has been estimated that every billion dollars spent for public works gives employment to 315,000 people, and adds to the income, indirectly, of some 700,000 more. The current budget provides for more than $3,000,000,000 for public works. These public works are greatly needed improvements. If we cut them out, we would not only hamper the growth of the economy, we would also increase unemployment by about a million persons, and weaken the position of over 2,000,000 more. This would be the most expensive kind of saving I can think of. Senator Anderson, would you care to make a statement at this time on the project?

STATEMENT OF HON. CLINTON P. ANDERSON, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

Senator ANDERSON. Yes, indeed, Mr. Chairman. I am very glad to have a chance to come here because I feel we are fortunate that you have introduced this bill, S. 1392. I am very glad to come before this committee in support of it. It is a bill of great importance to the State of New Mexico, and one which will further resource development in one of the great river basins of the Nation.

The use of the waters of the Rio Grande to support the economic and cultural development of the valley's peoples has a long, continuous history. Parts of the Middle Rio Grande Valley have been irrigated for centuries, first by the Indians, later by Spanish colonists, and then by Anglo-Americans who began settling in the area in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Irrigation increased with the growth of population and reached a maximum of about 125,000 acres served in 1880 within that portion of the basin between Cochiti and Elephant Butte Reservoir.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Chairman, as you very well know, the farm that I operate has been in continuous cultivation for 200 years and the area that is now irrigated is slightly smaller than it was 200 years ago.

Since that time, the general trend has been downward, until today an average of only 75,000 acres is irrigated. The causes of this decline, many of which reflect unnatural uses of the watershed by man, include increasing sediment, rising elevation of the river bed, increasing frequency of floods, and waterlogging of lands.

Various unsuccessful efforts have been made to stabilize conditions and to secure a program of rehabilitation for the area. The latest of these, forced by the continual deterioration of lands, was the formation in 1925 of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. This district, in operation since 1936, has constructed numerous works and other improvements but has not been able to solve the problems incident to a rising river bed. The attack on the problems was on too limited a scope.

May I say there, Mr. Chairman, some of us remember a great many things about the early formation of that district. The first proposal was that it would be a district that would work under the Federal reclamation law. And I at one time had a lawsuit against the district because of the fact that they used the petitions which we had filed in good faith to come under the Federal reclamation law where we would have an interest-free obligation and had transferred those petitions to a reclamation district that was not under the Federal Reclamation Act, and where we were subject to very heavy interest payments on bonds.

I am not here today criticising what was done. I merely point out that the desire to expand this district and bring the Reclamation Service into it is only following out the original purpose that the people had now nearly 25 years ago in the formation of that district.

For many years the problems of the basin received intensive study by the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. In July 1947, after investigations leading to comprehensive reports on the Middle Rio Grande Basin had been completed by the two agencies, a joint agreement was reached by the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Interior on a unified plan for flood control, reclamation, and other water uses and upon responsibilities of the two agencies in relation thereto. This agreement is as important to the Middle Rio Grande Basin as the Columbia River agreement between these same agencies, of which you gentlemen have heard so much recently, is to the Columbia River Basin. It provides a unified plan that, when accomplished, will control sediment and floods, improve drainage, extend irrigation, and accomplish badly needed rehabilitation of the

area.

The Flood Control Act of 1948 provided approval of the plans of the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation and provided authorization also for the appropriation of $3,500,000 to the Corps of Engineers for partial accomplishment of its portion of the unified plan. However, no such authorization for appropriation of funds to the Bureau of Reclamation was at that time, or has been since, provided.

Further, the authorization to the Corps of Engineers was sufficient only to make a start on its portion of construction.

The programs of the two agencies in the basin are so interrelated that to be effective, they must be carried on concurrently. The program of the corps is principally conceived with flood and sediment control through the construction of reservoirs and levees. These works, however, must be keyed in with the channel rectification work of the Bureau of Reclamation for the size and characteristics of the reservoirs and levees are interdependent upon the extent of the channel work. Further, the important work of the Bureau of Reclamation related to rehabilitation and extension of irrigation and drainage systems is one of the main objectives of the entire plan and to permit seeking provisions appropriations for the accomplishment of this work are entirely lacking.

