tirely, telling the local newspapers that the periodic salt flow was a major factor. To meet this increasing industrial headache, Chester has a $14 million project underway to abandon the Delaware entirely and to tap the salt-free waters of the Octoraro about 40 miles away.

So what the Delaware needs, obviously, is control by means of reservoirs, and control is what the INCODEL water project aims to give it.

To get the facts on the best method of regulating the river, INCODEL employed the well-known engineering firms of Malcolm Pimie, New York City, and Albright and Friel, Philadelphia. After 12 months of concentrated study, the engineers completed their plans in time for presentation to the mid-September annual meeting of INCODEL.

The master plan is an engineer's delight-ambitious, complete and logical. It is divided into two stages. The first stage calls for construction of 3 additional reservoirs, and a fourth if needed, creating lakes with a total storage capacity of 511 billion gallons, and 2 tunnels to divert the water. These independently would complement the 3 reservoirs New York City already is building in the region.

The New York City project must be considered in relation to the INCODEL master plan. The city is spending approximately $417 million on the Roundout, Neversink and Pepacton reservoirs, plus 90 miles of underground tunnels that will bring it the mingled waters of the 3 reservoirs. The 3 massive dams will

have a dependable yield of 615 million gallons a day-488 millon from the 2 Delaware tributaries and 127 million from the Hudson feeder. Under the Supreme Court ruling, however, New York can draw off no more than 440 million gallons from the Delaware, and the surplus will be used as needed to aid stream-flow regulation in the dry months.

The first stage of the INCODEL plan contemplates expenditures of between $550 million and $600 million. All together, the 4 reservoirs would yield 1,600 million gallons of water daily, of which, however, only 450 million gallons daily would be used immediately for water supply. Again, the surplus-1,150 million gallons daily-would help boost the river in dry months.

The first proposed unit in INCODEL's project would be a 2,000-foot dam on the West Branch at Cannonsville, N. Y. This structure, a vital cornerstone to the whole plan for harnessing the Delaware, would hold back 117,500 million gallons in the headwaters, where nature is most wasteful at the time of the spring run-off. So important is the Cannonsville Reservoir that New York, determined that the grim drought of 1949 shall not be repeated, has petitioned separately for permission to build Cannonsville on its own as a part of its exclusive Delaware water project. Irving V. A. Huie, president of New York City's Board of Water Supply, has promised that if the interstate project "becomes a reality, New York City can and should offer its Cannonsville Reservoir to the agency." But if anything should block the INCODEL plan, it is a good bet that New Jersey and Pennsylvania, already suspicious of New York's demands, would start another long and costly Supreme Court fight.

After Cannonsville in the INCODEL project would come a pair of reservoirs approximately 75 miles to the southeast-a small one at Barryville, straddling the Delaware River on the New York-Pennsylvania line, and a huge one on the lower Neversink, extending from Godeffroy to Summitville in New York State. The Barryville Reservoir would catch the waters of a vast drainage area, covering 2756 square miles, and divert them to Godeffroy, 17 miles to the east. This would be done by means of a monstrous tunnel-an enginering marvel, 25 feet in diameter, and cut through solid rock hundreds of feet below the surface, and costing more than $5 million per mile to build.

The Godeffroy Reservoir, 4,500 feet long and 165 feet high, would have a whopping storage capacity of 263 billion gallons. Its own tunnel, 65 miles long and 1,000 feet below the surface at some places, would carry water to Brooklyn and northern New Jersey reservoirs.

After Godeffroy would come a reservoir approximately 45 miles down river at Wallpack Bend, on the Delaware itself between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Wallpack's 121-billion-gallon lake would assure a continuous flow of 550 million gallons a day, if needed, to boost the river in the Philadelphia and southern New Jersey areas, and would serve as a backstop for any additional water supply those areas might need in the future.

Engineers estimate that the Cannonsville, Barryville, and Godeffroy projects coupled with New York City's new reservoirs can fill out the water needs of New York City and northeastern New Jersey until at least 1980. Then, if further water needs are anticipated, the engineers have blocked in two major second

stage projects-reservoirs on Flat Brook in New Jersey and on the East Branch at Fishs Eddy, N. Y.-that would add a storage capacity of 241 billion gallons to the area's resources. Several smaller supporting projects also are suggested. The project, engineers estimate, will be 80 percent self-liquidating, over a 50year amortization period, through sale of water to New York City and New Jersey water-supply agencies. The remaining unliquidated 20-percent would be the responsibility of the States-an expense to be charged off to the benefits of a properly regulated and cleaner river.

