PURPOSE AND NEED FOR SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDS

The $800,000 is needed to finance an intensified research program on the problem of passing migrant salmon over dams. The proposed program is necessary to produce by the end of 1964, the target date set by the Secretary, the best possible information as to the direction in which a sound development program should proceed in the Middle Snake River area.

Research on fish migration over dams.-The 1962 estimate for the activity "Research on fish migration over dams" is $527,000. An increase of $800,000 is needed to provide for an acceleration of the studies being carried out under this activity.

In a March 15, 1961, letter to the Chairman of the Federal Power Commission, the Secretary of the Interior indicated his intention, with the concurrence of the President, to initiate immediately an accelerated research program on the problem of passing migrant salmon and steelhead over dams. He described the most critical phase of the problem as that of providing safe passage for downstream migrants at high dams. He further stated that the aim of the crash program is to provide significant findings by the end of 1964. This will require maximum effort over the next few years. The $527,000 in the regular budget will carry these emergency studies into the first months of 1962. The additional $800,000 is needed to concentrate studies on the downstream migration of fish which will occur in the spring of 1962. Columbia River salmon and steelhead stocks contributed an average of 20 million pounds to the commercial fishery during the period 1941 to 1949, but only 5 million pounds in 1960. Although the sport fisheries are rapidly expanding, the catches have been seriously affected by the declines in abundance. The primary cause of this decline has been the rapid industrial development of the river. Particularly critical is the problem of passing anadromous fish at high dams. If the rapid downward trend of these valuable runs is to be halted, and the runs preserved, an emergency program to solve fish passage and allied problems must begin immediately. The runs of adult salmon and steelhead running through the Middle Snake River area represent about 40 percent of those counted past Bonneville Dam on the lower Columbia River. The Middle Snake is the last great virgin spawning area in the entire Columbia River system.

A number of large multipurpose dams are proposed for immediate construction in areas where large runs of salmon and steelhead are present. The absence of a solution to the fish problem is the principal obstacle to their construction.

It is essential that much greater emphasis be placed on research to solve the problems presented by high dams. The lack of knowledge in this regard is abundantly evident at Brownlee Dam on the Snake River where disastrous losses have occurred to the resources. The expanded studies will be particularly critical in the spring of 1962 when downstream migration begins.

Sufficient knowledge is presently available to start large-scale experimentation with guiding devices, such as louvers, electrical screens, etc. It is proposed that experimental guiding and capturing facilities be installed at the upper end of the Brownlee Reservoir to study fall Chinook and steelhead, and that other devices for guiding and capturing be installed on the Salmon River to study spring Chinook, steelhead, and sockeye salmon. It is also proposed that experimental devices be installed at one or more of the existing high dams, such as Brownlee or Grand Coulee, for the study of effects of pressure on anadromous fish. This proposal is designed to produce, by the target date set by the Secretary, the best possible information as to the direction in which a sound development program should proceed in the Middle Snake River area.

The principal research projects to be undertaken concern the following: Fish guidance, effects of pressure, passage of salmon through impoundments, fish transportation, adult fish behavior, dam operations as related to mortality, and delay in migrations and fingerling passage through turbines.

PREPARED STATEMENT

Chairman HAYDEN. Will you please describe to the committee the reason why this additional fund is needed now, and why it was not foreseen as a need when the committee heard the justification of the regular budget?

Mr. McKERNAN. Mr. Chairman, I have a prepared statement and I would be glad to just submit that for the record, if you do not mind. (The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT BY DONALD L. McKERNAN, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before this committee in support of a supplemental estimate for the fiscal year 1962 under our appropriation for management and investigations of resources. A supplemental appropriation in the amount of $800,000 is needed to finance an intensified program of research on fish migration over dams. The House has approved $400,000 for this purpose. An amendment has been submitted requesting restoration of the $400,000 reduction.

In a letter to the Chairman of the Federal Power Commission dated March 15 of this year, the Secretary of the Interior indicated his intention, with the concurrence of the President, to initiate an accelerated research program on the problem of passing migrant salmon and steelhead over dams. He described the most critical phase of the problem as that of providing safe passage for downstream migrants at high dams and stated that the aim of the program would be to provide significant research results by the end of 1964. This will require maximum effort over the next few years. Delay in prosecuting projects that are important to the program would jeopardize our task of producing required results by the Secretary's target date. The reduction made by the House would delay action on necessary studies to develop a method of protecting young salmon passing through turbines and studies of downstream migrants to test and improve known methods for guiding and collecting salman fingerlings by study of behavior patterns under prototype conditions. Restoration of the reduction is requested.

