the Corps of Engineers stated that it used the Engineering News Index in bring ing costs of projects up-to-date. Further, that the Engineering News Index is made very, very carefully and is relied upon by the engineering and construction fraternities to a high degree. The Engineering News Index in 1945 was 307.75 and in May 1949 was 472.10. Applying this ratio we get the current estimated first cost for May 1949. This is in line with Corps of Engineers' testimony when they stated that the current estimated first cost would run somewhere between 120 and 140 million dollars. (b) The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors in 1945 estimated the prospective coal commerce at 8,300,000 tons annually at an average saving of 80 cents per ton, making an annual savings in transportation charges, source to consumer, of $6,640,000. The proponents submitted testimony showing that, because of increased freight rates, the saving in 1949 now amounted to $1.50 per ton. Actually the testimony showed an average savings of $2.16 per ton and allowed the conservative estimate of 66 cents per ton for terminal charges, that is, $2.16 66 cents $1.50. Thus the current annual saving in transportation charges in 1949 would amount to 8,300,000 tons X $1.50 or $12,450,000. The 1945 estimate of the annual cost of the waterway was $4,187,000. Again applying the Engineering News Index figure— 472.10 $4,187,000-$6,406,875 which is the current 1949 average annual cost for the Big Sandy project. Ap plying the ratio of benefits to costs 12,450,000-1.94 Thus the new 1949 economic ratio of costs to benefits is 1.0 to 1.94. (c) A comparison with navigation projects approved last month by the House Committee on Public Works will show that the economic ratio for the Big Sandy project is much higher than those already approved. For example, one of the projects approved by the House Committee on Public Works was the Arkansas River and its tributaries, which, according to the Corps of Engineers testimony has an economic ratio of 1.00 to 1.08. 5. The dollar value of benefits would be greater than that shown by the Corps of Engineers. (a) The Corps of Engineers estimate of value, even though sufficient to justify the project, is based on the tonnage of a single product, coal. (b) As shown in 1 above there are many other natural resource bulk commodities in the Big Sandy Valley that would move to the Ohio River. (c) In addition, back-haul freight would reduce the cost of river operations and add considerable tonnages to the totals. (Corps of Engineers' estimate figures one-way traffic only.) For example, a proponent from Minneapolis, Minn., testified that his company would ship one-half million tons of grain per year into the Big Sandy area for distribution in the Shenandoah Valley and the Carolinas. Be further testified that grain dealers as a whole would ship about a million and a half tons a year. 6. Navigation is feasible on the Big Sandy River and its two main tributaries the Tug and the Levisa. (a) Proponent testimony showed that these rivers were once an economical transportation artery before the advent of the railroads, even though only opera tive 6 months of the year. (b) The engineers have shown that with modern navigation facilities with 200 feet on the Big Sandy and 150 feet on the two forks, a 9-foot channel sot all-year-round operation, these rivers could be made a profitable enterprise azi an economic asset of national importance. Attempt was made by one witness of the opponents to show that under the proposed Corps of Engineers' des the project would not be navigable, that the width was too narrow and the conse too circuitous. Attention is invited to the fact that this witness, the busines manager of the Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union at Pittsburgh, Pa., is neith a licensed pilot nor too familiar with the river. Proponents introduced into the records resolutions endorsing the project by both the Huntington (W. Va.) Pilos Association and the port of Huntington, Propeller Club of the United States. Te members of these associations are composed primarily of master pilots and river operators who are familiar not only with the Ohio and the Kanawha, but who are intimately familiar with the Big Sandy and its tributaries. (c) Photographs introduced by the proponents were air photographs and should be carefully compared with those introduced by the opponents which are oblique photographs usually taken from behind a bank. (d) The proponents felt that it was rather absurd for the opponents to criticize the workability of the navigation designs of the Big Sandy. The Corps of Engineers, who made the design study, is an organization which has been primarily responsible over a period of 150 years for the development of the natural rivers and harbors of the United States into an outstanding series of inland waterways and harbors. 