Though INCODEL definitely is opposed to the idea of selling electric power itself, à la TVA, its planners have not overlooked the possibility of revenue from sale of the hydroelectric power that can be generated at the dams and tunnels. The consulting engineers favor a plan to lease power rights to regularly established privately owned utilities. It is estimated conservatively that hydroelectric rights would yield the operating commission at least $1 million annually.

It also has been suggested that INCODEL request a Federal contribution for certain types of work in which Government agencies usually participate. This probably will be done, although Executive Secretary Allen concedes that acceptance of Government money for any purpose may seem paradoxical in view of INCODEL's sturdy opposition to federalization of the rivers. INCODEL still does not consider it "sound policy," he says, for the Federal Treasury to pay nearly 100 percent of the bills for such benefits as flood and salinity control. But, since the Government is doing it in other parts of the country, Allen says that INCODEL may suggest that Uncle Sam apply the same rule to the Delaware. In any event, any requested Federal contribution would be a fractional portion of the total cost of harnessing the Delaware.

Now that the report has been submitted and is in the hands of the governors of the four States for careful study, a hard fight looms. It is a costly undertaking, for one thing. Then there are the lingering suspicions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that wicked, slick New York City is trying to steal something. INCODEL, for all its success as peacemaker and persuader, has not been able entirely to spike that one. It is significant that even so stanch a conservationist and antipollution advocate as Governor Duff, of Pennsylvania, now a candidate for United States Senator, who says, "I would be the last man in the world to voice any opposition to conservation of water," told the writer emphatically that he still has to be convinced that New York will not be getting away with any water that rightly belongs to Pennsylvania.

At present, legal representatives of each of the four States have drawn up a proposed compact, which would create a body to be known as the Delaware River Basin Water Commission. Its mission would be to finance, build, and administer the far-reaching project. In 1951, the proposed compact will go before the legislatures of the four States for ratification. If it passes those four hurdles, it then must go to the United States Congress for approval.

The legislative preliminaries, at the most optimistic estimate, will take at least a year. Getting the project physically underway would take another 2 to 3 years. To build it, under the best of conditions, would be a 10- to 12-year job, and possibly longer. INCODEL planners also realize that if a full-scale world war should occur, they may pour no concrete until peace eventually is restored. But they have high hopes that this decade will see the launching of the INCODEL plan for the harnessing of the Delaware under State and not Federal management, and that the next decade will see it completed.

What of INCODEL's future as an organization after-when and if-the dambuilding project is started? "Some people seem to think we are cutting our own throats," Chairman Pitkin says, "and that we will pass out of the picture. It doesn't matter if we do, as long as we are successful in launching the project to harness the Delaware, but I don't think we will. There is plenty of work for INCODEL in other fields in which enlightened leadership is sorely neededdevelopment of recreational facilities, for instance; constant campaigning on the river-cleanup front; and encouragement, through moral support and constructive publicity, of the soil-conservation and reforestation efforts of the proper Federal, State, and local agencies."

To this, Executive Secretary Jim Allen adds that he thinks there'll always be an INCODEL-at least, a need for it-to stand up boldly in a proud and independent region and function as "an antidote to socialism."

"Someone," he says, "has to show those disciples of the 'Uncle-Sam-is-everything' school of thought in Washington that the States can and will do things for themselves. And the INCODEL way is a start, at least, toward trimming some of the pork out of the barrel."

AN ANSWER TO THE WATER CRISIS

NEW YORK IS ABOUT TO HAVE ANOTHER OF ITS CHRONIC WATER SHORTAGES, BUT A NEW PLAN TO TAP THE DELAWARE RIVER MAY MAKE THIS ONE THE LAST

(New York Herald Tribune, April 18, 1954, by Mat Adams)

The New York metropolitan area may be in for another water shortageperhaps the most serious it has ever faced. So far, 1954 has been a year of severe drought, and indications now point to a dearth of water for people in New York and New Jersey. But there is one encouraging thing about the threatened crisis-it may be New York's last.

Here is how the situation looks for this summer: Under normal conditions, the area uses more water than present sources can supply while maintaining necessary reserves. New York City alone uses more than a billion gallons a day and its needs are increasing.

