CONSTRUCTION AND REHABILITATION

Work proposed, fiscal year 1960

Yuma Mesa division:

Yuma Mesa unit drainage facilities, $10,000.-The program provides for continued drainage investigation studies to determine requirements to control rising ground-water conditions.

Wellton-Mohawk division

Pumping plants Nos. 1, 2, and 3, $165,000.-Scheduled construction to complete return flow bypasses at each plant.

Wellton-Mohawk Canal, $50,450.-The program provides for additional flood protective work and continuation of repairs to broken concrete canal lining. Mohawk Canal, $30,000.-Repairs to damaged concrete canal lining will continue.

Wellton Canal, $34,400.—Continued repairs to damaged concrete canal lining. Wellton-Mohawk division lateral systems, $4,000.-Cleanup work. Wellton-Mohawk drainage facilities, $756,500. The program provides for completion of drainage construction within limits established by contract.

Channels, levees, and floodworks, $60,000.-Clearing of saltcedar and other growth from Gila River bottom.

Other project charges, $25,696.—This represents expenditures incurred for settlers, assistance and project closing costs.

Service facilities, -$4,052.-The program provides for service facilities acquired in prior years to be distributed to project features on a use basis during the year.

Stores, -$10,000.-Represents $5,000 for the purchase of store items, offset by $15,000 of stores purchased in prior years and used during the year.

Transfers, credits, and other expenditures, $17,006.-Represents adjustments due to revenues offset in part by Solicitor's and other charges which do not require funds.

Change in total project obligations

1959 congressional justification_. 1960 congressional justification___

Increase__.

$55, 852, 545 56, 100, 000

247, 455

The increase is due principally to revision of the estimate to include return flow bypasses at each of the Wellton-Mohawk pumping plants, additional flood protective works in the vicinity of the Wellton-Mohawk canal, and adjustments to reflect actual bid prices for work underway.

Schedule of construction program, fiscal years 1959 and 1960, Gila project, Arizona

Mr. CANNON. There was no appropriation for this project last year. Is there some kind of holdup on this?

Mr. DOMINY. We had a small appropriation last year to complete canal and lateral work and some work on the pumping plant. The reason we put this item back under separate heading is because it starts work on the rather extensive drainage program.

Consonant with the instructions from the committee last year, that when we had fairly significant items over a continuing period you wanted them under separate items, we have put this under a separate project heading again.

Mr. CANNON. I recall that last year there was considerable discussion about drainage. I thought that might account for the delay. What is the drainage problem there?

Mr. DOMINY. As you know, the Gila project is made up of two divisions, the Yuma Mesa and the Wellton-Mohawk division. The Wellton-Mohawk is about 75,000 acres just now coming into full settlement. Like all projects when they get underway with all of the lands being irrigated, drainage problems do arise. We recognize that.

Mr. CANNON. That is a matter where your difficulty is getting the water out. Does that mean irrigation water or surface water?

Mr. DOMINY. It is the irrigation water. Inevitably, when you apply sufficient water on land to raise crops under irrigation, you have to provide a means to drain away the surplus ground waters that accumulate under irrigated agriculture.

Mr. CANNON. The water table must be kept

Mr. DOMINY. Below the root zone for the crops grown.

The reason we do not provide those main drains and all laterals as part of our distribution system is because it is impossible to determine in advance where the drainage problem is going to be most acute and where the drains ought to be located to properly alleviate the problem.

Mr. CANNON. It is a matter of trial and error?

Mr. DOMINY. You have to wait until the water has been applied 2 or 3 years and farmed under irrigation before you begin to find out where that ground water movement is going to go, in which direction, where it is going to accumulate to a detrimental degree.

Mr. CANNON. There is no deleterious mineral in solution in this irrigation water?

Mr. DOMINY. There sometimes is. In the case of the WelltonMohawk division of the Gila, the drainage water will not be reusable in most instances. It will have a concentration of salt to make it inadvisable to use unless it is diluted with other river water. The plan is to put a main drainage evacuation channel through the entire Wellton-Mohawk division. This will be a lined channel and we will actually have drainage pump wells that will pump the drainage water into this lined canal and carry it off the project and release it into the Colorado River. It is an expensive project. The water users will pay for it in full. We are satisfied that the income from this very fine area will justify the expenditure and that the farmers will be able to pay it as part of their operating costs and construction

costs.

