Senator OVERTON. We have today for consideration the subject of Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, Calif. The Chair has been furnished with a list of a number of witnesses, and will call them in the order of the memorandum.

Mr. Bashore.

STATEMENT OF H. W. BASHORE, COMMISSIONER OF RECLAMATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. BASHORE. Mr. Chairman, my name is Harry W. Bashore, Commissioner of Reclamation.

SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIF.

Before testifying concerning certain proposed projects, I wish to bring to your attention one other matter. The report made by the Secretary of the Interior on the bill H. R. 4485, recommends inclusion of language under which the irrigation benefits of reservoirs operated by the War Department will be administered pursuant to the Federal reclamation laws. Since this subject was fully covered in my statement before your subcommittee on the river and harbor bill, and since the reasons for inserting similar language in this bill are the same, I will spare your committee a repetition of those reasons. With your permission I submit for the record an excerpt from that statement for incorporation in the record of these hearings.

(The statement submitted is as follows:)

The principle involved in this amendment is far-reaching. This principle goes to the root of the vitally important position that irrigation has in the agricultural, industrial, and other economic pursuits of the 17 arid and semiarid States of the West. To facilitate a full understanding of the role which irrigation has in the life of the Nation, I have had prepared several charts and photographs which will illustrate some of the major points I will emphasize.

The low rainfall in the region west of the ninety-seventh meridian makes the maximum conservation and use there of water for irrigation vital to the maintenance of its agriculture, and, in fact, essential to the support of the population itself.

About 21,000,000 acres in the arid and semiarid West are now irrigated. The water is delivered from storage reservoirs or it is diverted directly from streams for distribution to land that is thus made productive.

Studies indicate that sufficient water could be economically conserved to provide an adequated supply for the 21,000,000 acres now irrigated and in addition provide for the irrigation of about 22,000,000 acres now practically all unproductive. Water, which could be economically stored and diverted to irrigate productive land, is the limiting factor in the expansion of irrigation.

In the 11 far Western States, 73 percent of the agricultural production comes from irrigated land. The great livestock industry of the West, commonly thought of as one aspect of dry-land agriculture, is itself largely dependent on irrigated land for winter forage and for feeding and fattening cattle and sheep for market. The greater part of the West's 20,000,000 people on 275,000 farms and in more than 1,000 cities and towns, is dependent directly and indirectly on irrigation. The Federal Government assumed sponsorship for irrigation on the passage of the reclamation law of 1902. It did so as a means of stabilizing the agriculture of the West, of developing the arid regions, and of providing homes for pioneer settlers. A first consideration in the enunciation of the Federal policy was that the construction costs of irrigation should be repaid by beneficiaries.

Ninety-five percent of the cost of the projects in the reclamation program now authorized is reimbursable from irrigation water users, municipalities, and power consumers, and is being repaid. Power, developed as an incident of irrigation, is an essential factor in assuring the repayment of construction costs of multiplepurpose projects.

The Treasury of the United States today, through the Bureau of Reclamation, has an investment in irrigation and related projects of more than $900,000,000. Fifty-two projects have been completed by the Bureau of Reclamation and 20 others still are under construction. Each is based on the conservation and consumptive use of the waters in the western streams.

Four million acres of land now are served by Federal reclamation systems. The total will be increased to 12,000,000 acres upon the completion of projects now under construction, upon which construction will be resumed at the close of the war, or which have been authorized for construction.

The hydroelectric-power installations at reclamation projects exceed 2,000,000 kilowatts. These power plants have been of great aid in the prosecution of the war and will make an equally tangible contribution to the normal peacetime development of the West. The revenue from power assists in repayment of irrigation costs and the employment in the industrial activities resulting from power developments expands the market for irrigated agricultural products. The power byproduct of western irrigation, therefore, is a most useful tool of water conservation. Valuable as is irrigation, many of our modern projects require the aid of power to render them economically feasible.

The future of whole States and hundreds of communities built up by irrigation demands that additional water be made available for existing irrigated farms. The provision of supplemental supplies for irrigation systems which were built by private capital and which are now faced with water shortages is a major work of the Bureau of Reclamation. More than half of the areas now irrigated need additional water to insure maximum crop production and to maintain existing communities. The reasons for this extensive need of supplemental water supplies are many and complex, but most of them are found in the growth of the West, expansion of the irrigated acreage, and the inadequacy of irrigation systems constructed before the science of irrigation engineering had developed to its present efficiency.