But conditions early this year were worse than usual. On April 1, the combined Catskill and Croton systems, which supply New York's water, held only 69 percent of their capacities. A year ago, the same systems were full and overflowing.

In New Jersey, reserves were even lower. Wanaque Reservoir in Passaic County, which supplies much of northern New Jersey, was only 58.5 percent full on April 1-its lowest level for that date since 1940.

Experts say that the low reserves means there may not be enough water to meet normal needs in the New York-northern New Jersey area through the summer. The 50-percent drop in New York City's reserves could mean not only a return to the water rationing of 4 and 5 years ago, but a stricter system entailing a good deal more control than just bathless Thursdays.

Is anything being done about it? The answer is "Yes"-but it cannot be done in time to help out this summer. A comprehensive plan is in the works to solve the water problems of New York City and to give New Jersey and Pennsylvania more adequate reserves. This is the project for joint use of the Delaware River. The plan has already been agreed upon by the three States involved and may add millions of gallons of water to New York's supplies-but not until 1955.

The Delaware rises in the western slopes of the Catskill Mountains in New York, flows southward between New York and Pennsylvania, then between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and finally flows past Pennsylvania and Delaware into Delaware Bay. For the three big States on its banks, it is the obvious solution to water problems.

Without fanfare, a group of lawyers, water officials, and experts, backed by New York City officials and the attorney generals of the 3 States, has submitted to the United States Supreme Court a plan in which all 3 States would cooperate to utilize the river's waters.

The Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction over the contents of the Delaware, has appointed a special master to hear the plan. He is Kurt F. Pantzer, an Indianapolis lawyer with a long record of interest in public welfare. These hearings are now in progress.

FAIR SHARE FOR ALL

Briefly, the plan permits the three States involved to get a fair share of the water each needs now, and for some time to come, from the Delaware and at the same time guarantees a return of water to the river to maintain a flow of approximately 1,150 million gallons daily, even during dry periods. All construction involved in securing its supply from the river would be the responsibility of the individual State.

What does a Delaware River plan actually mean to us in the area? Well, when a Joseph J. McGinty, of the Bronx, turns on his water faucet in 1955, he may not realize it's the Delaware River responding. But that may be the reason he won't be staring at a Boy Scout sticker instructing him to conserve water.

And Sidney Schmidt, who farms 12 miles south of Camden, N. J., and draws his water from the old farm well, in 1955 will continue to come up with good fresh H2O, rather than salt water that could seep in from the tidal lower Delaware. Or Admiral Hornblower, of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, may have this tristate agreement to thank because he will not face the urgent buck slip from a subordinate reporting that the United States Navy wells have been salted.

Let's not forget Aaron Armstrong, operating a ferryboat north or south of the Delaware Water Gap. Last July he couldn't cross the shallow river during the

drought-but in 1955, drought or not, Aaron will find plenty of water in the Delaware for this crossing.

Agreement by the three States on a method of utilizing the Delaware to the mutual benefit did not take place overnight. In fact, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York originally came before the Supreme Court as opponents in litigation rather than partners in a plan. But eventually horsesense, teamwork, and necessity turned a dispute over projected water rights into a solution of the water problem which may stand for the next 50 years. Representatives of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania agreed to agree, and came up with a solution.

AN ISSUE SINCE 1931

This is the background to the agreement, which resolved an issue that had been pending for more than 20 years:

In 1931, New York State, acting for the city, obtained the right to take 440 million gallons of water a day from the Delaware River. But the Supreme Court stipulated that New York must put 200 million gallons a day back into the river during periods of extremely low rainfall to safeguard the flow of the river as it passes the shores of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This was by no means a solution to the city's problems. Long droughts, which in 1949-50 almost emptied New York reservoirs, pushed the need for a greater supply.

For some time there had been talk about a four-State authority, including Delaware, to utilize the river's water. This plan was advanced by INCODELInterstate Commission for the Delaware River-and involved a network of reservoirs, conduits, and water-control facilities jointly built by the participating States, which would in the main supply New York City, northern New Jersey and the Philadelphia area, and take 15 years to complete. The cost was estimated in 1952 as $550 million.

But the project floundered on a series of objections, the chief one being the high cost to the States. They were largely concerned that it would be too difficult to obtain commitments for funds.

But New York City couldn't wait. Backed by the State, it went to the Supreme Court in 1952 and pleaded for permission to take an additional 360 million gallons a day from the Delaware-a total of 800 million gallons daily. The city said it would build a reservoir and, in accordance with the old 1931 formula, would put back an additional 200 million gallons-a total of 400 million-on days of lowest flow.

