Is Mr. Carter here? Mr. CARTER. Yes. Senator OVERTON. Mr. Carter, would you step around and sit opposite the official reporter? STATEMENT OF HON. OLIVER J. CARTER, STATE SENATOR, FIFTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT, STATE OF CALIFORNIA Senator OVERTON. Will you give your name and what State office you occupy, and give your residence? Mr. CARTER. My name is Oliver J. Carter, Redding, Calif. I am State senator from the Fifth Senatorial District of California, represeting Shasta and Trinity Counties. I also represent here the city of Redding, Calif., and the County of Shasta, Calif., and the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Redding. I am appearing here in opposition to the provisions for the Table Mountain Dam of the Sacramento portion of the flood-control bill, being in lines 9 to 25 on page 20 and lines 1 to 2 on page 21. The authorization requested by the Corps of Engineers in this portion of the bill covers more than purely the Table Mountain Dam; it covers other flood-control works in the nature of levees, channel clearing, and also in the construction of what is known as the Black Butte Dam on Stony Creek. I have or my people have no objection to those works, and our objection is only to the Table Mountain Dam feature. Now, the people I represent are upstream owners from the dam; they are the people who will be flooded out by the operation of the dam; and, since the effect of this dam has not been explained to this committee, I think that some little background should be developed on that, and I would like to ask some of the representatives of the Corps of Enginers a few questions with respect to the height of the dam, the acreage covered, and so as to bring that out so that I can intelligently discuss our position on the matter. Senator ÖVERTON. You know now what their answer is going to be, don't you? Mr. CARTER. I know what their answer is, but I want you to know. Senator OVERTON. Well, we shall find out. We shall put the engineers on in due course. Mr. CARTER. Yes. you Senator OVERTON. But I think it would be better procedure for to make your statement with the information that is before you and with your knowledge of the situation, and give us the benefit of your advice and counsel. Mr. CARTER. Well, one of the situations is that the report of the Chief of Enginers has not yet been filed on this, or at least to the best of my knowledge it has not been filed, and this project is based on an interim report of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, and the Chief's report is to be filed at a later date. Now, what information it contains I do not know. I assume that it is based on the same information that was in the interim report and that which is in the report of the district engineer. This is another low-dam high-dam situation similar to that of the Senator OVERTON. Well, now let me say this: The bill on page 20 declares that the projects to which you are referring are hereby modified substantially in accordance with the recommendation of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors dated February 7, 1944, with such modifications thereof as in the discretion of the Secretary of War and Chief of Engineers may be advisable. And are you familiar with the recommendation of the Board of Engineers? Mr. CARTER. I am. Senator OVERTON. Of February 7, 1944? Mr. CARTER. I am. Senator OVERTON. All right. Mr. CARTER. But I say this has a low-dam high-dam feature. I say that understanding that the House of Representatives has limited this to a low dam as nearly as it is legislatively possible to do so. Senator OVERTON. That is correct; yes. Mr. CARTER. But that does not withdraw the high dam completely from the picture, because the position is this: That the report of the Corps of Engineers sets this out as an initial stage of construction. Now, the proposition will develop, as was disclosed by Mr. Calland of the Bureau of Reclamation, that eventually there will be a desire to store a considerable amount of water there for irrigation purposes, with a desire to raise that dam, from one of a number of Federal agencies. Senator OVERTON. In that connection, though, the House bill provides that the low-level dam must be built on a foundation sufficient for such a dam. Mr. CARTER. That is right. Senator OVERTON. And not on a foundation for the construction of a high dam. Mr. CARTER. That is a correct statement. Senator OVERTON. Now, if they build it on a low-dam foundation, is it feasible engineeringly for them to go back and enlarge that foundation and go on up? Mr. CARTER. Well, I am not an engineer, so I cannot answer that question except to say that I understand that it is possible to do so, but that that is something Senator OVERTON. All right. Mr. CARTER. And that it is a possibility in the future in this respect you are just getting your foot in the door, and 15 or 20 years later you are