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TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF RECLAMATION

WASHINGTON, D. C., October 8, 1929.

SIR: The area irrigated in 1928 with water from Government works was 2,677,100 acres, an increase of 149,995 acres over that of 1927. The area cropped was 2,681,270 acres, an increase of 177,224 acres. The total value of crops was $143,573,070, an increase of $10,365,860 compared with 1927.

The construction payments were $4,387,813.80, an increase of $932,049.11 compared with the previous year.

The payments received for operation and maintenance were $1,920,500.57, or $77,115.71 greater than in the previous year.

The total payments in the fiscal year 1929 amounted to $6,308,314.37, compared with $5,299,149.55 in 1928, an increase of $1,009,164.82.

The income to the Bureau of Reclamation during the fiscal year was $9,851,438.62, or $548,108.37 greater than in the previous year. The operation expense for the year was $1,786,928.81, an increase compared with the previous year of $23,976.14.

Excess of operation and maintenance receipts over expense for the period amounted to $133,571.76, compared with an excess of $80,432.19 for the previous year.

The amount appropriated for construction was $12,286,500, com pared with $9,869,000 the previous year, both figures exclusive of reappropriations.

The amount expended on construction was $7,898,304.69, compared with $6,966,449.25 the previous year.

Works now under construction under the 10-year program, announced in 1927, involve an ultimate expenditure of about $80,000,000. This program provides for the construction of new projects authorized by Congress, exclusive of the Boulder Canyon project, and the completion of old projects.

The Bureau of Reclamation has a revolving fund of about $172,000,000 invested in reclamation projects. As the settlers refund to the Government the cost of construction and operation, the fund is replenished and money becomes available for the construction of new projects. Regular repayments are being made to the Government by 22 projects, and only two completed projects have not yet reached a repayment status. Other accretions to the revolving fund come from the sale of public lands, the receipts from which source last year amounted to $647,236.95, and from royalties from oil leases, which last year added $1,852,785.03 to the fund.

BOULDER DAM

The Boulder Canyon project act was approved by President Coolidge on December 21, 1928, and was made effective by the following proclamation of President Hoover on June 25, 1929:

Pursuant to the provisions of section 4 (a) of the Boulder Canyon project act approved December 21, 1928 (45 Stat. 1057), it is hereby declared by public proclamation:

(a) That the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming have not ratified the Colorado River compact mentioned in section 13 (a) of said act of December 21, 1928, within six months from the date of the passage and approval of said act.

(b) That the States of California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have ratified said compact and have consented to waive the provisions of the first paragraph of Article XI of said compact, which makes the same binding and obligatory only when approved by each of the seven States signatory thereto, and that each of the States last named has approved said compact without condition, except that of six-State approval as prescribed in section 13 (a) of said act of December 21, 1928.

(c) That the State of California has in all things met the requirements set out in the first paragraph of section 4 (a) of said act of December 21, 1928, necessary to render said act effective on six-State approval of said compact.

(d) All prescribed conditions having been fulfilled, the said Boulder Canyon project act approved December 21, 1928, is hereby declared to be effective this date.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine, and of the [SEAL] Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fifty-third.

By the President:

HENRY L. STIMSON,

Secretary of State.

HERBERT HOOVER.

During the latter part of June the Secretary of the Interior, in company with the commissioner and the chief engineer of the Bureau of Reclamation, visited the Boulder Dam site at Black Canyon. Plans were outlined for the development of a railway line to the dam and the construction of a camp for the engineers and workmen near the dam site. Conferences were held with representatives of the various States, municipalities, and power companies interested in the contracts for the sale of power, which must be let before actual work is begun on the construction of the dam and power plant. The Secretary announced the policy of preferring to sell falling water as the basis of these contracts.

Conferences have been held with officials of the Union Pacific System to evolve the most feasible scheme for rail facilities to the dam site. The present plan calls for the construction by the Union Pacific of a branch line from Las Vegas, Nev., to a switching yard about midway between that town and the dam site. From this point

two Government constructed and operated railroads will run, one to the rim of the canyon above the point where the dam will be constructed and the other down into the canyon to a point just below the dam. Field parties have located the most feasible route for these lines.

Such preliminary work as was possible has been carried on by the Bureau of Reclamation. A contract was entered into with the Imperial Irrigation District and the Coachella Valley County Water District, which provides for a maximum expenditure of $100,000, payable equally by the United States and the two districts, under which the bureau has placed a force of men in the field to make the necessary surveys and investigations to determine definitely the location and estimated cost of the All-American Canal.

As the dam will be under construction over a period of eight years at the bottom of a narrow canyon, where the heat in the summer is intense, considerable thought is being given to making suitable provision for the health and comfort of the workmen. The camp site has been located where it will have the advantage of the prevailing winds. The buildings will be of a permanent type, suitable to the climatic conditions, and capable of housing from 3,000 to 4,000 persons, about 1,000 of whom will be employed on the work. Plans are being made for the construction of a refrigeration plant and for a domestic water supply which will be pumped 1,000 feet from the Colorado River. Elevators, with a lift of 1,000 feet, will carry the employees to and from their work in the canyon.