The population of the far western States has more than tripled in 40 years, while irrigated land acreage has barely doubled. Since 1940, the Bureeau of Census reports the West is the only one of the Nation's four major regions to show a gain in population. All others show a loss.

The full development of the irrigation potentialities in the West would provide for 400,000 to 500,000 additional irrigated farm homes and support an additional population of five to six million persons on the farms and in cities and towns which would be established or expanded in its wake.

The full development of irrigation would also create additional property values estimated at $16,000,000,000.

The purchasing power for nonwestern manufactured and agricultural products created by the present irrigation and related developments is estimated at 21⁄2 billion dollars annually. The full development of irrigation possibilities would increase the home or domestic market for farm and factory products to more than $5,000,000,000 annually.

From an agricultural standpoint in the arid and semiarid regions, irrigated land has a special significance. The per-acre crop output of irrigated land, which is the basis of the purchasing power of the West, is nearly five times more than that from the dry-land farms in the region. The per-acre output of irrigated land is nearly three times the average for the entire United States.

These seem to be hopeful facts for the West, holding great promise of extraordinary growth and prosperity. But the perspective must be maintained. Of the 750,000,000 acres of arid and semiarid land, which is possibly tillable, there is water which can be economically conserved to irrigate at the maximum only 43,000,000 acres. This 43,000,000 acres is about twice the 21,000,000 acres now irrigated, to which I have previously referred.

Western irrigated agriculture complements and does not compete with the farm products of other sections of the country. No tobacco is grown on irrigated land in the West and the output of other so-called surplus crops like wheat and corn is inadequate even for the regional needs. Distance and freight costs raise a bar to the economical marketing of fruit, vegetables, and other specialty crops which are peculiarly adaptable to irrigated land, in competition with the product of farms near the great metropolitan centers of the Midwest, South, and East. The wartime contributions of irrigated land to the Nation's food supplies have been fully demonstrated. The War Food Administration has recognized the potentialities of Bureau of Reclamation irrigation development for war food

purposes and 24 projects which it has recommended have been approved by the War Production Board for construction by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Federal reclamation projects alone in 1943 produced potatoes sufficient for the annual rations of 25,000,000 people; beans for 57,000,000, and alfalfa with feed grains for dairy and beef herds, which supplied 11,000,000 with dairy and meat products.

Since more than 80 percent of the power supply of the far Western States comes from hydroelectric plants, the reclamation output of this essential energy as a byproduct of irrigation is exceedingly significant. In 1943 nearly 12,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours were generated at reclamation plants-a greater volume than was produced in all of the New England States in 1940.

From the summary presented, I am sure that you must agree with me that irrigation is essential to the very existence of our Western States.

In this region, there are more than 1,100,000 acres of land-more than half of the area of continental United States.

Anticipating your question: "Why is irrigation necessary?" I point to the map which shows how the United States is divided into two parts by the 20-inch rainfall line which roughly follows the one hundredth meridian. To the east of this line, running as far as the ninety-seventh meridian, lies what is commonly referred to as "the subhumid belt." In this belt, rainfall is erratic. It is generally regarded as adequate for crop production. In the years when it is not sufficient, lack of rainfall spells serious losses for those farmers who are not within an irrigation project. To the west of the one hundredth meridian, the rainfall generally is insufficient for crops.

Except for the high mountains and the strip along the northern Pacific Coast, less than 20 inches can be expected in a normal year. The great areas shown on the map as receiving 15 inches or less of rainfall are true deserts. These arid lands and the semiarid lands, which receive between 15 and 20 inches, taken together include all of Nevada and all but mountainous areas in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. These lands also include (except for small patches or strips, principally mountainous) the three Pacific Coast States, Washington, Oregon, and California, and the western parts of those States of the Great Plains, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Development of intensive farming is limited by the availability of natural moisture or water supplies for irrigation.

