COLORADO RIVER STORAGE PROJECT TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1954 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a. m., in room 457, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C., Senator Eugene D. Millikin, Colorado (chairman of the subcommittee), presiding. Present: Senators Eugene D. Millikin, Colorado (chairman of the subcommittee); Arthur V. Watkins, Utah; Clinton P. Anderson, New Mexico; and Thomas H. Kuchel, California. Also present: Senator Wallace F. Bennett, Utah. Also present: Elmer K. Nelson, staff consulting engineer; and N. D. McSherry, assistant chief clerk. Senator MILLIKIN. The meeting will come to order. Mr. Larson? You may proceed with your testimony now, Mr. Larson. Senator ANDERSON. Mr. Chairman, we were at the point where I had asked questions about the elimination of the New Mexico projects, and Mr. Keesee, who is the head of the Indian irrigation service with headquarters at Gallup, had been brought up and he and Mr. Larson were more or less answering the questions together. Senator MILLIKIN. Are you together now? Senator ANDERSON. Mr. Keesee is back there. STATEMENT OF E. O. LARSON, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF Senator ANDERSON. Mr. Keesee, have you any agreement with region 4 of the Bureau of Reclamation looking toward the joint development of the final report on the Navaho project? Mr. KEESEE. Yes, sir. Senator ANDERSON. Will you tell me when that agreement was made? Mr. KEESEE. It was made the early part of June 1953. Senator ANDERSON. How did that come about? Was there a directive or did instructions come from anybody to work together, comparable to the instructions that had been given 3 or 4 years ago working up to the joint project? Mr. KEESEE. A directive from Secretary McKay, dated May 20, 1953. Senator ANDERSON. May 20, 1953? Mr. KEESEE. That is right. Senator ANDERSON. To whom was the directive addressed? Mr. KEESEE. It was addressed to both Commissioners of Reclamation and the Indian Service. Senator ANDERSON. I have before me now a memorandum to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, from the Secretary, dated May 20. Mr. KEESEE. That is right. Senator ANDERSON. In connection with that, was there any distribution of work as to what you should do and what the Bureau of Reclamation should do? Mr. KEESEE. Yes. We worked up a program for the distribution of the work between the two organizations. Senator ANDERSON. Can you tell me how the work was to be divided? Were you supposed to do the fieldwork on the Shiprock project, for example, and were they supposed to do the work on the dam, or what was the agreement? Mr. KEESEE. Well, insofar as the material investigations of the dam, we performed that part of it. We made the investigations. The Bureau of Reclamation drilled it. We had the field parties in. We also furnished information, topographic maps, in respect to the location of the main canal, and also made some studies or joined in the studies of the water reservoir studies. Senator ANDERSON. Who furnished the money for this work? Senator ANDERSON. When did you put that up? Did you put it up to region 4? Mr. KEESEE. Yes, region 4. There were two transfers of money. One was, as I recall it, about August or September of 1953, and the other one was in March of 1954. Senator ANDERSON. HOW much in 1953 and how much in March of 1954? Mr. KEESEE. There was $33,000 in 1954 and I believe $47,000 in 1953. Those both were 1954, Senator. Senator ANDERSON. What was region 4 supposed to do with the money? Mr. KEESEE. That was our share to pay for the investigations, our cost of the investigation necessary for the joint project works. Senator ANDERSON. I am trying to pinpoint what they were supposed to do and what you were supposed to do. Was there any division of work such as what you were supposed to do and what part they were supposed to do, or were you both working generally over the whole field? Mr. KEESEE. Yes, there was. They were supposed to carry out all parts, the greater part, of the work for the joint works investigations. Senator ANDERSON. Did they have the responsibility for having the plans for the Navaho Dam in shape? Mr. KEESEE. Yes. Senator ANDERSON. Who was to take charge of the canal that runs from the dam down to the Kutz Canyon pumping plant? Mr. KEESEE. That was a part of their work, of the division. Senator ANDERSON. Who was to take the canal from Kutz Canyon? Mr. KEESEE. We were. Senator ANDERSON. The Indian Irrigation Service? Mr. KEESEE. That is right. Senator ANDERSON. How far along are you with your survey from Kutz Canyon? Mr. KEESEE. We have our line all in, surveyed. Senator ANDERSON. How much have they done on the survey from the dam down to Kutz Canyon? Mr. KEESEE. There has been a paper location made on a contour map. Senator ANDERSON. And with the work on the dam itself, have they given you a final report on the dam? Mr. KEESEE. No, sir. Senator ANDERSON. Did you set any time limit when you expected that report to be ready in the discussion between the two of you? Mr. KEESEE. No, sir. Senator ANDERSON. When did you expect it to be ready? Mr. KEESEE. Well, I anticipate it will probably be ready this year, by June 30. Senator ANDERSON. Mr. Larson, how far along is the plan on the Navaho Dam? Mr. LARSON. Senator Anderson, the drilling for the Navaho Dam was done prior to this agreement. Senator ANDERSON. The drilling was done a long time ago. I mean since the agreement was perfected. Maybe I can get at it this way. They allotted you $40,000 or so. Have you spent it? Mr. LARSON. I don't know what part of that money has been spent, but we have been working very closely with the data obtained by Mr. Keesee's office on the land, dam materials, getting, you might say, better information. But we do have a preliminary design of the dam for the 1950 report prepared by the chief engineer of the Bureau of Reclamation, which I testified yesterday was in as good a shape as the other dams have for initial construction. Senator ANDERSON. But that is the 1950 report. Has nothing been done since the 1950 report? Mr. LARSON. Yes, considerable work has been done, you might say, leading to a definite plan report or a more detailed report now scheduled for completion-I don't know what date by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We will contribute certain parts to that report. Our contributions being the data on the dam, and