RIVERS AND HARBORS-FLOOD CONTROL EMERGENCY ACT THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1948 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL AND OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS, Washington, D. C. SOUTH PLATTE RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES, COLORADO, WYOMING, AND NEBRASKA The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m., in room 412, Senate Office Building, Senator George W. Malone, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding. Present: Senator Malone (chairman of the subcommittee). Present also: Orren L. Jones, clerk; E. W. Bassett, engineer; Eloise Porter, assistant clerk. Senator MALONE. The committee will be in order. The subject of hearing this morning in the flood-control project on the South Platte River and tributaries in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. I will place in the record at this time, a digest of the project under consideration. (The digest is as follows:) SOUTH PLATTE RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES, COLORADO, WYOMING, AND NEBRASKA Location.-The South Platte River rises on the Continental Divide in central Colorado and flows northeasterly to its confluence with the North Platte River at North Platte, Nebr. The drainage area of 24,030 square miles, 19,022 square miles of which lie in Colorado, 3,011 square miles in Nebraska, and 1,997 in Wyoming, includes a section of the rugged eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and extensive areas of the Great Plains. Report authorized by.-Section 6 of the Flood Control Act approved August 11, 1939. Existing project.-The Flood Control Act of 1941 authorized construction of a reservoir on Cherry Creek, a tributary of South Platte River, to provide flood protection for the city of Denver and storage of water for conservation purposes. The estimated cost of the project is $19,500,000, and it is under construction. The Flood Control Act of 1944 authorized a local protection project on Bear Creek at Morrison, Colo., at an estimated cost of $343,000. Several small floodcontrol projects within the basin have been constructed by local interests with limited amounts of Federal aid. Numerous improvements for water supply, power development, and irrigation have been constructed by local interests. The Colorado-Big Thompson transmountain diversion project is now under construction by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, and the approved comprehensive plan for development of the Missouri River Basin provides for construction of a multiple-purpose reservoir on the South Platte River at the Narrows site, near Fort Morgan, Colo. Plan of recommended improvement — (a) A reservoir at the Chatfield site on the South Platte River about 10 miles above Denver for flood and sediment con489 78432-48 -32 trol. The dam would be 132 feet high, have a crest length of 11,200 feet, impound 200,000 acre-feet, of which 180,000 acre-feet would be reserved for flood control and 20,000 acre-feet for a permanent pool. At maximum pool elevation the reservoir would inundate 5,620 acres. (b) A continuous levee system along both banks of the South Platte River between the Chatfield dam site and St. Vrain Creek, with necessary channel improvements, drop structures, and bank revetments. Total length, 61 miles; average height of levees, 9 feet; average depth of channel, 6 feet. (c) Channel improvements along the South Platte River below St. Vrain Creek, in certain high-value areas subject to flood damage and channel erosion, or would be subject to increased flood due to construction of the levee system. (d) Channel improvements, consisting of channel straightening and widening, bank revetment, concrete walls, and an elevated boulevard along Sunshine and Boulder Creeks, for protection of the city of Boulder. Total length, 2 miles. (e) A levee encircling the east end of Erie, Colo., and tying into the railroad fill at either end, drainage structures, and highway raising. Length, 11⁄4 miles; average height, 8 feet. Estimated cost to the United States.-Construction: (a) $26,222,600; (b) $21,406,800; (c) $1,365,000; (d) $396,800; (e) $40,900; total, $49,432,100. Local cooperation.-Provided that for the levee and channel rectification works local interests furnish without cost to the United States all lands, easements, and rights-of-way; hold and save the United States free from all damages due to construction of the works; maintain and operate all such works after completion; and pay the cost of the nonflood-control features desired. The estimated cost is: (a) None; (b) $1,901,900; (c) $27,300; (d) $924,600; (e) $18,200; total, $2,872,000. Annual cost of maintenance to the United States.-$45,000. Benefits.