Agricultural experts tell us that if 20 inches of rainfall or even if 15 inches could be counted upon during the growing season for crops in these western States, irrigation might not be required. For that reason, it is important to consider the seasonal distribution of rainfall in the West to determine the prospects in the average year during the period from April 1 to September 30, which is the growing season. This distribution is given in reports of the United States Weather Bureau which show the percentage of the average annual rainfall which is received during the growing season for crops. The greater part of California is shown to receive less than one-fifth of its average annual rainfall during the growing season.

Most of the States of Washington and Oregon, and parts of Idaho, Nevada, California, and Arizona receive only about one-third of the total precipitation in the growing season. In the whole central part of the West-the Intermountain States-from 40 to 60 percent of the rainfall is received during the growing season. I want to call your attention, in contrast, to weather records of the great middle part of the United States, where, you will see, more than 60 percent of the rainfall to the eastward of the ninety-seventh meridian comes when it is most needed for the growth of crops.

The Weather Bureau reports show further that from the Continental Divide westward, virtually nowhere but in the high mountains, which cannot be farmed anyway, can more than 8 to 10 inches of rain be expected during the period from April 1 to September 30, the period when moisture is most needed for crop growth. Between the Continental Divide and the one hundredth meridian, in only a few tillable areas can as much as 15 inches be anticipated during the growing season. From the one hundredth meridian eastward, the precipitation is somewhat higher on the average but this subhumid area suffers from periodical drought and the economic stability of the area is frequently seriously disturbed.

In other words, the area west of the one hundredth meridian for the most part receives less than 20 inches of rainfall during the normal year. Further

more, the small amount of moisture which does fall there is unfavorably distributed through the seasons so far as agriculture is concerned.

Please remember that between 15 and 25 inches of rain, depending on summer temperatures, are necessary during the growing season for farming without any irrigation. From the facts that I have presented, it readily can be seen that irrigation is essential to farming in virtually all of the West.

I have emphasized the climatic conditions in the States of the mountain and Pacific group because of the critical effect the sparse rainfall has on agriculture. Although this region was also affected by the critical drought of the thirties, irrigation prepared it better to meet the impact of the exceptionally low rainfall, and the result was less severe than in the Great Plains and subhumid area. In North Dakota and South Dakota in 1934, where there is. virtually no water conservation for irrigation, the harvested acreage in 1934at the height of the drought-was reduced from thirty-eight to fourteen million acres 65 percent. Land in other areas, without irrigation, virtually reverted to the desert.

The transformation by water conservation and irrigation of the western deserts and sagebrush into thriving farms has been a gradual process.

Irrigation in the West began with the settlement of the Mormons in Utah in 1847. As the receding frontier drew the American people westward, they came upon these arid and semiarid regions, trapped the waters for fur, explored the mountains for metals, and cut into the forest, but they passed rapidly over the deserts. They crossed miles upon miles of arid land hoping to find fresh fields. They pressed onward until they realized that it was upon the foundation of this. desert that the permanent civilization in the West must be built. Then they began the easy stream diversions and irrigated the low-lying valleys and the benches near the big rivers. Gradually the irrigation systems became more complicated. Finally the unregulated flow of the streams became insufficient for the needs of developments relying upon them and storage works were required.

At the turn of the century, about 10,000,000 acres of land had been irrigated. It was at about this point that the Federal Government became concerned about the need for water conservation in the West and the reclamation law of 1902 was enacted under the sponsorship of the late President Theodore Roosevelt. Summarized, this policy was designed to conserve and use the waters of the West for the development of the vast areas of public land to which the Government had taken and held title. The increasing population of the West made it necessary to provide for the support of a larger number of people. than could be sustained by the meager agricultural resources then existing.. These resources rested on the limited irrigation expansion and on the small volume of crops which could be wrested from the arid and semiarid lands without the artificial application of moisture.

That irrigation brought a permanent civilization to the western deserts was recognized. Just as this particular science of agriculture has been maintained uninterruptedly in the valleys of the Nile, in Syria, Persia, Judea, Java, and some parts of Italy, it demonstrated its value in the Western States and was adopted as a national policy.