Protests by New Jersey and Pennsylvania came quickly. No, they said, not enough water would be going back into the river. It would leave the Delaware virtually a dry bed during periods of sparse rainfall, and they pointed out that authorities believe you can only rely on water for day-to-day use in accordance with the source's lowest flows. Otherwise salt pollution, stagnation, and other health problems could result.

It would definitely be destructive of their rights, New Jersey and Pennsylvania said, if New York were to be permitted to take out water without providing adequate returns to the Delaware River during droughts. Making no bones about it, they set forth to battle the New York proposal.

MUTUAL NECESSITY

That was the situation when the States decided to formulate a plan that would utilize the Delaware for the welfare of all three. The details of just how the understanding was worked out are still unknown. But utilizing the Hudson River as a water source had been ruled out as prohibitive in cost and inferior in quality—and with all three States realizing their need for increased supplies, mutual necessity apparently gave way to mutual agreement on the Delaware.

The plan will work like this—if final Supreme Court approval is forthcoming: New York will get its 800 million gallons daily, taking 490 million now and the full 800 when the huge Cannonsville, N. Y., reservoir project is completed. New York will replace a possible 800-900 million gallons daily in the Delaware or as much as is needed to bring the flow on dry days up to 1,150 million gallons.

GUARANTEED FLOW

New Jersey will be permitted to divert 100 million gallons daily into its Delaware and Raritan Canal, without replacement obligations, a right New Jersey's Attorney General Grover C. Richman says has been enjoyed for more than a

hundred years. This canal is used exclusively for water and is operated by the State on a self-sustaining basis through the sale of water to municipalities and industries.

Pennsylvania has obtained the right to dam the Delaware across to the Jersey side and New Jersey may share in up to 30 percent of the water stored in any such dam upon payment of proportionate costs.

That's the setup. New York gets its water supply of 800 million gallons daily. Pennsylvania has the right to its dam. New Jersey gets water for its Delaware and Raritan water-supply canal; and the river itself is guaranteed a flow of 1,150 million gallons daily in a dry period. Sounds nice and simple-and it is. When the special master, Pantzer, has heard all the evidence, he will transmit his report and recommendations to the Supreme Court. The nine Justices in turn will act, and a decree will be issued.

If it follows the unanimous settlement agreed to by all parties concerned, New York City, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will be able to begin work this summer to put it into operation. And by 1955, the Delaware may make bathless Thursdays as much a part of history as George Washington's famous crossing. Mr. LIPSCOMB. Mr. Chairman.

Mr. JONES. Yes.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Just to clarify it in my mind, what is the purpose of this particular questioning on INCODEL, as far as our hearings are concerned?

Mr. JONES. I'm particularly interested because this article, Look What They're Doing to the Delaware, goes on to say that the fears and apprehensions of the people are of Federal bureaucracy, and as a basis of their position they put the issue to the reader that it is a contest between the Tennessee Valley Authority and the INCODEL proposal. Mr. LIPSCOMB. Where does the Hoover Commission report fit into this picture?

Mr. JONES, Goodness, all over.

Mr. PITKIN. Of course, there were two schools of thought, sir.

Mr. JONES. Of course, you know the position that you're advocating at the present time is somewhat different from the commission, from the members of INCODEL in 1950, if this article is true, because you certainly didn't want any Federal dollars to come in here at that time, in 1950; isn't that correct, sir?

Mr. PITKIN. That is correct.

Mr. JONES. Yes, sir.

Mr. PITKIN. I think the title of that article might much better have been, "Look What They Hope To Do to the Delaware." That was a period of high hope, and it seemed at that time that there was a possibility of solving this problem through interstate cooperation. Now that has not materialized.

Mr. JONES. Listen to the language of this article:

The composite effect of these beliefs is to cast little INCODEL in the David role against a formidable Goliath. This Goliath is composed of all the troops of big government-the valley authoritarians, the reclamation bureaucrats, the Army engineers, et al. ***.

Now, certainly the members of your board would not have the people of this country fear that the gentleman from California or the gentleman from Wisconsin is coming up here and trying to captivate or to conquer by invasion through a Federal Government assistance program to help you develop your own resources. You don't think that, do you?

Mr. PITKIN. Well, little David's sling didn't work very well, sir, and another course of action is very clearly needed.