Colonel JEWETT. Certain sections of the wall were breached as well as the fill underneath the wall washed out, and the cut-off wall destroyed.

Senator EASTLAND. By the tropical hurricane.

Colonel JEWETT. By the last hurricane; yes, sir, and damage has also resulted from prior storms.

Senator MALONE. In other words, the foundations of the wall are undermined now, so if it is not repaired rather promptly, it is likely to do much further damage?

Colonel JEWETT. That is right, sir.

Senator COOPER. Would you say that within a year's time there would be considerable deterioration of this wall?

Colonel JEWETT. At this time there would be more than normal deterioration because the foundations, including sheet pile cut-off wall which is exposed to the elements as the result of the hurricane, are severely damaged.

Senator COOPER. The condition in which it now is, because of the damage done by the hurricane, would make it more susceptible of deterioration?

Colonel JEWETT. It would; much more susceptible of deterioration; yes, sir.

Senator MALONE. Certain sections of it have washed out entirely? Colonel JEWETT. They have, sir. Other sections have been damaged so that they are not as strong now as they would be under normal circumstances.

Senator MALONE. Did it prove the foundations of the cut-off wall were not deep enough to start with?

Colonel JEWETT. Only in certain sections, sir. In general, the wall saved a tremendous amount of additional damage. It more than justified its cost during the hurricane, but there were certain sections of it which were damaged, and the fill behind it washed out. There would have been much more extensive damage had the wall not been there during the hurricane.

Senator MALONE. How much country and property, roughly, does it protect there?

You might give some description of what damage might be done without the wall.

Colonel JEWETT. The combined population of the communities and general area right behind the wall is about 37,500 persons. As you know, fine summer residences are maintained there by residents of inland cities in other States, while hotels and recreational facilities are also available.

Senator MALONE. Is there a small city there?

Colonel JEWETT. There are several small cities there-Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, and Pass Christian. All these are immediately behind the sea wall in Harrison County.

Senator EASTLAND. The Government has property there, too?
Colonel JEWETT. Yes, sir.

Senator EASTLAND. It has two veterans' homes.

Colonel JEWETT. That is right, sir.

Senator STENNIS. Keesler Field is located there at Biloxi?

Colonel JEWETT. Yes, sir.

The wall specifically protects Highway 90, the main highway along the Gulf.

Senator STENNIS. Mr. Chairman, if I may, Congressman Colmer is here who represents this congressional district of Mississippi, and his home is right on this coast, and he is intimately familiar with all these facts. I suggest you hear him now if you care to.

Senator MALONE. Congressman Colmer, would you like to make a statement?

STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM M. COLMER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Representative COLMER. I am not sure, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I have all the facts, but the engineers here do have the facts.

I might give you a brief word picture of the situation.

As Senator Eastland well said, this is possibly the most beautiful coast line in the United States. I have had Members of the Congress from California tell me that, so it must be true.

This wall was constructed by Harrison County at an expense of some $3,000,000 as has been testified here. That was financed by a gasoline tax that was placed on the gasoline sold in that county. It is still being financed by that, I should say.

Senator MALONE. Was that just a special tax for this particular project, or do you have a tax there for such projects generally?

Representative COLMER. Of course, we have a pretty high tax upon gasoline, but this was an additional tax of 2 cents a gallon upon all the gasoline sold in that county. It goes to the retirement of the original bonds which were sold to finance the project.

Senator MALONE. What part of it did the county finance in the first place?

Representative COLMER. The county is financing all of it by that

method.

Senator MALONE. Did the Government put up any money in the beginning at all?

Representative COLMER. The Government put up nothing.
Senator MALONE. This wall was built entirely by the county?
Representative COLMER. Yes, sir.

Senator MALONE. I was just about to chide the engineers a little bit about the foundations.

Representative COLMER. Their organization had nothing to do with that, sir. That was a local engineering project.

I would like to go back just a moment. There has been no Federal money expended. This project comes from the general beach-erosion law that was passed about 1930. A study was made by the engineers of this particular project. That law was amended about 1940, roughly, 1944, I imagine, would be more nearly accurate, by what is known as the Peterson bill, Mr. Peterson of Georgia, to provide for the Federal participation in repair of the sea walls as has been outlined here by Senator Eastland and Colonel Jewett.

This project is here as the result of that study and that authorization. The Budget cleared this matter only a few days ago. A bill has been introduced here and a similar one was introduced in the

House only yesterday, but I would like to clear that up just a little bit.

We did not think it was necessary to have a specific bill for this project. We thought it would follow the usual course of rivers. and harbors and flood-control projects, and so forth. But in our haste to try to begin, saving a year's time, as Senator Eastland has so well explained, this bill was introduced on yesterday at the suggestion of the clerk of your committee, so that you might have it before you and facilitate the consideration of the matter.

This wall protects that beach line. I have lived on this coast all my life.

Incidentally, my congressional district was the district so long and ably represented by Senator Harrison. He lived at Gulfport. He was very much interested in this matter.

Senator MALONE. Senator Pat Harrison?

Representative COLMER. That is right, sir.

This country down there is subject to tropical hurricanes. There is hardly a year, around August, that we do not get warnings of a tropical disturbance. Very few of them materialize.

They originate in the Caribbean and some go up the Atlantic coast and some go into the Gulf of Mexico, but about every 20 years, one of these things will turn into the Gulf of Mexico there and create great damage.

Prior to the time this wall was constructed at the expense of Harrison County, Miss., every time one of those hurricanes would come in, it would back that shore line anywhere from 10 to 100 feet. One hundred feet may be a little exaggeration, but I know of my cvn knowledge in my own lifetime, of the highway being washed away and having to be rebuilt farther back several times as the result of these storms. So, this wall was built to protect that.