7. The use of pumps for low water regulation during stream droughts is not only feasible but its first cost and cost of operation is more economical than storage reservoirs. (a) The Corps of Engineers showed that the first cost of the pumping system would be less than 3 percent of the project cost. This shows that the opponents attempted to confuse by making a mountain out of a molehill. (b) They also attempted to show that it would be necessary to lift the water from the Ohio River to the head of navigation, a lift of 165 feet. The engineers testified that water would be pumped from one lower to the adjoining upper pool if and when neded in any particular pool, a height varying from 171⁄2 to 33 feet. (c) Testimony was introduced to show that pumping during the rare periods needed, is not only economical and feasible, but involved a principle that has been in operation on other projects for many years. 8. The State of Kentucky is wholeheartedly in favor of the Big Sandy project. (a) The Governor of Kentucky, the State administration, and the United States Senators and Representatives from Kentucky all support the project. The Governor of Kentucky sent a special representative, Henry Ward, Commissioner of Conservation, to indicate his active support of the project. (b) Resolutions of support were submitted by the proponents from every town and every county in the Big Sandy Valley, as well as civic organizations, chambers of commerce, business groups, bar associations, veterans' organizations and local labor unions. (e) Mingo County, W. Va., is the only part of West Virginia having an economic stake in the Big Sandy Valley. The United States Representatives from the West Virginia portion of the Big Sandy Valley raised no objection to the Big Sandy project. (d) The State of Virginia has no economic stake in the Big Sandy Valley, its coal is above the head water of potential navigation and now goes to the Atlantic seaboard. (e) The majority of opponent witnesses were paid lawyers or engineers, who do not live in the Big Sandy Valley or even in the State of Kentucky. 9. The great inland waterway system with its main stem, the Mississippi River, its branch lines, the Ohio, the Missouri, and the upper Mississippi Rivers, and the spurs or branch line feeders like the Allegheny, the Monongahela, the Kanawha, the Kentucky, etc., may be likened to a great railroad such as the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad with its main trunk line and its branches such as the Greenbrier and the Island Creek and their branch feeder lines. (a) The Corps of Engineers testimony definitely showed that a water movement of coal by use of an improved Big Sandy River would constitute an entirely new waterway movement with respect to the Ohio and Mississippi River systems which could develop only by reason of improvement of the Big Sandy. Therefore, the entire average origin to destination unit saving properly is creditable to the Big Sandy River. This line of reasoning is no different from that of the Interstate Commerce Commission in its decision with reference to feeder lines of our railroads. (See 19 1. C. C. 71 and 76 I. C. C. 455 as examples.) 10. The Big Sandy improvement is in the interest of our national security. (a) General Arnold, former Chief of the Air Force, in his report at the close of World War II advised the location of production plants at interior parts of the United States to avoid destruction from atomic bombing operations. A start was made in this direction during World War II with the result that sites along the inland waterways of the United States became our national citadel of defense. Your committee is familiar with the many advantages that would accrue to the Nation by the development of an area such as the Big Sandy Valley so rich in natural resources. (b) Proponent testimony by witnesses from the upper Mississippi Basin showed their great need for both domestic and steam coal. The Big Sandy could further the interests of the national security as well as of a sound economy by supplying its raw materials for the vast area of the Mississippi Valley. 11. The Big Sandy improvement would stop the decline in production which has already set in due to the high cost of transportation. Low-cost water rates would provide more reasonable rates and would place the valley in a position to compete fairly with neighboring areas. (a) Labor groups in the valley are strong supporters of the improvement because ghost towns and unemployment are all too vivid in their memory to be taken lightly. The small-business man also has a large stake in the welfare of the valley. Whatever effects the welfare of the people in the valley has a like and immediate effect on the merchant, small-business man and the professional man (b) Not only would the Big Sandy improvement remove the serious and growing decline that now menaces the valley, but it would open the vast potentialities of the valley to greater development. The quest for lower transportation costs would induce many industries to locate at points on the waterway where they can have the advantage of the economies of inland waterway transportation Other regions on the island waterways system would obtain the advantages of reciprocal commerce