the- Senator ANDERSON. Stop right there. Is the data on the dam ready? Mr. LARSON. I think so. Senator ANDERSON. All right, that is ready. You can give that to them. What else can you give them? Mr. LARSON. We are working jointly on the design of the 2,700 second-foot main canal for the Navaho project; we have worked out preliminary estimates for the hydraulic pump, and we have located the canal on the South San Juan division. We are prepared to contribute the chapter on economics and repayment for the South San Juan division, and to turn it over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for incorporating in a detailed project report covering the entire Navaho project. Senator ANDERSON. The economic report is ready? Mr. LARSON. Not yet. We are scheduling our work to fit in with Mr. Keesee's program of completing the entire report. Senator ANDERSON. If the paper location for this canal has been made, based upon field surveys and topography, don't you have sufficient data to determine the costs? Mr. LARSON. I think the estimate is quite far along. Mr. Keesee probably knows better than I do how far along our joint forces are on it. Mr. KEESEE. Terrell, from the chief engineer's office, came down last inonth to go over the site on the ground to prepare to begin the design studies and estimates. That was in May. Senator ANDERSON. May of 1954? Mr. KEESEE. Yes. Senator ANDERSON. What is his name? Mr. KEESEE. Mr. Terrell, from the chief engineer's office. Senator ANDERSON. Can I get back to this money question. If they turned over to you some $33,000 in March of this year, who would know how much of that has been spent? Mr. LARSON. My office would know. A certain portion of that, quite a portion, was turned over to the chief engineer's office at Denver for preparing the plans and estimates of this very complicated and expensive canal. It has a large capacity, 2,700 second-feet, and is on quite a difficult location. The estimates and designs are being prepared by the chief engineer's office at Denver. Senator ANDERSON. You wouldn't know whether they have spent any of the money, though? Mr. LARSON. I can get that information by teletype from our Salt Lake office for you. Senator ANDERSON. Would you do that, please? Mr. LARSON. Very well. Senator ANDERSON. The reason I asked the question, Mr. Larson, is that my information was that a good deal of the money is still not touched, maybe as much as twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars of it. Mr. KEESEE. I can clear it up, Senator. Senator ANDERSON. Thank you. Mr. KEESEE. I received a report from Mr. Larson's office, as of May 30, and there was approximately $30,000 of the $33,000 unexpended as of June 1. Senator ANDERSON. $30,000 of the $33,000 still unexpended as of June 1? Mr. KEESEE. Yes, sir. Senator ANDERSON. If you are going to have this completed by June 30, it would seem to me you ought to be spending some of that money, shouldn't you, Mr. Larson? Mr. LARSON. It may be that it isn't all required, I don't know. I think we are keeping up pretty well with our part of the program. Senator ANDERSON. I am only trying to find out why this Navaho Dam isn't in the bill and why it isn't ready to go. If money was turned over for the completion of these assignments, in March, some $33,000, and $30,000 of it was still unexpended June 1, not much work has been going on. Is that right? Mr. LARSON. Well, I think most of this money is for the canal, not the dam. Senator ANDERSON. The two go along together. They are indivisible, they have to go together. If they build a dam, they want some place to put the water. We had testimony that the dam is ready, that you have the necessary information on the dam. You made borings in 1950. Your 1946 report has a great deal of information on it. I went over the area in 1948 and there were crews that had been working for a long time. Quite obviously a great deal of information exists on the dam. And you say it can be prepared at once. Why do we not get that step out of the road? If all that information was in, then we might have some reason to add this dam to the other additional projects. I like the bill as originally introduced, and I would like to see the authorization go to the Glen Canyon Dam, the Echo Park Dam, to the Curecanti Dam in Colorado, which the House committee inserted, and to the Navaho Dam in New Mexico, which were the four initial projects under this bill. For some reason the Navaho Dam isn't recommended now. recommended 6 months ago. It is gone now. Senator MILLIKIN. Why is not the Navaho Dam in here? It was Mr. LARSON. The Navaho Dam is on the San Juan River a short distance downstream from the Colorado-New Mexico line. Senator MILLIKIN. I would like to have someone tell me why the dam isn't here. Mr. LARSON. Sir? Senator MILLIKIN. I would like to know why the Navaho Dam isn't in the bill. If you cannot tell us, is there anyone here who can tell? Mr. LARSON. I will clear that up in just a moment, Mr. Chairman. I tried to make it clear yesterday, Senator Anderson, that we had sufficient information on the Navaho Dam in the 1950 report for authorization. Senator ANDERSON. Yes, you did make it clear, and I thought that was a fine contribution, and I appreciated it. If the material was ready in 1950, so it could be included in this report, it certainly is also ready in 1954 and could have been included in this report. Senator MILLIKIN. Senator, I have a question that I am trying to get answered. Why is not the Navaho Dam in the present proposal? Mr. DEXHEIMER. The Secretary did at one time recommend the Navaho Dam as one of the storage projects. You had put into your record yesterday a letter from the Executive Office of the President, the Bureau of the Budget, dated March 18, 1954. Paragraph 6 of that letter reads as follows: Provisional authorization of the Shiprock unit of the Navaho project would not be in accord with the program of the President at this time. This advice is without prejudice to further consideration of the project when a report is completed indicating its economic justification, the views of the affected States and agencies and the relation of the project to other potential uses of water of the San Juan River. With that letter of the Bureau of the Budget, it was taken out of the Secretary's recommended projects. Senator MILLIKIN. Could it be put in with later determinations of feasibility? Mr. DEXHEIMER. Yes, sir. |