The large amount of paper work incident to the preparation of designs and to the calculation of stresses will necessitate increasing the force of employees in the Denver office of the bureau from 60 to more than 100. Steps are being taken to obtain these men through the regular civil-service channels.

ECONOMIC SURVEY OF RECLAMATION

The results on a majority of the Federal reclamation projects fully justify the national policy. A great wealth in land has been created, farmers are prosperous, and the payments required under the contracts are being made.

There is general agreement that the engineering operations of the Bureau of Reclamation are well conceived and capably carried out, but we are still drifting with regard to the economic principles and policies which should govern our conclusions as to feasibility or shape development of projects. Reclamation requires more than canals and reservoirs. The qualifications of settlers, the kind of agriculture which should be followed, and, in general, those factors which determine earning power and well-being and contentment of the people of the communities created are as important as the engineering factors.

Because of these conditions, the Secretary approved an economic survey of reclamation during the summer of 1929, designating for this purpose certain Federal projects where works are completed, others where works are being constructed, and certain private projects in financial distress where Government aid is asked.

The field of the survey included the following:

Palo Verde irrigation district, California.

Stanfield irrigation district, Oregon.

Westland irrigation district, Oregon.

West Extension irrigation district, Umatilla project, Oregon.
Hermiston irrigation district, Umatilla project, Oregon.

Horsefly irrigation district, Oregon.

Shasta View irrigation district, Klamath project, Oregon-California.
Malin irrigation district, Klamath project, Oregon-California.

Owyhee project, Oregon-Idaho.

Duck Valley project, Oregon.

Bitter Root irrigation district, Montana.

Malta and Glasgow divisions, Milk River project, Montana.

Chinook division, Milk River project, Montana.

Greenfields division, Sun River project, Montana.

Lower Yellowstone project, Montana-North Dakota.

Gem irrigation district, Idaho.

Emmett irrigation district, Idaho.

King Hill project, Idaho.

Orchard Mesa division, Grand Valley project, Colorado.

Belle Fourche project, South Dakota.

Northport division, North Platte project, Nebraska-Wyoming.

Willwood division, Shoshone project, Wyoming.

Riverton project, Wyoming.

The investigation of these projects was under the general supervision of the Director of Reclamation Economics. As a preliminary to the field work a conference was held in Billings, Mont., which was attended by those participating in the survey and by a large number of representatives of the settlement and development departments of the transcontinental railroads traversing the projects, the beet sugar companies, the Federal land banks, the agricultural colleges, and other interested in reclamation problems. A profitable two days was spent in a discussion of the economic problems a solution of which was sought and the best methods of eliciting the information desired. Immediately following the conclusion of the conference the investigators began the survey of the projects to which they had been assigned.

The reports of the investigations will be correlated by a special committee, which will prepare a final report and recommendations for submission to the Secretary. It is believed that the data obtained from this economic survey will be most helpful in determining what can and should be done to improve conditions on these projects and in aiding Congress in enacting desirable legislation.

CONSTRUCTION DURING THE FISCAL YEAR

Stony Gorge Dam, Orland project, California, was completed in October, 1928. Gibson Dam, Sun River project, Montana, was practically completed at the end of the fiscal year. Echo Dam, Salt Lake Basin project, Utah, was about 40 per cent completed and the Owyhee Dam, Owyhee project, Oregon-Idaho, 14 per cent. Work continued on the construction of Easton diversion dam and the canal system on the Kittitas division of the Yakima project, Washington, and on the main canal and Harper diversion dam on the Vale project, Oregon. The following table gives data concerning the dams under construction during the fiscal year:

DAMS UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION [Cost includes dam, spillway, outlet works, and bridges on dams, but does not include auxiliary features such as right of way, roads, and clearing reservoir site]

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The total length of canals, ditches, and drains constructed to the end of the fiscal year amounted to 16,557 miles. Tunnels numbered 122 and totaled 175,536 feet in length. Concrete and wood canal structures numbered 148,462; bridges, 11,631, with a total length of 277,449 feet; and culverts, 14,043, with a total length of 535,396 feet. The amount of concrete, metal, tile, and wood pipe laid to the end of the fiscal year amounted to 4,091,096 linear feet, and there had been constructed 4,811 concrete, metal, and wood flumes totaling 853,022 feet in length. Telephone lines amounted to 3,350 miles and transmission lines, 2,056 miles. The 35 power plants developed 166,128 horsepower. Excavation during the fiscal year amounted to 9,996,368 cubic yards of earth, indurated material, and rock, bringing the total to the end of the year to 276,822,500 cubic yards. Riprap totaled 2,533,787 cubic yards; paving, 1,080,328 square yards; and concrete placed, 4,191,553 cubic yards.

CONTRACTS

One index of the bureau's activities during the year is the number of contracts entered into and the different subjects involved, which are summarized in the following table:

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