The sum of $524,000 provided in our 1962 appropriation will carry these emergency studies into the first months of 1962. The additional $800,000 is needed to concentrate studies on the downstream migration of fish which will occur in the spring of 1962. Columbia River salmon and steelhead stocks contributed an average of 20 million pounds to the commercial fishery during the period 1941 to 1949, but only 5 million pounds in 1960. The primary cause of this decline has been the rapid multiple-use water development projects on the Columbia River and its tributaries. Particularly critical is the problem of passing anadromous fish at high dams. Fish passage and allied problems must be

solved if the rapid downward trend of these valuable runs is to be halted and the runs preserved. The runs of adult salmon and steelhead running through the middle Snake River area, where several high dams are proposed, represent about 40 percent of those counted past Bonneville Dam on the lower Columbia River. The middle Snake is the last great virgin spawning area in the entire Columbia River system.

A number of large multipurpose dams are proposed for immediate construction in areas where large runs of salmon and steelhead are present. The absence of a solution to the fish problem is the principal obstacle to their construction. It is essential that much greater emphasis be placed on research to solve the problems presented by high dams. The lack of knowledge in this regard is abundantly evident at Brownlee Dam on the Snake River where disastrous losses have occurred to the resources.

Sufficient knowledge is presently available to start large-scale experimentation with guiding devices, such as louvers, electrical screens, etc. It is proposed that experimental guiding and capturing facilities be installed at the upper end of the Brownlee Reservoir to study fall chinook and steelhead, and that other devices for guiding and capturing be installed on the Snake River system to study spring chinook, steelhead, and sockeye salmon. It is also proposed that experimental devices be installed at one or more of the existing high dams, such as Brownlee or Grand Coulee, for the study of effects of pressure on anadromous fish as they pass through the turbines. This proposal is designed to produce, by the target date set by the Secretary, the best possible information as to the direction in which a sound development program should proceed in the middle Snake River area.

PASSING SALMON OVER HIGH DAMS AND BACK

Mr. McKERNAN. I would like to indicate very briefly that the Federal Power Commission has just completed hearings on the full development in the middle Snake River. The Secretary of the Interior has written asking for a delay in a decision by the Federal Power Commission as to what kind and where a high dam in the middle Snake River might be constructed. I am told that the power needs in this particular part of the Pacific Northwest are critical and it is necessary to bring about a decision in this regard.

The remaining problem to be resolved is the matter of passing salmon up over high dams and back down successfully. We have resolved reasonably well the problem at low dams, but have not done so at high dams. With the 4-year life cycle of salmon it is necessary to get started now in order that a decision might be made by the end of 1964, the target date set by the Department for learning as much as possible the direction in which a sound development program should go. Chairman HAYDEN. $800,000?

EXPERIMENTAL STRUCTURES

Mr. McKERNAN. Yes, some rather sizable temporary experimental structures must be constructed in order to carry out the field experiments, Mr. Chairman.

HOUSE ALLOWANCE

Chairman HAYDEN. The House allowed $400,000. Could you not get it started with that?

Mr. McKERNAN. The difficulty is that the construction costs of these test facilities are very expensive and if we do not have the full program our scientists feel that they cannot get an answer to this particular problem within the allotted time, 4 years. If we do not get started now, we simply will have a delay in the decision as to whether or not high dams should be put in with complete development of the middle

Snake River or whether other means must be used, perhaps low dams in some other location.

A major portion of the salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia River pass through the middle Snake River. This amounts to about 250,000 adult fish per year.

Chairman HAYDEN. Thank you.

Mr. McKERNAN. Thank you.

OFFICE OF SALINE WATER

STATEMENT OF CHARLES F. MCGOWAN, DIRECTOR

JUSTIFICATION

Chairman HAYDEN. Yesterday the White House sent to the Senate an estimate of $4,175,000 for the Office of Saline Water as the amount needed to implement the expanded saline water program authorized by the act of September 13, 1961. I shall place the justification for this request in the record.

