequate floodcontrol system of reservoirs and levees is essential to the economic welfare of the Columbia Basin. The current power shortage emphasizes the urgent need for further development of the hydroelectric resources in the Columbia Basin. Existing power markets exceed the generating capacity of the region's power projects, including Bonneville and Grand Coulee. The output from McNary Dam could be used readily now if it were available. This project, as well as the other authorized projects on the Snake and Columbia Rivers, should be speeded to completion to prevent a critical collapse of the Northwest power pool. Estimates of the Bonneville Power Administration indicate that they are merely assuming maximum production by private utilities. The demand for power from the Federal system will exceed 10,000,000 kilowatts by 1960. This means firm salable power, not merely installed capacity. Federal Power Commission estimates are somewhat more conservative. This agency also agrees, however, that this enormous demand will develop, although perhaps a few years later. Private utilities have estimated that 22 million kilowatts of generating capacity must be added to the present 31⁄2 million kilowatts now being generated to fill requirements by 1956. These 10,000,000 kilowatts must be compared to approximately 11⁄2 million kilowatts attainable from Bonneville and Grand Coulee, the only existent Federal projects of any magnitude in the Pacific Northwest.

The present firm power capacity of all public and private utilities in the Northwest power pool is 3,600,000 kilowatts including Bonneville and Grand Coulee. In other words, if all the existing capacity of the Northwest, including the Federal projects, were to be trebled, it would still fall far short of reaching the power requirements which will be upon us in a very few years.

In emphasizing the importance of electrical energy for the Northwest, the factors of cost and time are of outstanding importance. I say cost first because this energy, to serve its function, must be cheap. The Northwest is indeed fortunate in the number of natural damsites from which vast supplies of energy can be obtained, for there is a great variation in the desirability and cost of these sites. Since private utilities are unable to meet the present and future needs, we feel that it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to develop the hydroelectric resources of this rapidly growing region. Vast economic benefits would result, not only to the Pacific Northwest, but to the entire Nation, from carrying out the developments proposed under the main control plan submitted by the engineers.

In addition to the millions of dollars that would be added to the region through industrial and agricultural development, the security of the Nation would be enhanced. A power shortage such as exists now could easily be disastrous through curtailment of operations if hampered in cases of national emergency. The main control plan of the engineers offers the solution of two very major problems in the Columbia Basin: Flood control and hydroelectric power. The former would result in some $16,000,000 average annual benefits and the power program in more than $100,000,000 to the region.

The responsibility for this main stem flood control was assigned in 1936 by Congress to the Corps of Engineers, and this has been upheld by congressional policy ever since. It is of the greatest significance and a great tribute, in our judgment, to the engineering foresight that a dam such as Grand Coulee, built entirely for irrigation and power and not considered from the viewpoint of flood control except to a very minor extent, can even at this late date be brought into the plan and can provide 5,000,000 acre-feet of flood-control storage without detriment to its irrigation and power potentialities.

The history of Columbia River navigation reveals a steady increase in tonnage that has kept pace with the commercial growth of the territory served by this great waterway. Since the completion of the Bonneville lock and dam in 1938, river-borne commerce for that section of the Columbia has increased about 13 times, to an annual total of more than a million and a quarter tons. Completion of McNary lock and dam will eliminate two of the persent difficult hazards to river transportation, namely, Umatilla and Homly Rapids. The McNary project, which will provide a slack water pool 64 miles upstream and into the Snake River, will encourage additional tonnage. This is especially true when -considering the four authorized dams and locks on the lower Snake River, the first of which is the Ice Harbor Dam. These dams will make economical navigation possible inland as far as Lewiston, Idaho, which is 495 miles upstream from the mouth of the Columbia River.

It is estimated that with the completion of the McNary lock and dam and the Snake River locks and dams, prospective upstream and downstream traffic will average 5,000,000 tons annually. Seventy-five percent of the tonnage upstream and downstream lies east of the McNary Dam. This is illustrated by the fact that on wheat alone 13,875,000 bushels of wheat is grown and is available for water transportation west of the McNary Dam, or downstream from the dam. East of the McNary Dam there are 144,000,000 bushels. This illustrates how important it is to the Pacific Northwest to have river navigation extended to Lewiston, Idaho. Where river transportation is now operating, there is a definite effect on land transportation costs. Allow me to give you a few examples:

From The Dalles, Oreg., located on the main stem of the Columbia River, almost at the head of the Bonneville pool, the rate in 1930 in cents per 100 pounds to Portland, Oreg., was 101⁄2 cents. In January 1949, the rate was 10 cents.

From Madras, Oreg., located on one of the branch rail lines off the river, the rate in 1930 was 21 cents; in January 1949, it was 22 cents.

From Wasco, Oreg., off the main line, the rate in 1930 was 17 cents; in January 1949, it was 14 cents.

For Grass Valley, off the main line, the rate in 1930 was 17 cents; in January 1949, it was 15 cents.

