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We need an expanded program of research in water problems. If we do not develop it, we will be the eternal losers.

On May 25 in a message to Congress, the President said:

"Even before there was a United States, people of this land were using and developing its water resources. Over the years the nature of the problems has changed and the size and scope of the solutions has increased, but our technology has kept abreast of the needs.

"Today far greater demands are pressing upon both our water resources and the technology required to meet our varied water needs. Our streams and ground water resources must meet the needs of nearly 200 million people for food, fiber, and industrial procession. At the same time, we have expected our streams to carry off the waste products of our homes, industries, and farms. We must also protect our people from damaging floods such as those which have recently occurred along the upper Mississippi River.

"A projection of our population growth over the next few decades could lead to the conclusion that very serious water shortages might be expected over much of the Nation in the not far distant future. Pollution has already caused serious problems in many of our streams and lakes, and, with a growing population, pollution problems could extend to almost all of our water sources. "Such predictions must not come true. Our scientists and engineers will find solutions to meet these problems as they develop, if we maintain a continuing and effective research program."

In the organization of the Corps of Engineers we have the dynamic force needed to accomplish these objectives. But they are soldiers and they await orders from the Congress in the form of laws. Therefore, we cannot escape our responsibility to provide the program we expect to be enacted. Perhaps we have not adequately detailed our orders in the past. Perhaps we have not taken the initiative in spelling out policy.

The Public Works Committee should strive to establish itself as the committee which recognizes that problems and needs are changing rapidly and that the Nation's needs can no longer be met by unimaginative adherence to the old pattern of authorizing navigation and flood control projects. To this end the committee should:

(a) Advocate strongly the use of water resource development as a means of bringing about economic development of underdeveloped and economically distressed areas of the Nation.

(b) Emphasize that the main water task of the future is to regulate the Nation's rivers for all purposes: navigation, flood control, power, water supply, recreation, fish and wildlife, and especially water quality control. (This is the main conclusion to be drawn from the findings of the Senate Select Committee on National Water Resources.)

The Public Works Committee might well sponsor the assignment to itself of responsibility to consider the Nation's future needs for water development, and especially the problem of how the committee system could be made more effective in dealing with comprehensive plans and programs for meeting these future needs.

The Public Works Committee should, on the basis of performance, jealously guard its responsibilities and aim for a greater and more complete development, conservation, and utilization of our precious water resources. This is our duty to our country.

Mr. JONES. Our first witness before the committee this morning will be a statement from Lt. Gen. William Cassidy. I am quite sure all the members of the subcommittee will remember him most favorably. He has had the pleasure of being before us before and we have had the pleasure of seeing him before.

We are familiar with your vast knowledge of the subject and your total dedication to water resources development. It is a great pleasure to have you, General.

STATEMENT OF LT. GEN. WILLIAM F. CASSIDY, CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, U.S. ARMY; ACCOMPANIED BY MAJ. GEN. JACKSON GRAHAM, DIRECTOR, CIVIL WORKS; HENRY WEINKAUFF, CHIEF, PLANNING DIVISION, CIVIL WORKS; AND COL. C. YOUNG, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF CIVIL WORKS FOR ATLANTIC DIVISION

General CASSIDY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. JONES. General, prior to your statement, I would like to make a statement concerning the management of the omnibus rivers and harbors bill. Heretofore we have had a biannual consideration of a bill. It will be future policy of the Public Works Committee to have an annual bill and even though these bills have been scheduled for consideration of the committee on the basis of presentations heretofore made, assuming that there would be only one bill every 2 years, next year we expect to take up the omnibus rivers and harbors and flood control bill and annually thereafter.

General CASSIDY. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, first let me say that I am happy to be back. The memory of the kind and considerate treatment accorded me by this committee in the past has never been forgotten, and I have been looking forward to renewing my ties with you since I learned that I was to have the honor of being the 43d Chief of Engineers. I am particularly pleased that one of my first acts in my new capacity is to appear before this committee in connection with a legislative proposal of truly great importance to the Nation.

With me at the table are Maj. Gen. Jackson Graham, Director of Civil Works, and Mr. Henry Weinkauff, Chief of the Planning Division of Civil Works.

