THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1941. FEDERAL RECLAMATION PROGRAM STATEMENT OF HON. CLINTON P. ANDERSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. We will now hear Congressman Anderson of New Mexico. Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, I will just leave with the committee a statement with reference to a part of the reclamation program, calling your particular attention to the specific item which relates to Tucumcari. I have been watching that project for a long time. In fact, I have been quite closely connected with it. I think it is unfortunate if we should spend $15,000,000 or $16,000,000 on a flood-prevention program for Oklahoma and other States and not utilize the water. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. What is that statement? Mr. ANDERSON. We are developing flood control and water projects in Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, which are really for the benefit of all of us. We are damming the water up in order to prevent floods, but it seems to me too bad that we do not utilize that water, while it is dammed up. I am deeply grateful for the dam which has been constructed in New Mexico, and we are therefore asking you for $450,000 in this bill for the Tucumcari project. Mr. RICH. Have you got a Budget estimate? Mr. RICH. I wish you would submit it. Mr. ANDERSON. $450,000 is my understanding. The project is coming along nicely and the water is accumulating, although the dam is there for another purpose. Mr. RICH. What is it for? Flood control? Mr. RICH. If you fill the dam up for flood control, what are you going to do with it after you have the dam full, use it for power? Mr. ANDERSON. We are not talking about using it for power, but we will take the water out for irrigation. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. That will help the flood control by taking the water out. If there came a rain and the dam was full you would be compelled to let water out for reclamation purposes, and it will serve a dual purpose and help the flood control and at the same time put the water to use. Mr. ANDERSON. In discussing the Federal reclamation program and the need for expediting completion of projects it includes, it should be noted that New Mexico, from 1930 to 1940, showed a growth in population of 24.9 percent. The rate of gain was second to only one State-Florida-and the pressure of population makes it more necessary than ever that our limited water resources be conserved and put to productive use through irrigation for the support of the more than half a million people within our borders. Although less than a third of the State's harvested acreage is under irrigation, the irrigated land produces more than half of the crop values. You will, therefore, see the importance of irrigation in 311522-41-pt. 1-84 the life of New Mexico, especially in those areas which border on the drought region and have suffered from deficiencies in rainfall. The one project in the reclamation section of the Department of the Interior appropriation bill to which attention is directed, is the estimate of $450,000 for the Tucumcari development, which will bring under irrigation some 45,000 acres in Quay County in my State. This project will develop the only intensively farmed area on the railroad between Kansas City and the Rio Grande Valley. Water, as you know, will be secured from Conchas Dam constructed for flood control on the South Canadian River. It will be carried through a 75-mile canal to fertile lands that need only an assured supply of water to make them productive. The Tucumcari project will make available for settlement over 300 farmsteads. It will produce hay and grain .for the support of the livestock industry that needs stabilization of forage supplies and other products will be consumed by the increasing population in the State. Many large holdings, now running as high as 1,700 acres, will be subdivided into family-size farms for the settlement of newcomers in eastern New Mexico. But if this project is to be of service in providing settlement opportunities, there must be more speed in advancing its completion and speed calls for larger appropriations. With $3,946,000 required to complete the undertaking after the fiscal year 1942, it will require nearly 10 years to bring water to all of this land if appropriations are continued at the rate proposed in this bill-$450,000. Since the Federal Government has already invested $4,000,000 in the project, it would seem to be good judgment to make this money produce results, as soon as possible, by completing the necessary facilities without delay. New Mexico knows of the beneficial results that have come from the construction of the Carlsbad project and the Elephant Butte district facilities of the Rio Grande project. Tucumcari will contribute as much proportionately to stabilization of an agricultural area and in creating a market for manufactured products of the Midwest and East as the Carlsbad and Rio Grande projects have done. There is another phase of the reclamation program in which New Mexico is interested along with all the arid and semiarid States. And that is in advancing surveys and investigations looking to the utilization to the fullest of the available water supplies in this area. Reports indicate there are about 430,000 acres in New Mexico which can be brought under irrigation if water is conserved. Of greatest personal interest to me are studies and investigations which the Bureau of Reclamation has under way on the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, where flood control and supplemental water supplies are of the greatest concern to an area that has long been irrigated as a private undertaking. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District is located in the valley that has been continuously irrigated for 300 years. We have every sort of a problem in that valley. It needs the care and attention of the Reclamation Service. It needs to have the Reclamation Service devote a lot of time to a study of how far it can go in the solution of present problems. These problems include the control of floods, the control of silt and the responsibility which the Government owes to Indian population along the river. I do not want to take the time of the committee to do more than outline some of these things. I just want the committee to remember that millions of dollars of Federal money are invested in the Elephant Butte Dam and Reservoir and that the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District embraces in its territory the mouth of the Rio Puerco River. This Rio Puerco stream probably dumps more silt into the Elephant Butte Reservoir than all the rest of the Rio Grande system. If the Reclamation Service and the various other agencies now involved can stop this deposit of silt in the Elephant Butte Reservoir they will thereby protect huge investments which this Government has already made. Secondly, the conditions in the valley constitute a recurring flood menace. The bed of the Rio Grande through central New Mexico is rapidly building up. It is, for example, several feet above the city of Albuquerque, although it borders that city. It is not a situation which should be allowed to continue without Government attention. All through the area are the homes of the Pueblo Indians. They are wards of the Government. Their lands include many thousands of irrigated acres. It will be cheaper to take care of their interests now than to wait until the problem becomes aggravated. I recognize that the possibility of the transfer of this project to the Reclamation Service is not before this committee. I am greatly interested in it and I only mention it at this time to urge this committee to make available to the Reclamation Service ample funds for the pressing problems which require immediate investigation and study and which prudence demands shall not be allowed to drift. People are moving in search of the sun. Florida and New Mexico and California-these are the three fastest growing States in the Union and in every one of them the lure has been outdoor sunny living. If the population of New Mexico continues to increase yes; if we are to feed and support decently the present numbers within its borders more irrigated land is needed and quickly. No good end will be accomplished by sending these people on to other States or returning them to the drought and other areas from which they have fled. The Bureau of Reclamation should have more than $500,000 annually for this purpose. The investigations will doubtless uncover areas in New Mexico which can qualify under the water conservation and utilization program for the irrigation of small projects or the rehabilitation of existing water supplies. For that reason, the State is concerned about the adequacy of the $3,500,000 appropriation of reimbursable funds. Spread over the Great Plains and States to the westward, this amount will not go far enough to provide speedy rehabilitation for areas threatened with retrogression by drought or shortage of water supplies. Mr. RICH. Suppose you did not have a flood and get the Government obligated for reclamation, then it is going to be the responsibility of the Government to furnish water when you start reclamation purposes, and then what will the people in your district expect the Government to do? Mr. ANDERSON. There is far more water than we need now. We are only trying to reclaim 45,000 acres of land. Mr. RICH. With the Government now paying to keep land out of use what is the purpose of putting more in? Mr. ANDERSON. We think it is extremely necessary. For instance, I operate a dairy and have had a terrible time getting alfalfa because of the long distance it had to be shipped. At the same time we are retiring submarginal land out there. Mr. RICH. Is the Government now paying the farmers for not producing on any land in your State? Mr. ANDERSON. Yes, sir. Mr. RICH. Yet you want 45,000 more acres put in? Mr. ANDERSON. Yes. This is not cotton-producing land. This is hay-producing land. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Any other statement? Mr. LEAVY. Mr. Anderson, before you leave this project, the breakdown furnished us is that it will cost approximately $4,000,000 to complete it even after this $450,000 is granted, if it is, by this committee, and you are limited here by funds taken out of the revolving fund. That is the source from which your money comes. Mr. ANDERSON. Yes, sir. Mr. LEAVY. Would it be advantageous and desirable both to the people and to the Federal Treasury to speed up this project? Mr. ANDERSON. It would be advantageous to speed up this project and all the projects throughout the West where the money can be repaid. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. And it would take years and years to do the job later which ought to be done as quickly as possible, providing you get the money. Mr. ANDERSON. Yes, sir. The other item is a very small item. PROPOSED PURCHASE OF LYBROOK PROPERTY FOR USE OF NAVAJO INDIANS There happens to be an isolated piece of real estate with a house located upon it in New Mexico where a family by the name of Lybrook once lived, members of the tobacco family. Both of the members of the family have died. The property is available to the Federal Government, and I am proposing $21,645 to acquire that property. The house alone is worth substantially more than that. Mr. LEAVY. For what purpose would the Government want it? Mr. ANDERSON. There are 300 Navajo families residing in New Mexico away from schools and hospitals, and the Government is going to have to do something about them, and it occurred to some of us that without building a plant it would be to the advantage of the Government to take over this property to locate these Indians on. Mr. SHEPPARD. What is the assessed valuation of that property? Mr. ANDERSON. I do not know. Mr. SHEPPARD. Would you wire your home and get that and insert it in the record, please? Mr. ANDERSON. Yes; I will. (The information referred to is as follows:) NOTE. To date wire of April 18 to county assessor, Rio Arriba County, Tierra Amarilla, N. Mex., for assessed valuation is unanswered. I know $20,000 is a very reasonable figure because the family which has been interested would like to see it go into Government ownership. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. You think it is well worth more than that? Mr. ANDERSON. It is well worth more than that. I offered more than that myself for it at one time. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Have you taken it up with the Indian Service? Mr. ANDERSON. Yes, sir; I have taken it up with the Indian Service, and I have prepared a brief statement on it. Mr. LEAVY. Did you have a Budget estimate for it? Mr. ANDERSON. I think not. (The statement referred to is as follows:) The members of the subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee are asked to include in the Interior Department items the amount of $21,645 for the acquisition by the Federal Government of certain lands and buildings located in Rio Arriba County, N. Mex. The property in question is commonly referred to as the "Lybrook Property" and is located on a highway running between Bernalillo and Farmington. It is 107 miles northwesterly from Bernalillo and 76 miles southeasterly from Farmington. The purpose of acquiring the property is to provide an administrative site so as to extend medical and school facilities to a group of Navajo Indians consisting of approximately 300 families far removed from the reservation proper, who have located on the public domain. These Indians have lived in this area for generations. Their welfare has been neglected in the past because of the fact that they are located so distant from established Navajo Indian agencies. Most of the property proposed for acquisition is centrally located with respect to this group of Indians. It is 74 miles from the Navajo subagency at Crown Point over roads which are impassable during heavy rains, and is 92 miles from the Navajo sub-agency at Shiprock. The property in question contains among other improvements, a large stone building which has been appraised at $7,000, but could not be replaced for $30,000. A total of 5,200 acres of grazing land will be involved in the purchase. These lands are needed for future use by the Government in connection with the proposed welfare program. A break-down of the property to be acquired is as follows: Land: 5,000 acres at $2, $10,000; 200 acres at $1, $200; total, $10,200. Improvements: Stone building, $7,000; water system, garage and granary, shed, and corrals, $1,150; spring development, seven reservoirs, well, and windmill, $2,545; fences, four wires 10 miles, $750; total $11,445. Total land and improvements, $21,645. Certain essential remodeling of the stone building to provide school and medical facilities, and administrative and extension offices estimated to cost approximately $11,855 will be necessary. It is also estimated that approximately $12,000 will be needed to supply the unit with sufficient water for administrative and domestic use. It is unlikely, however, that the purchase of the property can be completed in time to undertake much of this work during the fiscal year 1942. The Indian Bureau plans, therefore, to present these needs in its regular estimates for the fiscal year 1943, if funds for the acquisition |