going to say, "Well, now, we have destroyed the most productive agricultural land that you have there. We may as well take the rest of it for the other purposes that are intended." Senator BURTON. Might I ask, What proviso do you recommend? Mr. CARTER. We recommend that an alternative be used to accomplish the same purpose; that is, an alternative of constructing dams on the tributaries that run into the Sacramento River below Shasta Dam. Senator BURTON. That is, you are opposing the low level and the high level both, and you want Mr. CARTER. Yes; that is correct. Now, to give you the background: Shasta Dam, which is the major unit of the Central Valley project, has been constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation about, oh, 12 or 15 miles up the Sacramento River above Redding. Now, that dam is in operation at the present time and is practically completed. In it it has, in its ordinary operation, about 1,300,000 acre-feet of flood storage. Now, that is in our county and above our city, and it has taken a total of 97,083 acres of our county to supply that flood-control irrigation multiple-purpose use; 62,223 acres of that was private land, and 34,860 acres is public land. Senator OVERTON. How many acres of your county; do you know? Mr. CARTER. Oh, I think there is about-well, I cannot tell you exactly how many acres there are, but there isSenator OVERTON. Well, let us get it in area. age of the area is the 97,000 acres? About what percent Mr. CARTER. Well, I was going to go on and say that 97,000 is only a small percentage in area of the total county, but there is in public ownership in this county now approximately 45 percent of the county, and the remaining portion of the county bears the tax load for the Government. Now, however, I want to point out that this land that was taken by Shasta Dam was all what we call canyon land and not valuable agriculturally. In value it does not represent nearly the value that will be taken by the Table Mountain Dam. Senator OVERTON. Table Mountain; yes. Mr. CARTER. Now, the river comes out of the canyon just above Redding, and it comes out into a valley, and then it runs down. through Senator OVERTON. Redding isn't shown on this map, is it? Mr. CARTER. Yes, it is; right below Shasta Dam, under the words "power plant." Senator OVERTON. Yes, right here; that is Table Mountain [indicating]? General ROBINS. In other words, where that "T" is on "Transmission" there. Senator OVERTON. Yes. Mr. CARTER. Now, the Table Mountain Dam itself is in Tehama County, the county to the south, but it backs water up so that the reservoir area is approximately Shasta County. Its normal pool level, as I understand it, will cover, inundate, about 18,600 acres, the low dam. Senator OVERTON. Yes. Mr. CARTER. And that area is the most productive agricultural land in that upper valley. It is the land upon which the other land or marginal land depends for cultivation and for an economic unit that will be profitable. As an example of that, the area in Shasta County alone which is to be inundated by the low dam produces in dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, hogs, and chickens a gross income annually of approximately $1,156,000; and in fruit crops and field crops-mainly prunes, walnuts, and field crops-a total of about $477,500 annually, making a total of $1,633,750. That is the agricultural unit upon which the community depends; the communities of Cottonwood, Anderson, and Redding. Now, Cottonwood and Anderson are unincorporated com munities, Anderson being of about 500 population and Cottonwood being of about 250, and I think those are conservative estimates. They have no census reports on them. But the area to be flooded is popu lated by farmers, and it is not densely populated, but it affects, I would say, a total population of approximately four to five thousand people all told, when you take into consideration that it cuts through the middle of the farming area in the country. Now, it will be necessary to dike off the towns of Anderson and Cottonwood from the highwaters of this dam, and in my opinion it will effectively destroy those communities even though they will not actually be flooded, because Senator OVERTON. Dike all around? Mr. CARTER. No; you are diking on one side, on the water side, which in Cottonwood would be on the south and east side, and in Anderson on the east side mostly. Senator OVERTON. Yes. Mr. CARTER. And those communities, however, are cut off from the agricultural land, and they are jammed up on the hill. Both of these communities are right up near the foothills. It will force the raising of the Southern Pacific Railroad track and the State highway. It will inundate some county roads. Now, for the benefit of the committee I have here a map of the area under discussion which will show the manner in which this project will inundate that area. Senator OVERTON. I wonder if