General Graham will discuss with you in some detail the purpose and nature of the bill that you are about to take up. This makes it possible for me to concentrate on a subject to which, as a new Chief of Engineers, I have been giving a great deal of serious thoughtthe subject of what lies before the Corps of Engineers in the years I have concluded we are on the threshold of a period of great change and great growth in the Nation's programs for developing, utilizing, and conserving its natural resources; and especially its water resources. This means, of course, that your committee will be faced with new and greater responsibilities.

One of the things that will make the future different from the past is an action of Congress that was consummated only last Thursday, when the President signed the Water Resources Planning Act; now Public Law 89-80. This legislation has, as you know, received intensive consideration by the Congress over the past several years. But the concept which the Congress has now seen fit to adopt as a national goal has been evolving for more than a half century; ever since the now famous conservation crusade of President Theodore Roosevelt's administration. That concept is based on the sound principle that our great river basins should be developed in such a way that they will make the greatest possible net contribution to the wealth of the Nation and the welfare of its people.

A great achievement of the conservation crusade was the remarkable clarity with which it demonstrated that the achievement of this goal would require the formulation of truly comprehensive plans in which equitable consideration had been given to all of the purposes which could be served by development of all of the natural resources. The enactment of the Water Resources Planning Act may be viewed as a sort of culmination of the basic ideas launched at that time. I am proud that the Corps of Engineers has played an important role in the development of ways and means for bringing truly comprehensive, coordinated, and multiple-purpose river basin plans into being. As this committee well knows, the Corps of Engineers began its pioneering work in the field of comprehensive river basin development in 1928 when it prepared the first "308" reports. These were the Nation's initial efforts in comprehensive planning, and the results made possible a proper beginning in the development of great river basins like those of the Columbia, the Ohio, and the Missouri.

I am also proud that in the ensuing years the Corps of Engineers has remained in the forefront of all efforts to improve the Nation's plans and programs for the optimum development of its great rivers. When President Kennedy gave his full support to the recommendations of the Senate Select Committee on National Water Resources and called upon the executive branch agencies to implement those recommendations to the fullest extent possible under the authorities then in existence, it was the Corps of Engineers that was able to provide the leadership in most of the river basin planning efforts initiated at that time, and still underway.

The enactment of the Water Resources Planning Act will, I think, enable us to do a more complete job in river basin planning than we have been able to do in the past. I am convinced that this act will someday be considered a milestone in the Nation's efforts to make the most of the vast resources latent in its major rivers. It is the adoption by Congress of the basic concept of comprehensive development for optimum utilization that leads me to believe that the water programs of the future will be much different, and much more effective, than those of the past. I believe that with the guidance of this committee the Corps of Engineers will be able to make important contributions toward achieving the goals of this legislation; for it is obvious that the Public Works Committees will have a key role to play in the evolution of this new and better program. I say it is "obvious" because only through the construction of public works may the resources of our great river basins be unlocked, converted to wealth, and make a contribution to better living standards for all of our people.

I am particularly pleased that in giving the executive branch a broader charter for developing the Nation's rivers, the Congress has seen fit to authorize fuller consideration of the less tangible benefits which can result from comprehensive river development. More specifically, I consider that Congress showed its great wisdom in making it possible for us to give proper weight to such things as recreation, the improvement of the fish and wildlife resource, and the preservation and enhancement of natural beauty. I think the corps has made great contributions in these fields in the past. But I believe we shall be able to do much better in the future.

In the long run perhaps the greatest value of the new legislation will result from the use of water resource developments to promote the economic development of areas that are lagging behind the rest of the Nation. We have already been able to make a good start in Appalachia where, as you know, the Congress has authorized us to take the lead in formulating a comprehensive plan for using water resource development as a means of inducing economic development. This is an important new concept, and it seems certain that resource development will increasingly be used for this purpose in the years to come. In other words, we shall not wait until needs develop and then try to meet them. Rather we shall develop our resources to provide a base for regional economic growth. Also in the future we shall be able to "tailor" our resource development programs to the changing needs of the Nation. And there can be no doubt that those needs are changing and becoming more critical every year. Our last chief, General Wilson, made some very cogent remarks on this subject when he appeared before the Senate Public Works Committee at the time it initiated its work on the bill now before you. He pointed out that one of the most important needs of the future will be the need for multiple-purpose regulation of the Nation's major rivers. By this we mean regulation for navigation, flood control, recreation, fish and wildlife preservation, power development, water supply, and especially for the improvement and preservation of water quality.