(The justification referred to follows:)

The supplemental funds are urgently needed to implement the greatly expanded saline water program authorized in legislation enacted by the Congress on September 13, 1961. The new legislation authorized $75 million for a 6-year program including fiscal year 1962. In order to carry out the expanded research and development program during the current year, it is imperative that the supplemental funds be made available as soon as possible.

JUSTIFICATION

Research and development program

The President, in his special message to the Congress on natural resources, regarding saline and brackish water conversion, stated, "No water resources program is of greater long-range importance * * *"

The Congress in recognition of the urgent nature of this program enacted legislation on September 13, 1961, authorizing $75 million for a 6-year program to be initiated in fiscal year 1962. A supplemental estimate for 1962 in the amount of $4,175,000 is required to immediately implement an aggressive program. This amount in addition to the $1,755.000 appropriated before enactment of the new legislation will make a total of $5,930,000 available for these purposes in fiscal year 1962.

The major expenditures planned for the funds are discussed briefly below: A. Administration and coordination, $175,000.-The amount requested is to begin adidtional staffing necessary to carry out the expanded research and developement program and to administer contract funds for research, surveys, consultation, and coordination of economic and scientific data.

Certain Federal laboratories are very well qualified in personnel and facilities to undertake fundamental research in the field of saline water conversion. Following a recommendation by Dr. Jerome Wiesner, Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Dr. Roger Revelle, science adviser to the Secretary of the Interior, has determined that the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is uniquely suited because of its long experience in separation processes to undertake a broad range of fundamental and applied research in this area. The Director of the Laboratory and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission have in turn expressed a strong desire to participate in the program. Fundamental and applied research in certain selected fields such as ion transport, solution studies, corrosion, phase studies, separations, and others would be undertaken. A considerable backlog of meritorious proposals exists and research investigations involving the use of byproducts, radioisotopes, scaling, heat exchange, thermoelectric heat pumps, diffusion, and others are planned. Economic surveys and studies are needed to determine present and prospective comparative costs of natural potable water and converted water in selected geographic areas. Many industrial organizations, research institutes, and universities have indicated that they will submit research proposals within the next few months. Such proposals involve fundamental research on transport phenomena, basic properties of solutions, nucleation, and crystal growth as applied to ice, hydrates and salts, polarization, and others.

C. Applied research, $2,400,000.

Installation of test site at Wrightsville Beach, N.C___

Construction of pilot plants, including wiped-film evaporator and gas hydrates__.

Mobile and portable units..

Other applied research, including continuation of scale-control research, freezing-process improvements, membrane and ion-exchange research, and flash-evaporation developments-----

$1, 150, 000

700, 000 200, 000

350,000

Funds requested for installation of a pilot plant test facility at Wrightsville Beach, N.C., are based upon estimates made by an engineering firm engaged to provide preliminary design and engineering of the facility. The Department has obtained contributions from the State of North Carolina in the way of land being made available and has obtained State and local contributions in preparation of the site. Such a facility is urgently needed in order to provide a place where various pilot plants can be installed and operated at a location where sea water is available. Several processes which have been developed in the laboratory have advanced to the point where the processes are now ready for further development in 15,000 to 30,000 gallons per day pilot plants. These include a wiped-film-type evaporator and the gas hydrate processes. Several proposals are being considered to investigate the possibilities for developing trailer-mounted mobile conversion equipment for many uses, including operation under emergency conditions and in connection with civil defense applications. There are a number of areas of applied research now under study which should be given increased attention and additional support. For example, preliminary work in calcium sulfate scale control is sufficiently promising to warrant increased experimentation. A number of problems have developed in the operation of pilot plants using freezing processes. These problems must be solved and improvements obtained in several components of the system. Several new approaches in uses of membranes and ion-exchange resins need further development. Further improvements in flash evaporation appear possible and should be investigated.

PREPARED STATEMENT

Chairman HAYDEN. What is the hurry about this?

Mr. McGowan. I have a prepared statement, Senator, which we would like to file for the record if we may.

Chairman HAYDEN. All right.

URGENCY OF REQUEST

Mr. McGOWAN. The reason for the urgency of this request is the new act gives us an authorization of only 6 years. We think that we should