benefits. (c) It is in the interest of a sound economy as well as a national security that the Big Sandy improvement be authorized. This improved waterway would benefit consumers, producers and manufacturers. The improvement is an investment in the public interest. It is an investment in the prosperity and expansion of one of the important natural resource valleys of our Nation. It is an investment in the expanding industrial development of our great midwestern area. The improvement is self-liquidating. It will enhance our national wealth and increase the annual income greatly broadening our tax base, thus contributing to a higher national income and standard of living for the individual citizen and for increased tax revenues for the Nation and the municipal, county, and State governments. WALTER E. LORENCE KENTUCKY PETROLEUM MARKETERS ASSOCIATION RESOLUTION-CANALIZATION BIG SANDY RIVER The members of the Kentucky Petroleum Marketers Association at their twenty-third annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., February 8 and 9, 1949, do unanimously approve the following resolution: Whereas its members, being sincerely interested in the economic welfare of all sections of Kentucky, do deplore any unfair discrimination by anyone against any section of Kentucky or any group of its citizens; Whereas it has been conclusively demonstrated by facts and figures that the section of Kentucky along the Big Sandy River and the Tug and Levisa Forks has suffered severely in the past and is now suffering from a business recesión in coal mining due to inability to reach available markets at a reasonable trahe portation rate, which recession is causing substantial financial losses to its businessmen and hardships to its residents; Whereas this condition can be eliminated and the general prosperity of the Big Sandy Valley greatly improved by the construction of locks and dams on the Big Sandy River and its two tributaries by the Government. Whereas this canalization project has been exhaustively studied by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, found to be practical, and accordingly has been approved and recommended by them; Whereas the only opposition to this major improvement comes from the railroads, who now charge unfairly high rates, but whose attitude, we believe, is a mistaken one, because experience with similar waterway projects has shown that the railroads actually benefit, not suffer, from the increased movement of goods caused by increased prosperity; Whereas the Big Sandy canalization project has been endorsed by the Mississippi Valley Association, Ohio Valley Association, and numerous other organi zations: We do hereby Resolve, That individually and collectively we urge that the Government com mence this Big Sandy Lock and Dam project at the earliest possible date, and that copies of this resolution be forwarded at once at all Kentucky Representa tives and Senators, and to other Kentuckians prominent in the present national administration. Attest: HERBERT L. CLAY, Secretary, Kentucky Petroleum Marketers Association. LOUISVILLE, KY., February 8, 1949. RESOLUTION ENDORSING BIG SANDY RIVER CANALIZATION Whereas the Ashland Junior Chamber of Commerce of Ashland, Ky., regards the entire Big Sandy Valley as constituting a very important segment of the trade area of Ashland, and, as such, the people of Ashland are vitally interested in anything affecting the welfare of this great valley; and Whereas the Junior Chamber of Commerce through its committee and by public address before its body has made a consistent study of the proposed canalization of the Big Sandy River and its two major tributaries, namely the Tug Fork and the Levisa Fork, and the reports of the United States Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors and the Rivers and Harbors Committee of the Seventyninth Congress which recommended that, in the public interest, this great waterway be immediately built; and Whereas it is believed that the completion of this waterway due to the enormous deposits of basic raw materials contained in the valley, namely, high-grade byproduct and coking coals, a large production of petroleum and natural gas, and unlimited deposits of salt brines, ceramic clays, iron ores, and limestone, will be immediately followed by a large development following the pattern of the Charleston industrial district in the neighboring Kanawha Valley which is based on the same raw materials; and Whereas such an industrial development in the Big Sandy Valley will be highly beneficial to the city of Ashland and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the State of West Virginia, and the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Ashland hereby approves and endorses the entire program of the canalization of the Big Sandy River, as recommended by the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, as being necessary to the welfare of the people of the Big Sandy Valley and the stabilization of their economy and as being in the public interest; and it urges the immediate passage of such