We in New Mexico feel that at last we have a plan which we are confident will go a long way toward solving the basic problems of the Middle Rio Grande area. We were fortunate in obtaining the concurrence of Colorado and Texas in the legislation authorizing this plan. We are hopeful that piecemeal development and stopgap measures in the valley are things of the past. We recognize, however, that to meet our objective of wholesome valley development we must have a rounded program which involves the programs of both the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. feel acutely the urgency of the need for prompt initiation and completion of these programs.

We

For these reasons, I earnestly solicit your favorable consideration of S. 1392, which will not only provide for the accomplishment of work by both the Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, but will permit these agencies to seek appropriations on a scale commensurate with the needs of the Middle Rio Grande Valley.

May I just add this word, Mr. Chairman: A good many years ago it was my pleasure to be associated with a United States Commission which was in celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the coming of Coronado into the Southwest. We felt it would be very desirable to trace the route of Coronado from Mexico up into the United States, to find out where he entered the United States, and to see what his path had been when he crossed those areas.

We sent a commission down into Mexico that started at Compostela and followed the entire route all the way up into the United States. That is, it followed the areas in Mexico that had not been too much destroyed by floods and erosion. But when they got close to the Arizona border they had a great deal of difficulty following the route. And the reason was that the descriptions in the original Spanish text kept talking about this beautiful valley and this lovely river and these pastures on both sides of the stream. And when they got there there was no river. 300, 400, 500 years ago there was a very fine river in the San Pedro Valley, but it is not there today. It has been cultivated, it was cultivated for a long period, but we allowed it to be gradually filled up with sand. We did not take care of it, did not watch the floods, and in the passing of several centuries the entire valley has gone.

I do not know exactly, but I believe the Rio Grande Valley is perhaps the next oldest in point of cultivation of these old valleys that were in use for hundreds of years. We have been able to hold it. It

is still usable, but it is not what it was many years ago.

I commend you, Mr. Chairman, and I commend this committee for giving consideration to a bill that attempts to restore the land to as good shape as it was.

We need to improve all the land of the United States, not just irrigated lands, but all of your farm lands. We have lost a little bit, perhaps, in our fight against soil erosion every year. But certainly it is too bad if we do not try to hold some of these older irrigated valleys in as good shape as they once were. It is discouraging to the whole program of irrigation and reclamation if you say to them, "Well, after the passing of a few hundred years your valley will be silted up; your valley will be flooded; or your valley will be destroyed."

We have been fortunate, I think, in the Middle Rio Grande Valley that the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers have moved in to make that impossible if they get congressional help and congressional approval, and I, therefore, am delighted that both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation are interested in that problem.

I am happy that this great committee of the United States Senate is not failing in its mission to pay attention to the problem, and I am delighted that the chairman has introduced this bill that will make it possible. I hope, through the passing of the years for all of this work in the Middle Rio Grande Valley to be accomplished.

It is, I think, a fine thing that the country continues still to fight for its soil and for its good land, and I am happy this bill is a move in the direction we must take if the future generations are to be properly fed, not only in the United States but elsewhere where they depend upon food from this country.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Anderson, just one short question in reference to a matter that might be involved in the general plan of flood control.

I think that anyone who is acquainted with the situation of the basin, especially in this particular area, knows of the necessity for flood control as such.

Now, with reference to flood control as far as it would affect any activity of the Federal Government in the way of national defense or national welfare, are you able to tell the committee whether a large flood there would be a hazard and interfere with any activity that would involve national defense?

Senator ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, I am sure that if we took the time to do it we could build a tremendous story of the importance of this project from the standpoint of national defense, particularly from the long-range planning of the Federal Government. But just to look at the immediate short-range importance to the Federal Government, we have outside of Albuquerque, close to the Sandia Mountains, a tremendous project. It involves a city that encompasses several thousand people. That project I am not fully familiar with, but I am sure it is connected with many other atomic projects over the country. And if there were a disastrous flood in the valley in the area from the proposed Jemez Dam down to Albuquerque, you would wipe out a natural gas pipe line, you would wipe out the generating plants for electricity, you would close down Kirtland Field, which is an important defense post.