However, in the area not affected by water transportation to date, such as Pendleton, Oreg., on the main line, the rate in 1930 was 182 cents per 100 pounds to Portland, Oreg.; in January 1949, the rate was 26% cents.

From Walla Walla, Wash., the rate was 182 cents in 1930; in January 1949, it was 262 cents.

From Lewiston, Idaho, the rate was 24 cents in 1930; in 1949, it was 35 cents.

The farmer pays the freight bill on wheat. In other words, he sells f. o. b. the point of origin, or shipping point. Thus the entire transportation saving goes to the individual farmer. The counties of Gilliam, Morrow, Sherman, Wasco, Deschutes, and Jefferson in Oregon (which are west of McNary Dam) and Klickitat County in Washington (lying west of McNary Dam) in the years 1930 to 1946 had an annual saving in land transportation costs on wheat of $374,310, or a grand total up to 1946 of $5,988,960. This has accrued to the benefit of the farmers or producers in that restricted area which only produces about 9,195,324 bushels of wheat. The value of water transportation to our farmers is again demonstrated with reference to petroleum and refined gasoline upstream, which is distributed by joint water and rail and joint water and truck throughout the entire interior territory. For the sake of argument, at Pendleton, Oreg., the rate was 28% cents per 100 pounds in 1934; in January 1949, the rate was 25 cents. Off the main line, at Heppner, Oreg., the rate was 27 cents in 1934, 26 cents in 1949. At Walla Walla, Wash., the rate was 31% cents in 1934, 25 cents in 1949. At Spokane, Wash., the rate was 45 cents in 1934, 41 cents in 1949. At Lewiston, Idaho, the rate in 1934 was 47 cents, 40 cents in 1949.

In other words, with all of the increases, which have amounted to about 55 percent, that the rails have taken since 1940, our petroleum rates, due to the influence of water transportation and joint rail-water, joint truck-water rates are in the main lower than when the increases started. But, on wheat, just the opposite is true. We have taken all of the increases in the area where water transportation is not an influential and competitive factor.

It is interesting to note that the consumption of gasoline in the interior of the Pacific Northwest in the year 1946 was 428,604,660 gallons. The total consump tion west of McNary Dam was 58,277,108 gallons, while the total consumption east of the dam, in the area which would benefit by water transportation, was 370,327,552 gallons. These figures, prepared by the Portland (Oreg.) Traffic Association, of course, speak for themselves.

The proposed methods of navigation improvement contained in the 308 Review Report by the Corps of Engineers would open the Columbia and the Snake Rivers to barge transportation inland to Lewiston, Idaho, 170 miles upstream from the mouth of the Snake River, and 350 miles up stream on the Columbia from The Dalles, the inland terminal of ocean-going vessels. It would open up for development an area now deprived of low-cost transportation, making it possible to tap the mineral resources in Idaho and to market low-grade forest products of the Clearwater region which now cannot pay the prohibitive land transportation costs. Addition of this commerce to the grain, petroleum, and lumber traffic now

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existing would be a vast contribution to the economy of the region, and would go far to justify the recommended development of the Columbia Basin.

No discussion of Columbia Basin development is complete without considering irrigation. Four million acres of irrigated land represent about one-fourth of all cropland in the basin, and contribute a substantial portion of the agricultural return from the region. Further expansion of irrigation will be as essential in the future as it has been in the past. The coordinated plans proposed by the 308 report recommended by the Corps of Engineers takes into consideration the plans of the Bureau of Reclamation and other irrigation agencies, and will double the irrigated acreage by the addition of another 4,000,000 acres of new land. The crops from this now undeveloped land could well be used by today's hungry world. The storage reservoirs used for irrigation also will be valuable assets for flood control and, through regulation of stream flow, will stabilize power production and navigation channel depths during low-water periods. Multiple purposes are thus served under the main control plan embodied in the 308 review report. The report also gives full consideration to the protection of Columbia Basin fisheries, soil conservation, prevention of erosion, abatement of pollution, commercial and industrial water use, recreation, and other factors involved in the development of water resources. This coordination of purposes and efforts between the various agencies concerned is highly commendable as well as essential to the orderly future development of the Columbia Basin.

The total capital cost of the proposed main control plan-nearly $2,000,000,000– sounds large, and it is. However, the total estimated annual cost of eighty-ninemillion odd dollars, which includes interest,on the total investment amortization of all capital costs in a 50-year period, interim replacements, operation and maintenance, compares very favorably with the estimated total annual benefits of $127,483,000.

The Columbia River was one of the great attractions that drew explorers and settlers to the Pacific Northwest. For more than a century it has served them and their children after them well. Although it remains relatively undeveloped today, it is known to be one of the most valuable natural resources of the North American continent. It possesses latent ability to irrigate several million acres of otherwise desert land, to support a system of inland waterways navigation, to generate vast quantities of cheap hydroelectric power. Or in other words. to benefit the extensive frontier of the Pacific Northwest. Some development has already been realized, but the potentialities have only been touched. In fact, the full possibilities can only be estimated at this time.