-The population of the South Platte Basin was 665,600 in 1940. The basin is rich in natural resources. Agriculture, including stock raising, is an important activity. Denver, with a population of over 350,000, is the principal industrial center. The authorized Cherry Creek Reservoir will protect Denver against floods on Cherry Creek, which flows through one section of the city, but a major portion of the business and industrial districts will be subject to flooding from South Platte River. The towns of Boulder and Erie are subject to flooding which might result in loss of life. The improvements proposed will prevent much of the flood damages in the city of Denver and at Boulder and Erie, provide protection for the agricultural areas, and improve irrigation conditions. Floods have caused damages of $30,000,000 at Denver and $12,000,000 in the agricultural area downstream therefrom. The estimated average annual benefits that would accrue from the proposed improvements are as follows: Senator MALONE. Senator Millikin is interested in this project, and the Senator is here. Would you like to make a statement, Senator Millikin? STATEMENT OF HON. EUGENE D. MILLIKIN, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF COLORADO Senator MILLIKIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you can see from that map, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, this project affects what in terms of established wealth is the richest part of our State. It directly affects the city of Denver, which has been subjected to very bad flood conditions through the uncontrolled nature of the river, and it extends its safeguards into the richest part of the agricultural part of our State. The report recommends what is known as the Chatfield Reservoir, which is down in the southwestern part of that map. Senator MALONE. Colonel Gee, would you point out, as the Senator talks, the places on the map. Colonel GEE. Yes, sir. Senator MILLIKIN. The report recommends the construction of a reservoir for flood and silt control at the Chatfield dam site. This is on the South Platte River, all of it, and the tributaries of the South Platte River. The whole scheme includes this reservoir project, and I believe a reservoir project known as the Narrows Reservoir out in the eastern part of the State near Fort Morgan. It contemplates various main-channel and tributary-stream improvements; for example, the tributary that heads into Boulder. Some of the tributaries involved are the St. Vrain Creek. There are appurtenant works, as I said, at Boulder and at Erie, Colo. The estimated benefits will be about a million and a half dollars per year and, of course, as in all of these cases, there are many intangible values on which you cannot put an exact dollar sign, but of very great social and economic importance. This Chatfield dam site, which is the main control reservoir, is about 10 miles from Denver. The purpose of the improvement, as I have said, is to provide protection against major floods. We have had floods there in 1921 and in 1935 which spread over the basin and did enormous damage above and below Denver. I understand that there are silt-control features which also will have considerable value. The dam, as I understand it, will be an earth-filled dam with a maximum height of 132 feet, about 11,000 feet in length, and with a crest width of about 30 feet. It will have about a capacity of 200,000 acre-feet at the spillway crest and an additional 100,000 acre-feet of surcharge capacity. The Army engineers, as I understand it, strongly recommend the project. From the Chatfield dam site, there will be a continuous levee system which will have the effect of protecting what I have already described as perhaps the richest part of the agriculture of Colorado." Boulder, where protection will be provided, is the seat of our State university. It is a beautiful city and has suffered flood damage from that tributary of the South Platte. There will also be some protection at Erie, which is an important coal camp in Colorado and which also has experienced damage from floods. It is my understanding that the ultimate cost on a 1947 basis will be about $50,000,000. But this is an authorization. I earnestly endorse the project and hope that we may have that authorization. Denver, the capital of our State, with a population of about 400,000, is now exposed to flood danger, and so is the rest of this area, by reason of the uncontrolled nature of the South Platte. At the present time there is jeopardy from Cherry Creek, which is in process of being remedied by a dam which the engineers are building there. It was always been feared that if there were a conjunction of heavy floods of the two streams, and if the controls which are now on Cherry Creek, and which are not considered adequate, did not hold, Denver could be subjected to a major catastrophe, and with accompanying disaster all the way down the valley. I do not know of any flood-control project that is more warranted and more needed than this. And again I am very glad to recommend it, and I hope it will be favorably approved. Senator MALONE. Senator Millikin, of course, we will have the Army