But far more important than that, you would close down this extremely important project at Sandia Base.

Because of the nature of it, I am not able to testify how important Sandia Base is to the general program of national defense. But if the limited information I have is correct, surely a great deal of our whole defense is tied into that project at Sandia.

The CHAIRMAN. What effect would a flood such as was contemplated and, luckily, we did not get last spring, have on the transportation system of the valley that supplies both Sandia Base and Los Alamos and the rest of the country there?

Senator ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, you and I well know it would have wiped out entirely the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad line down in the valley; the station of the Santa Fe Railroad is not 300 feet from what used to be the bed of the Rio Grande River. There was a time when, not so many years ago, the Rio Grande River flowed in a channel that is now the very center of the City of Albuquerque, somewhere between Second and Fourth Street.

Naturally if there were a disastrous flood at Alameda, or above Alameda, which broke the dikes at Alameda, the entire valley in and around Albuquerque would be flooded, and you will have the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad from Bernalillo to Socorro and below under water, and they would not be usable, not for days but for weeks.

Those of us, Mr. Chairman, who live in the State realize what it means for the Rio Grande to get out of hand below Socorro. Some years ago it flooded San Marcial and the people, after they waited for the flood waters to subside, found it no longer feasible to live in San Marcial and there is no community there today.

I do not say a flood would make it impossible for a community to exist at Albuquerque, but I say the tracks and all the railroad facilities at Albuquerque, the roundhouse there and at Belen, and all the other equipment of the railroad would be so far under mud and water it would be months before those would be usable again.

The CHAIRMAN. Would that affect any activity that the nationaldefense authorities have around the area?

Senator ANDERSON. It would very surely, Mr. Chairman. It would very definitely affect the installation at Sandia base, and in my opinion the flooding of the highways would affect the project at Los Alamos. It depends upon Albuquerque as a railhead. Los Alamos project, which has been and still remains one of the most important defense projects in this country, and probably one of the key projects to the whole modern defense, has to use Albuquerque as a railhead since the railroad does not come into Santa Fe. The material is unloaded at Albuquerque and is then trucked in many instances up to Los Alamos.

I do not know to what use air transportation might be put, but the air strip at Los Alamos, as I know from landing on it, is a very narrow strip, that depends upon favorable winds for a good landing on the particular day you visit it. If the winds happen to be bad and sweep across the strip, it is almost impossible to land in any type of passenger ship, and certainly it would be impossible to use cargo freighters into there by air. Therefore, the Los Alamos project is tied into the preservation of the rail line into Albuquerque and the truck lines into Albuquerque. There is no other way to get material to it except by truck or rail, and both of them depend upon the absence of floods in the Rio Grande Valley from Jemez on down toward Socorro.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Anderson, do you recall the alarm around the area early last spring?

Senator ANDERSON. I do, and it was justified alarm. There were many times when a combination of a warm day and sudden rain would have been too much. But fortunately we got the rain one day and the melting weather the next. They could not have mixed it up more perfectly if they had had a prescription in front of them. in order to avoid a flood, but the weatherman might not always be that good.

The CHAIRMAN. The hazard was there?

Senator ANDERSON. Very definitely it was there. And the hazard was there this year, Mr. Chairman. We avoided it again by the easy run-off, but a combination of very heavy rains coupled with those heavy run-offs again would have caused us trouble this year. We got by very easily in what could without too much trouble have been a very disastrous year.

Now, from your long experience in the State, and that of Congressman Fernandez, and the rest of us, we all know that it is impossible to calculate. When favorable and the regular release of floodwater Is changed, and we get a severe situation very suddenly, it is not confined to any one period of the year. It can come almost any

t me.

And I think the Federal Government, which is planning to spend millions of dollars at Los Alamos and millions of dollars at Sandia Base, and some money at least at Kirtland Field, is not well advised if it does not also protect the very area from which it draws its supplies, and that is why I have been cheered by the fact your bill is Lere and why I am delighted with the amount of emphasis that you, Mr. Chairman, have given to this whole area through the activities

of this committee.

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