The recognition of the great value of water conservation by the Federal Government stimulated private capital to invest in irrigation systems. In the 42 years that have elapsed since the passage of the reclamation law, the acreage. under irrigation has increased to more than 21,000,000 acres. Since 1930, however, the irrigation expansion has been primarily under the auspices of the Federal Government. This has been due to the fact that the complexities of modern systems were beyond the ability of private capital to finance. These complexities included the necessity for great storage works, as well as the recognition of the need for and usefulness of multiple-purpose projects which would assure maximum use of the water resources for irrigation, power production, municipal water supplies, and other purposes.

As every dam on a western river aids stream regulation, so also does each contribute to flood control. The fact that the Federal Government owns more. than half of the land area of the 11 far western States and the interstate characteristics of the water supply of many potential projects are other factors which make water conservation and irrigation in the West a primary concern of the Congress as the legislative branch of the Federal Government.

The entire Nation has a deep concern for the continued development of the West, which rests on the highest beneficial use of its scanty water supplies.

The

conservation of this water for irrigation and related purposes means homes on irrigated land for returning servicemen when peace comes. From the long-range view, the expansion of a stabilized agriculture in the West is necessary to support the expanding population and insure an increasing home market for American factory and farm products not produced in the West.

From a population standpoint, the West has outstripped its agricultural production, as I have pointed out. In the first 30 years of the present century, the West grew more rapidly than the remainder of the country. The rate was three time as fast. From 1930 to 1940, the population growth was twice the national rate. From 1940 to November 1943, the West was the only one of the four major regions of the country to show an increase in population. Its gain was 8.5 percent while every other major region lost from 3.4 to 5.7 percent. The return of the servicemen from the battlefields and high seas will see the wartime impact of the population on the West intensified. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that nearly 1,800,000 men of the armed forces and 1,200,000 emergency industrial workers will be demobilized in the 17 western States. Conservative estimates are that about 250,000 of the returning servicemen will be farm boys most of them from irrigated land, while a proportionate. number of the emergency industrial workers to be demobilized have a farm background.

Irrigated land in the West will be required for the permanent location of a substantial number of the 400,000 men of these two groups who will be seeking a return to the soil and an opportunity to reestablish themselves and contribute to the permanent prosperity of the country. Like their forefathers, who transformed desert and sagebrush land into irrigated farms, they are entitled to the conservation of western waters that will afford them a similar opportunity. Preliminary studies by the Bureau of Reclamation indicate that in the major subregions of the West, water could be economically conserved to assure ultimate irrigation results, including protection for existing irrigated areas through supplemental water, as follows:

Subhumid and Great Plains: Irrigation of 4,500,000 acres of new land and supplemental water for 700,000 acres to provide 58,000 farm homes and protect 7,000 existing farms. These figures compare with 2,100,000 acres now irri-. gated which are included in 20,000 farms.

Intermountain: Irrigation of 6,400,000 acres of new land and supplemental water for 8,000,000 acres to provide 140,000 new farm homes and protect 66,000 existing farms. These figures compares with 13,400,000 acres now irrigated which are included in 135,000 farms.

Pacific coast: Irrigation of 11,100,000 acres of new lands and supplemental water for 3,000,000 acres to provide 230,000 new farm homes and protect 50,000, existing farms. These figures compare with 5,800,000 acres now irrigated which are included in 120,000 farms.

From a population standpoint, the use of the water required for these developments would provide for 1,639,000 additional persons on irrigated farms and more than 4,000,000 persons in cities, towns, and villages, who would receive their principal support from the new irrigation developments.

The added property values of $16,000,000,000, which I have previously estimated as possible from the full irrigation development of the West, is not comparable with the tremendous human considerations that will flow from the full use of the precious waters of the West for irrigation.

The use of structures in the West in water control such as is proposed in the pending rivers and harbors bill usually affects irrigation possibilities. Since irrigation is so important and so highly specialized a use, a Federal agency has been established to sponsor and foster it, and a body of laws and policies has been built around the function. My position, as head of that Bureau, is simply that all irrigation work should be under the jurisdiction of this agency, governed by the special laws that have been adopted, and prosecuted in conformity with the national policy. For that reason, I advocate the amendment that I earlier read to you.

Mr. BASHORE. What I have handed to the committee reporter, well, I think, not only save your time here but will present the matter more clearly and concisely.

Senator OVERTON. You are familiar with the amendment that was adopted by the Senate Commerce Committee on the river and harbor

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