Mr. CANNON. It is merely a matter of time before we amortize it? Mr. DOMINY. Yes, sir. This Gila project authorization, the Wellton-Mohawk contract, the farmers are permitted a 60 year repayment period.

WELLTON-MOHAWK DIVISION

Mr. MAGNUSON. On the Wellton-Mohawk division, what would be the minimum fund requirements in fiscal year 1960 to build drainage works that would keep additional lands from going out of production?

Mr. DOMINY. With about 3,000 acres presently in trouble from high water table and another 15,000 acres with the water table from 6 to 10 feet from the surface it will require a very intensive program for the next several years to keep additional lands from going out of production. The optimum fund requirement for evacuating high ground water, and to keep an economic construction program moving is estimated at $3,066,000 for the first year; some $756,500 are already in the fiscal year 1960 program.

Mr. MAGNUSON. What is the status of repayment contract on these funds?

Mr. DOMINY. There is repayment coverage for the $756,500 presently programed for drainage work in fiscal year 1960. The WelltonMohawk Irrigation and Drainage District has expressed a willingness to execute a supplemental repayment contract calling for full repayment of prospective costs for drainage in excess of present repayment coverage, but not to exceed $14 million. Such a contract is now being negotiated with repayment proposed over a 50-year period and to commence 10 years from the time that initial repayments as to each irrigation block commences under the March 4, 1952, contract with the district. Repayment would then be completed within 60 years as authorized by the Gila Reauthorization Act of July 30, 1947. A recent feasibility study and report show the ability of the district upon full development, to pay these additional costs. Mr. MAGNUSON. What is the problem and fund situation on the drain from Gila siphon to the Colorado River?

Mr. DOMINY. As directed by Congress, a study and report were made by the Bureau referred to as "Ground Water and Drainage Investigations, Yuma, Ariz.-March 1958." That study indicated the need for a drain from the Gila siphon to the Colorado River.. Such a drain would carry some drainage waters from all of the Arizona irrigation districts in the Yuma area (not including the Yuma Valley which is a water users association). In addition it would carry some seepage water from the Gila gravity main canal and some Gila River water that enters the eastern end of the Wellton-Mohawk district; also probably some Colorado River water would seep into the drain from the north and be again returned to the Colorado River. We have no funds programed in fiscal year 1960 for this work. However, the Corps of Engineers floodway channelization studies in the same area have now progressed to the point where the drain could definitely be located and construction could get underway in fiscal year 1960 if funds were available. Total cost is estimated at $1,140,000 and there would be a need for about $450,000 the first year. It apears that this work would fall within the authority of the Colorado River Front Work and Levee System Act of June 28, 1946, 60 Stat. 338, as amended by the act of May 1, 1958, 72 Stat. 101.

PARKER-DAVIS PROJECT, ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA

Mr. CANNON. We will take up the Parker-Davis project for which you are asking $400,000. We will insert pages 170 through 175. (The pages referred to follow :)

PROJECT DATA SHEET

Location: Colorado River Basin-Arizona (seven counties); southern Nevada (Clark County), and southeastern California (three counties). The project headquarters is located in Phoenix, Ariz.

Authorization: Rivers and Harbors Act of August 30, 1935, and subsequent

acts.

Land certification: None required.

Benefit-cost ratio: None.

Definite plan report: None. Construction initiated prior to D.P.R. requirement.

1 Net decrease of $1,612,470 includes costs financed from "Operation and maintenance" appropriations totaling $711,000, and other adjustments currently under study.

Status of repayment contract: Allocation to irrigation and the Mexican Water Treaty are to be repaid by power revenues. The amount of $13,030,203 to be repaid by M. & I. water represents the contribution toward construction at Parker Dam by the Metropolitan Water District.

Description. The principal features of this multipurpose project are located in western Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern California. Servicing of the Mexican Water Treaty at Davis Dam is accomplished by use of the