mandatory to maintain a minimum margin of safety. The estimated cost of this additional work is $500,000. Our fourth and final objective involves a research and development item for an acoustic data analysis center at the David Taylor Model Basin at Carderock estimated to cost $318,000. This item provides an extension to the applied mathematics building for underwater acoustic research. This space is urgently needed to provide full utilization of acoustic data analysis equipment being delivered and a high capacity digital computed under procurement. The operation of this facility will be in direct support of the antisubmarine warfare and submarine programs. Captain CHEW. The very first of the 11 classified facilities in the 1960 program for authorization is shipyard facilities. In this class there are 11 line items at 6 continental activities for $9,248,000 and one at an overseas activity for $507,000, or a total of $9,755,000. This is a net reduction of $770,000 from the figures in the bill. In other words, this is one of the changes I would like to mention. These facilities are required for protection of existing installations and to support the construction, the repair, overhaul, and operations of submarines and surface ships. The first of the projects in section 201 under the bill is at Naval Shipyard, Boston, Mass. (The project sheet is as follows:) NAVAL SHIPYARD, BOSTON, MASS. Location.-Nearest city, Boston, 1 mile southwest. PERMANENT STATION Mission. To provide logistic support for assigned ships and service craft; to perform authorized work in connection with the construction, conversion, overhaul, repair, alteration, drydocking, and outfitting of ships and craft as assigned; to perform research, development, and test work as assigned; to provide services and material to other activities and units as directed by competent authority. Line item.-Improvement of dewatering system, replacement of caisson, $1,422,000 (total cost). IMPROVEMENT OF DEWATERING SYSTEM The existing 55-year-old dewatering pumps for drydocks Nos. 1 and 2 show noticeable wear from sand particles during long years of service. The efficiency of these pumps decreases progressively, and an engineering investigation in December 1956 estimated the remaining life of the pumps to be 2 years. Repairs cannot be made economically because the design is outmoded, and parts are not obtainable commercially. If this item is not provided it will be impossible to use these two major drydocks. These docks are required 95 percent of the time for repair and maintenance of submarines, destroyers, cruisers, and auxiliaries. REPLACEMENT OF CAISSON In order to perform work in connection with the conversion, overhaul, and repair of ships as assigned, the authorization of this item is urgently required in the fiscal year 1960 program. The present caisson, which is 59 years old, has outlived its economic life and does not warrant further exorbitant maintenance expenditures. From 1954 to 1956, $26,000 was spent to effect only urgent repairs to keep the caisson at minimum operating readiness. Its last triennial overhaul was completed in 1956 at an additional cost of $27,000, and only the most urgent repairs were made. During this overhaul, it was necessary to dock the caisson in drydock thus tying up two major docks in the shipyard for 20 days. A recent investigation by a consulting firm estimated that to perform the necessary repairs on the existing caisson will cost approximately $121,000. This work would preclude shipyard use of drydock No. 2 for 6 months. Also, an additional drydock in the shipyard or a private yard would be needed in order to perform the rehabilitation work. The cost of the new caisson can be amortized in 9 years. Captain CHEW. The mission of the shipyard is to provide logistic support for assigned ships and service craft and to perform authorized work in connection with the construction, conversion, overhaul, repair, alteration, drydocking, and outfitting of ships and craft as assigned and to perform research, development, and test work as assigned; and to provide services in materiel to other activities in units as directed by competent authority. The first item is for improvement of a dewatering system for drydocks Nos. 1 and 2 in the amount of $890,000. The existing pumps are 55 years old and show noticeable wear from sand particles from long years of service. The repairs cannot be made economically because the design is outmoded and we can't get the parts commercially. The failure of the pumps is imminent, and if it occurs it will be impossible to use these two major drydocks which are dewatered by these pumps. The other line item for the same shipyard, is the replacement of the caisson for drydock No. 2 at a cost of $532,000. The present caisson is a little older than the pumps. It is 59 years old and it has outlived its economic life and does not warrant further exorbitant maintenance expenditures. The second project is at the shipyard in Brooklyn. (The project sheet is as follows:) NAVAL SHIPYARD, BROOKLYN, N.Y. Location.-Within city of New York. PERMANENT STATION Mission. To provide logistic support for assigned ships and service craft; to perform authorized work in connection with the construction, conversion, overhaul, repair, alteration, drydocking, and outfitting of ships and craft, as assigned; to perform research, develoment, and test work as assigned; to provide services and material to other activities and units, as directed by competent authority. Line item.