The main point I am trying to make today is that the Nation's needs are expanding and changing, and if these needs are to be met the Nation's resource development programs must expand and change also. With this in mind I believe that the most important pledge I could possibly make to your committee is this: It will be my constant endeavor as Chief of Engineers to keep the Corps of Engineers fully abreast of changing needs and methods, so that the problems of the future are clearly foreseen, and so that the plans we place before you will meet the needs of future generations; as well as the Nation's immediate needs.

The recent farsighted actions by the Congress in the water resources field present this committee with an unprecedented opportunity to make major contributions to the wealth of this Nation and the welfare of its people. I assure you that the Corps of Engineers will faithfully carry out any responsibilities you may assign us in the great work that lies before you.

I thank you for your courtesy in affording me the opportunity to convey to you these few thoughts about the shape of things to come in the field of water resource development.

Mr. JONES. Thank you very much, General Cassidy.

Are there any questions?

Mr. BALDWIN. Mr. Chairman?

Mr. JONES. Mr. Baldwin.

Mr. BALDWIN. I would just like to state to General Cassidy that I was delighted to read of his appointment as Chief of Engineers. This committee of course has had very close contact with your work for many years and we on the west coast have had particularly close liaison with you because many of your assignments have been in that

area.

We know under your leadership the Corps of Engineers will be conducted with great fairness, great dilligence and with great executive ability. I personally am delighted with your heading this most important branch of Government.

General CASSIDY. Thank you, Mr. Baldwin.

Mr. HARSHA. Mr. Chairman?

Mr. JONES. Mr. Harsha.

Mr. HARSHA. Mr. Chairman, I too, want to congratulate General Cassidy and I certainly wish him success in his new position.

I would like, General, to ask you about a statement you made on page 5. At the top of the page you said:

We have already been able to make a good start in Appalachia where, as you knew, the Congress has authorized us to take the lead in formulating a comprehensive plan for using water resource development as a means of inducing economic development.

Could you expand just a little bit on what you mean by, "We have been able to make a good start"? What have you done and what do you contemplate?

General CASSIDY. We have made a good start in our planning only, sir, in considering the things that have to be done there, considering the coordination of various Federal agencies involved, we believe that we have pulled together a group that will be capable of making sound judgments and producing a plan that will provide for the development of that area. It is a good start in planning only, so far.

Mr. HARSHA. What is this plan? Can you tell us what you have in mind?

General CASSIDY. We are just starting to look, gather data and put together a plan. We have not yet reached a firm plan. It will be several years before we come up with a sound plan.

Mr. HARSHA. I see. Thank you, that is all.

Mr. JONES. Any further questions?

Mr. WRIGHT. Mr. Chairman.

Mr. JONES. Mr. Wright.

Mr. WRIGHT. Mr. Chairman, the late President Kennedy in a Presidential directive ordered that in determination of the life expectancy and economics of navigation projects particularly, the Corps of Engineers would consider the anticipated life and use of the project but not to exceed a period of 100 years. This then was spelled out in some detail in a Senate committee document report, No. 97, I believe.

Meanwhile I am advised that due to some reason which has escaped me an internal directive of some sort has been sent out within the Corps of Engineers changing those ground rules and stipulating that in the computation of benefits to cost ratios on navigation projects the maximum time is to be considered as 50 years.

Is that correct? If so, under what authority was it done and why was it done?

General CASSIDY. May I ask General Graham to answer that question?

General GRAHAM. It is true that Senate Document 97 placed an upper limit of 100 years on the water resources projects. The policy that we have adopted is to use this 100-year upper limit where we see that these projects will not only last 100 years but will not become

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