The potentialities of the Columbia River and its tributaries make it essential that the development of this great river system proceed on a well-planned, comprehensive, multiple-purpose basis. The glorious war record of the Pacific Northwest as a citadel and arsenal for national defense was accomplished only through a vastly developed river system. This is but an indication of the tremendous wealth that will endure to the everlasting benefit of the region and of the Nation as a whole when the over-all projects now authorized, now under study, have been accomplished.

The Pacific Northwest could never make the same contribution in another national emergency as it did in World War II, without further development. A lack of additional development in a time of emergency would certainly wreck the domestic economy of the region. The reason for this is quite obvious. After the great aluminum plants shut down and the shipyard construction went out, and other war industries converted to peacetime activities, the surplus power was taken up by roughly a 40 percent increase in population, and has found its way into industrial and commercial channels of the area. The great Hanford project is continually needing additional power. It is a well established and well known economic fact that our main stem, multiple-purpose control program, embracing McNary Dam and the four Lower Snake River dams are projects which will reimburse the United States Treasury for the money loaned at this time for the development of these projects. Such a prgoram will not only benefit our region, but I repeat-it will greatly benefit the Nation as a whole.

The slack-water navigation program into Lewiston, Idaho, would open up for development an area now deprived of low-cost transportation, thus making it possible to tap the mineral resources in Idaho and to market the low-grade forest products of the Clearwater region that now cannot pay the prohibitive transportation costs.

The No. 1 problem in the Pacific Northwest is the need for continuity in development. Six years on an average are required to build a major dam and power

plant. Each dam, besides being a multiple-purpose project is a part of a system which has as its joint aims the production of power, storage for irrigation, flood control, and navigation. Each dam, therefore, has a definite relation to others. upstream and downstream, and a definite relation to the economics of the area. The development in each case depends upon congressional appropriations made year by year.

It must be evident to the members of this committee, as it is evident to the people of the Pacific Northwest, that after some 15 years of surveys and public hearings held in our region, as well as in Washington, D. C., and before congressional and Senate committees, that every danger and every resource is fully recognized by the various agencies of the Federal Government and by the public and semipublic agencies promoting various phases of the development program. It must be seen that there is no need for alarm by the proponents of any particular resource--that this great development program will not destroy, but rather will improve and make certain that a continuing benefit will result to not only the fishery people, but to the farmers, to the manufacturers, to business interests, and to the entire economy of the Nation.

Ours is a healthy, growing region whch is past the milk-fed stage and now demands solids if it is to continue its normal growth. The total Federal tax on the incomes of individuals residing in the Pacific Northwest increased from $2,427,000 (0.65 percent of the Nation's total) in 1933 to $556,721,184 (2.9 percent of the Nation's total) in 1947, or a gain in revenue from that area for the Nation of 22,838 percent.

During 1947, the Pacific Northwest with 2.9 percent of the Nation's population paid 2.9 percent of the Nation's tax on individual incomes.

Cheap hydroelectric power means wealth. Cheap power, as the figures show, means an increase in prosperity to the entire Nation as a whole. Now that we in the Pacific Northwest are forging ahead there can be no turning back.

In view of the wide scope of the comprehensive program included in the main control plan, the respective subbasin flood-control plans, the recommended irrigation projects, the related power transmission system, the lower Columbia River fishery plan, and the other related proposals, the investments appear fully justified and economically sound. The Inland Empire Waterways Association, representing a cross-section of all interested parties in the Inland Empire of eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and the State of Idaho, considers the recommendation of the Corps of Engineers as contained in the 308 Review Report the best and most comprehensive plan for the present and future development of the vast Columbia River Basin domain.

It is to be hoped that this committee, in adopting the 308 Review Report, will compliment the work of the Corps of Engineers and the other Federal agencies involved in this most recent field survey and study by adopting the proposed priority construction of multiple-purpose projects. This would insure the processing of an engineering plan which would provide the greatest benefits to the greatest number of people residing in the region and to the Nation. Most certainly, the projects herein recommended are not individual projects that someone wants to build, but are a part of an over-all program based on sound engineering. There is nothing speculative about this comprehensive program. It is a highgrade investment of public funds, returning great benefits to the people of the region and of the State.

Adoption of the report and inauguration of a construction program in keeping with the increasing requirements of the region are recommended.

(Permission was granted for insertion of the following statements and communications at this point :)

STATEMENT BY HON. WAYNE MORSE, SENATOR FROM OREGON, ON THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OF THE IMPROVEMENT FOR THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN

Senator MORSE. I am glad to appear before the Public Works Committee of the House of Representatives and assure you of my support of the comprehensive plan of improvement for the entire Columbia River