someone can help you hold it. (The map was placed on an easel.) Mr. CARTER. Now, this map was prepared by our county engineer, and it conforms I think substantially with information that he got from the Corps of Army Engineers; and the county line between Trinity and Shasta Counties follows the course of Cottonwood Creek, one of the principal tributaries to the river at that point, and then the course of Battle Creek, which comes in from the east side. Senator OVERTON. Locate the dam first, please. Mr. CARTER. The dam is at this point, the proposed Table Mountain dam [indicating]. Senator OVERTON. All right. Mr. CARTER. And that is in Tehama County. Now, the area in yellow, is the normal pool elevation of the low dam, and the area in green is the flood pool elevation, the maximum pool elevation of the low dam. And the area in red is the maximum pool elevation of the high dam. Now, at the time this map was prepared the high dam was still in contemplation, and so that it is on there for purposes of illustration only at this time. The area in yellow here represents the most valuable agricultural land in the county, being that it is river bottom land, and it is valuable river bottom land, producing crops, and it is a complete economic unit all of its own. Now, there are other lands that are cultivated but that are not in the flood area, but they depend on the flood area for its support. I want to point out to this committee the manner in which this legislation has come before the Congress. I do it because it— Senator OVERTON. Before you get to that: Any flood damage below the dam as the river stands at Mr. CARTER. Is there any flood damage below the dam? Senator OVERTON. Yes. Mr. CARTER. There is and has been, but that flood damage will be materially decreased by the operation of Shasta dam. Senator OVERTON. Yes. Mr. CARTER. Now, Shasta Dam has been in operation 1 year. This year is not a true test of flood conditions because we only had at one period of time one storm which would have caused a flood in the valley, and they were taking all the water they could get from Shasta Dam, and that completely prevented, in that way, flood. As I understand it, there would not have been a flood of great extent, but it would have put the level at flood stage at Red Bluff. Now, as I understand it from the figures of the Army engineers, that the low dam contemplates 400,000 acre-feet of flood storage; is that correct, General Robins? General ROBINS. Yes; that is right. Mr. CARTER. And Shasta Dam contemplates 1,300,000 acre-feet. Mr. CARTER. Now, that is the flood control for the upper Sacramento Valley, which would run from below Table Mountain Dam at Red Bluff to the mouth of the Feather River, and you can readily see from those figures that 70 percent of the flood control or more than 70 percent of the flood control comes from Shasta Dam, a unit that is already in operation, and we have dedicated our property for that purpose already. Now, then, we are objecting violently and vigorously to coming into our valuable agricultural property and taking that and decreasing it for flood control also. Now, I understand further that there are other conservation features to be developed by this dam and that it is done in order to bring the cost-to-benefit ratio into a favorable figure, because the dam for flood control alone will not justify a favorable cost-to-benefit ratio. The principal problem on the Sacramento River now, with Shasta dam in operation, is an area known as Butte Basin which lies south [going to map]. All right; this area of Butte Basin lies approximately in this area of the Sacramento River lying above the mouth of the Feather River and below the proposed Table Mountain Dam, which would be at approximately this point [indicating]. Now, the main tributaries of the Sacramento River below Shasta Dam are the Feather, the Yuba, and the Bear, which form the Feather River system and the American River system which comes in approximately at Sacramento. Now, these streams are as yet uncontrolled for flood purposes, and as I understand it, the flood control supplied by Table Mountain Dam will in no way correct or eliminate the flood problem in the lower Sacramento River below the mouth of the Feather River, because the Feather River and the American River in and of themselves can carry enough water to create a flood stage in that lower part of the valley. Now, both the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Army Engineers have plans for the future development of the Sacramento Valley, for controlling the waters of the American River and the waters of the Feather River and the Yuba River. We believe that the orderly process of handling this question, since the greater portion of the flood control of the upper Sacramento Valley has already been accomplished by Shasta Dam, would be to go ahead with the Feather River system and the American River 60479-44-18 |