engineers go into it in some detail, but would there be a part of the project that could be authorized, the amount that could be constructed the first year, perhaps, until another session of Congress? Senator MILLIKIN. Senator Malone, I am not qualified to say how the project might be divided up. The engineers of course, will tell us about that. My view of the project, necessarily, is of it as a whole, and, as I have said before, I do not know of any flood-control project that, in my opinion, is more worth while than this one. Thank you very much. Senator MALONE. We are very glad to have had you here, Senator Millikin. Senator MILLIKIN. Thank you. Senator MALONE. Senator Johnson is here, and I think, Senator, you have another meeting. Would you like to make a statement on this? Senator JOHNSON. I must attend the same meeting Senator Millikin is attending. Senator MALONE. Will you proceed. STATEMENT OF HON. EDWIN C. JOHNSON, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF COLORADO Senator JOHNSON. Senator Millikin gave you a very fine detailed report and justification for this whole project. There is very little that I can add. In answer to the question that you submitted a moment ago, this project, of course, is in many parts. For instance, through the city of Denver on the Platte River, its levees have been built, but that did not cure anything. That only transferred the damage from one spot to another. And because the channel was straightened through Denver and levees built, the water was dumped below Denver in a very rich agricultural region, truck farms and other agriculture, and caused them heavy damage. The key to the whole situation, and the essential thing above all, is the Chatfield Dam, which only lets a certain amount of water flow through. It is an open dam. It is not the water storage dam. It lets the water flow through it, as I understand it, in a restricted sense unless the flood is so heavy that it has to pass over the spillway which is wide open. Then, you will notice, the map shows the levees from that dam down to the city limits of Denver. The river will be improved, be straight ened out, and levees built to join with the levees through the city of Denver which are built now. Senator MALONE. And that is the proposed work? Senator MALONE. Yes. Senator JOHNSON. Then when you get down below the city of Denver on the Platte River, the levees start again and stream improvement. The river, as all rivers are, is very crooked and needs to be straightened out and widened clear down to the mouth of the St. Vrain Creek, which, you see, is quite a stream itself, and the improvement proceeds down to that point. Senator Millikin covered the Boulder project and the small improvement at Erie. The small improvement at Erie, a coal camp, is only about $59,000. I concur completely in Senator Millikin's conclusion that this is a very worth-while project and a very necessary project. I recall when I was Governor of Colorado we had a terrible flood in 1935 that did a great amount of damage to that whole area. The previous flood to that time was 1921. These floods come along about every 15 years, and we are just about due for one now. We ought to keep our fingers crossed, and we ought to knock on wood. But we are due for another heavy damaging flood which occurs in that area about this time of the year. I earnestly hope this committee will give a favorable response to this plea and that authorization may go through for this flood-control work. Senator MALONE. Senator, my purpose in asking the question a while ago: If the project is in several parts, that part of the project where work could be started this year could be authorized so it would not be delayed if you did not get a complete authorization this year. Of course, time is very limited, and the House has a bill to report. They have sent it over here. And it has been understood that only the emergency projects would be considered, and then our regular omnibus bill next year. I will discuss it with you later in detail, and if something like that could be worked out, perhaps authorization could be held down this year, and the omnibus bill remains next year to take care of the remainder. Senator JOHNSON. I know we all appreciate the chairman's interest in that part of it. I am not ready to say just what should be done for this particular year, but we want to get an authorization through. It is more or less in a long-range situation. While these floods may come-I do not know that we will have one in 1949 or 1950, but we could very well have one in 1948. None of us knows that. But we are speaking more of a long-range flood-control project than we are of some immediate emergency, although the emergency may be imminent right at the moment. Senator MALONE. We will then hear the Army engineers in detail and, after we get their recommendations, we can discuss it with you further. Senator JOHNSON. That is fine. Senator MALONE. Thank you, Senator. |