-Drydock dewatering conduit, $365,000. Drydocks Nos. 2 and 3 were originally dewatered by drydock No. 2 pump well. Reconstruction of drydock No. 3, nearing completion, includes a new pump well with a connection for drydock No. 2. Unanticipated settlement around drydock 3 now threatens the structural stability of No. 2 pump well; and the condition is expected to become progressively worse as further soil consolidation takes place. Connecting drydock No. 2 to drydock No. 3 pump well is more economical than reconstruction of drydock 2 pump well, and will eliminate maintenance on drydock 2 pump well which is to be abandoned. Captain CHEW. This is for the installation of a drydock dewatering conduit for drydock No. 2, for $365,000. The mission of this shipyard is similar to that of Boston. Drydocks Nos. 2 and 3 were originally dewatered by a No. 2 pump well and the reconstruction of drydock No. 3, which is now nearing completion, includes a pump well with a connection for drydock No. 2, an unanticipated settlement of the earth around drydock No. 3 now threatens the structural stability of the No. 2 pump well and the condition is expected to become progressively worse. So, connecting drydock No. 2 to drydock No. 3 pump well is less expensive than reconstruction of the drydock No. 2 pump well, and will eliminate the maintenance problems, so that is our first project in Brooklyn. The third project is at the David Taylor Model Basin, Carderock, Md., and consists of an expansion of acoustic data analysis center at a cost of $318,000. (The project sheet is as follows:) DAVID TAYLOR MODEL BASIN, CARDEROCK, MD. Location.-Nearest city: Washington, D.C., 12 miles southeast. PERMANENT STATION Mission. To conduct fundamental, applied, and developmental research to develop designs of naval vessels which have minimum resistance, satisfactory maneuverability, and maximum repulsion efficiency for given military characteristics; design of propellers; efficient structures of ships; such countermeasures as may be assigned; to solve various other problems such as noise elimination and the reduction of vibration; to perform developmental tests of aircraft, guided missiles, and their components; and operation of the applied mathematics laboratory in the conduct of a program in mathematical analysis, and computer techniques involving the use of high-speed automatic computing machinery. Line item.-Expansion of acoustic analysis center, $318,000. Urgent military development projects, such as evaluation and reduction of self and radiated noise from submarines, and improvement of sonar detection ranges, require more rapid and precise noise data analysis than is now available. To fulfill these requirements the acoustic data analysis center must be expanded. Some ADAC equipment is temporarily installed in a storage building, and the rest is on order. Computations for the ADAC as well as for other purposes of the Bureau of Ships and CNO will be performed on a high capacity digital computer (LARC), under contract, and other associated computers to be housed in building 17. The required 6,000 square feet of space for the ADAC will be provided in building 15 which, with building 17, now houses the applied mathematics laboratory and contains some of the computers to be installed in building 17. The LARC requires 2,200 net square feet of space. Other equipment, the walls and partitions require 5,880 square feet. The extension to building 17 is essential to house the LARC and to provide room for the equipment to be moved from building 15, freeing space for the ADAC. The following programs are affected: Operation research (CNO), antisubmarine warfare, nuclear, Polaris, and submarine. Captain CHEW. Among the many research tasks assigned to this facility under its mission to conduct fundamental applied and fundamental research in ships design is that of solving problems in noise elimination and reduction of vibration. This, of course, is very important, particularly to our submarines. Some acoustical analysis equipment is temporarily installed in a storage building at the present time and more equipment of this nature is on order. A requirement exists for a permanent addition to the applied mathematics laboratory building in which this equipment will be properly housed and consoldated. I will go on to the next. I might add in this connection, that this will permit improvements in antisubmarine warfare and nuclear submarines in particular, and the latter improvement will naturally affect the operations of our nuclear Polaris submarines. The fourth project is at the Naval Shipyard, Long Beach, Calif. (The project sheet is as follows:) NAVAL SHIPYARD, LONG BEACH, CALIF. Location.-Nearest city, Long Beach, 2 miles east. PERMANENT STATION Mission. To provide logistic support for assigned ships and service craft; to perform authorized work in connection with construction, conversion, overhaul, repair, alteration, drydocking, and outfitting of ships and craft as assigned; to provide services and material to other activities and units as directed by competent authority. Line item.