legislation by the Congress of the United States as is necessary to put into effect such a program, and that copies of this resolution be sent to the Governor of Kentucky, the Kentucky Representatives and Senators of the United States Congress, the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, the Big Sandy Valley Association, and any other interested persons. Attest: JUNIOR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, By CHARLES W. Kopp, President. WM. C. ANDERSON, Secretary. RESOLUTION ENDORSING BIG SANDY RIVER CANALIZATION Whereas Catlettsburg, Ky., is located at the junction of the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers and is the gateway to the Big Sandy Valley, and, as such, the people of Catlettsburg are vitally interested in anything affecting the welfare of this valley with its great amount of mineral resources, and Whereas such industrial development in the Big Sandy Valley will be highly beneficial to the city of Catlettsburg, Ky., and the surrounding States, as well as to the nation, and Whereas the Eighty-first Congress, now in session in Washington, will be asked to approve and allocate funds necessary for the construction of the Big Sandy Canalization program: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Catlettsburg Chamber of Commerce hereby approves and endorses the entire program of the canalization of the Big Sandy River, as recommended by the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, as being necessary to the welfare of the people of the Big Sandy Valley and the stabilization of their economy and as being in the public interest; and it urges the immediate passage of such legislation by the Congress of the United States as is necessary to put into effect such a program; and that copies of this resolution be sent to the Governor of Kentucky, the Kentucky Representatives and Senators of the United States Congress, the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, the Big Sandy Valley Association and any other interested persons. CATLETTSBURG CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, By GARDNER D. EWING, President. Attest: JAMES E. ADKINS, Secretary. RESOLUTION OF THE PRESTONSBURG LIONS CLUB At a meeting of the Lions Club of the city of Prestonsburg, Ky., held at its regular meeting place on January 18, 1949, the following resolution was unanimously adopted. Whereas there is now pending before the Congress of the United States a proposal to improve the Big Sandy River, including the Levisa and Tug Forks thereof in Kentucky and West Virginia, by providing a navigation system of locks and dams, as set forth in a report of the Corps of Engineers of the United States War Department, and by them approved; Therefore, be it Resolved, That the membership of said club hereby endorses and urges the prompt construction and completion of the locks and dams in said report and plans thereof provided for the following reasons, to wit: I. Because an economic survey recently completed by said Corps of Engineers, in pursuance to authority and direction of the Congress, shows complete justification of said project both from an economic and financial point of view and is an essential part of the inland waterways. II. Because the undeveloped resources of the Big Sandy area, as shown by a United States Geological Survey report, contain in Pike County, alone, more than $8,000,000,000 tons of mineable coal of high quality unequaled anywhere else in the whole United States. III. Because there are numerous adequate industrial plant sites for industrial enterprises that would be readily available for the production of synthetic fuels as well as innumerable other byproducts of coal, with ample supplies of ceramic 'clays, limestone, and vast quantities of lumber and other wood products, all of which would result in industrial revival in the entire area of water transportation, as provided by the proposed navigation facilities, is made available. IV. Because it would not only create a great industrial and manufacturing area that in event of another economic depression in the Nation would provide employment to those who work, amongst the 500,000 people living in the area, and ward off the necessity of the Federal Government again expending more than $100,000,000 to prevent starvation and human suffering as it did in the thirties It would enable private industry to carry the relief load in the form of wages paid and thus avoid Government expenditures, which, in turn, would fall heavily upon industry itself. V. Because there exists adequate markets and strong demand for our highvolatile coals in all great industrial centers along the inland waterways from the city of Chicago and the Twin Cities area to New Orleans, and if cheap water transportation is provided the Midwest area will become a stronghold of produ tion of materials essential to national defense far removed from attack from the Atlantic Ocean by air and sea. This valley is a vast storehouse of rich raw materials that would be available in any great national emergency in both peace and war. |