Now, this coast line has thousands of beautiful homes. Those homes are owned by local people and by other people who come down to spend their winters, and a great many of them to the west of Gulfport are owned by people in New Orleans who have their summer homes there. Some of those are old colonial mansions.

President Wilson came down there and spent his holidays while he was President.

Jeff Davis' home is right behind this wall, possibly a hundred yards. There are many historical points of interest there. The Government has invested there in Kessler Field, which is one of their perma-nent stations for training of mechanics and so forth, for the Air Corps, one of the two, I believe, in the United States; two veterans' facilities-the Government must have invested in those three installations alone, I would say, a minimum of $50,000,000.

Then, in addition to that, as Senator Eastland explained, United States Highway No. 90, which is known as the Old Spanish Trail, which originates down in Florida and goes to the west coast, is parallel with this sea wall, and the sea wall protects the highway.

This wall has served a wonderful purpose therefore in preventingthis continuous erosion of this beautiful coast line. Under this project, as the engineers will explain, a sloping beach of some 100 or 300 feet

Colonel JEWETT. It would be 300 feet wide at mean sea level, includ-ing 50-foot berm.

78432-48

Representative COLMER. This end would be pumped up against this wall which would give protection to the wall and prevent this undermining of the wall, itself. The wall, as the pictures indicate, has been badly damaged.

Something has got to be done about it, or all of that investment is gone.

The Government has spent, I would say, better than a million dollars repairing this highway back of this wall.

Incidentally, this highway, in most places along the whole 27 miles there, is tied right into the sea wall itself.

Here is the sea wall, here is a sidewalk, and here is the highway, forming an apron and tied into the sea wall itself.

I do not want to burden the committee with too much fulsome praise of this section or its coastline. I think it is an economic necessity that this work be done, and I want to call the committee's attention to the fact hat Harrison Couny, Miss., which is not a very wealthy county, has spent several million dollars to build this wall and to try to maintain it.

The State of Mississippi has now authorized, as the legislation introduced here would indicate, the county to spend another million and a half dollars in cooperation with the Federal Government.

We think time is of the essence in this, and that is why we are pushing it so much.

Thank you so much.

Senator MALONE. Thank, you, Congressman Colmer.

Senator Stennis, do you have something to say on this?

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN C. STENNIS, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSISIPPI

Senator STENNIS. I will take a very little of your time, Mr. Chairman.

I want to reiterate what Senator Eastland and Congressman Colmer have said, and I am personally familiar with all these facts they relate. This is a fine illustration, I think, of where a county, a local unit, has done a great deal on their own problem. Those people have been paying an extra 2 cents a gallon gasoline tax down there for 25 years trying to pay for this wall which has done them a great deal of good, but before they got it paid for, its practical effect has been destroyed by this hurricane.

Senator COOPER. Has the original cost been paid?

Senator STENNIS. I do not think it is completely paid; no, sir. But they are taking on themselves another million and a half dollars debt to be paid by this special gasoline tax.

Senator COOPER. Another 25-year burden?

Senator STENNIS. That is right. Maybe it will not last quite that long, but it is another burden.

In other words, they are not coming asking for alms. This is asked on the ground, this being a shore line, it is a national problem, and I am familiar, as I said, with these facts these gentlemen have related. They have stated them mildly, and in addition to what has been mentioned, this area is also a thriving business community. It is not just a playground.

It is an industrial business area, and has great fish and oyster industry there, and just beyond the county line over in the next county, is a huge shipbuilding works.

I am sure you will be impressed with the pictures there and with the representations of the engineers, and I will certainly appreciate your serious consideration of this matter.

Senator MALONE. Any questions, Senator Cooper?

Senator COOPER. No.

Senator MALONE. Senator McClellan?

Senator MCCLELLAN. No questions.

Senator MALONE. There may be some questions after Colonel Jewett completes his testimony.

Colonel Jewett, if you would describe this project as to its size and importance; the first cost, and what has happened to the wall since; what the estimated cost of repairs is; and as to its permanency after you would repair it in the manner you suggest.

Also, I think you had better give us some idea if there is likely to be additional coast-line protection asked further along on the coast line there.

I notice this covers most of the coast line of Harrison County.
Representative COLMER. It does.

Senator MALONE. Almost the entire coast line, 27 miles.

Representative COLMER. Practically all of it, except right in the city of Biloxi.

Senator MALONE. I notice further there is a ship channel maintained. It is not a harbor, that is to say, a practical harbor, but is maintained up to the coast line there. The channel is maintained to Gulfport. Is that the way it is handled?

Colonel JEWETT. A channel to Gulfport, and also a channel to Biloxi, and there is in addition along the shore an intracoastal waterway connecting Florida and Texas.

Senator MALONE. Then the water within reasonable distance of the shore is relatively shallow?

Colonel JEWETT. It is, sir.

Senator MALONE. You may go ahead and give us your description of the whole thing.

Colonel JEWETT. Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure to meet with you today to describe the proposed project for Federal participation in the cost toward the repair of the Harrison County sea wall, Mississippi, and its protection by the construction of a beach, pursuant to the provisions of Public Law 727, Seventy-ninth Congress, approved August 13, 1946.

That legislation enunciated a policy for Federal financial aid in the cost of protecting the shores of publicly owned property. Since this is the first proposed project being reported upon pursuant to that legislation, I consider that it would be helpful at the outset to invite attention to the provisions of Public Law 727 that are especially pertinent to the instant case, namely, section 1, which reads as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That with the purpose of preventing damage to public property and promoting and encouraging healthful recreation of the people, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to assist in the construction, but not the maintenance, of works for the improvement and