-Subsidence protective measures (fourth increment), $500,000. In fiscal year 1959 the sum of $6,000,000 was authorized for subsidence remedial construction, but both the authorization and appropriation acts contained provisions to the effect that only $500,000 would be spent as the third increment, based on the understanding that this amount was the minimum required to provide 2 feet of freeboard in January 1960. A fourth increment of $500,000 for protective measures is required to insure against inundation of the shipyard and adjacent areas with consequent danger to personnel and property. If this item is not started by the fall of 1959, the effects will be: (a) the freeboard along extensive sections of the waterfront will drop below 2 feet with serious risk of inundating the shipyard and adjacent property, particularly since wave action may breach the earth berms during storms; (b) a serious danger of flooding over pier No. 3 into the shipyard will exist; and (c) the risk of flooding the shipyard and surrounding property will be incurred if the caisson at drydock No. 3 cannot be reseated promptly. The Navy would be held morally, and possibly legally, responsible for damage to property of others. Captain CHEW. This is for subsidence protective measures-which I stress at an estimated cost of $500,000. This is a reduction of $850,000 from the figure shown in the bill. This is a reduction that I previously noted. We request permission to revise the amount down to $500,000. The problem of subsidence at this shipyard has been with us, as you well know, since 1943 when the shipyard was placed in operation. Substantially the entire shipyard is now below high tide mark and much of it is below mean low water. The head of drydock No. 1 has sunk 18 feet, in the caisson end 12 feet, and subsidence continues at a rate ranging from two-tenths of a foot per year to 1 foot per year. The shipyard overlies, as you well know, the Wilmington oilfield, which has been the most productive oilfield in California during the last 20 years. Approximately 2 million barrels of fluids, that is oil, gas, and water, have been removed from the Wilmington field since 1946. Production continues at a rate of 90,000 barrels of oil per day and may be expected to continue until the reserves of oil and gas are exhausted in about 1970. The subsidence is due, of course, to the extraction of the oil from the field which causes a drop in the underground pressure and results in compaction. Senator STENNIS. Excuse me a minute, Captain. We had a special hearing on that last year, so the chairman is fairly familiar with it and doubtless there will be further testimony on it this year. Senator Beall, that is quite a problem out there in Long Beach. I don't know whether you are familiar with it or not. Senator Engle is familiar with it, I know. My only observation now is that you are reducing the amount. You don't have to cover that too much in detail unless you want to. Captain CHEW. This is purely a protective measure. It is not a remedial measure. Senator STENNIS. You are not going into the real problem. Senator STENNIS. It just takes that much to protect this. Captain CHEW. That is correct, sir. Senator STENNIS. They are pumping oil out of the area there, Senator Beall, and it is causing a subsidence and they are trying to get the oil companies to do something about it. Senator BEALL. This is to protect what they already have. Captain CHEW. This is almost a "finger in the dike" protection. Senator STENNIS. All right. Admiral MUMMA. I might add, Mr. Chairman, something that I believe should be put in the record in connection with this problem. I have a letter here dated the 25th of February from the port manager, Mr. Charles L. Vickers, of the city of Long Beach, and it is addressed to the shipyard commander, sir, and it puts on record for the first time a comprehensive plan of drilling and completion of water injection, and attached to it is a summary sheet which shows a program extending through 1959 and the early part of 1960 to show the rate at which they plan to inject water in order to correct subsidence. This plan has been approved by the city officials and the pumping material has been procured, procurement has been started to insure that they get up to this rate. At the present time the injection rate is of the order of 200,000 barrels a day. They eventually hope by the end of July next year, a year and a half from now approximately, to have reached the rate of 1,113,000 barrels a day of water injection, which we think from engineering studies should be satisfactory from a point of view of arresting subsidence and permitting us to save the shipyard. If they make good on this type of promise, we would probably be back next year with larger requests. Senator STENNIS. All right, you think that perhaps settles it for this year? Admiral MUMMA. Yes, sir. What we are doing at the present time is asking for a dike to keep the water out until a permanent decision can be reached which will be made by the Secretary of the Navy when he is satisfied that the subsidence remedial measures are adequate. (The document referred to follows:) Capt. C. J. PALMER, USN, Commander, Long Beach Naval Shipyard, THE PORT OF LONG BEACH, Long Beach, Calif., February 25, 1959. DEAR CAPTAIN PALMER: In accordance with your letter of January 23d, and our discussions on the matter, I am enclosing memorandum dated February 24, 1959, from S. M. Roberts, subsidence control and repressurization administrator, to the board of harbor commissioners on the subject "Summary Schedule of Unitization and Repressurization, Wilmington Oil Field," and memorandum dated February 20, 1959, from Frank J. Hardesty, chief petroleum engineer, to the board of harbor commissioners, subject “Proposed Tentative Drilling Schedule for Approximately 1 Year From Date on City Tidelands, Upper Four Zones, Fault Blocks II to V, Inclusive, and All Zones of Block VI With Anticipated Monthly Water Volumes." I believe these two memorandums together with their attached schedules comply with the Navy's request for a timetable on the repressuring program. Very truly yours, CHARLES L. VICKERS, Port Manager. |