The CHAIRMAN. Not the permanent water rate, but the substitute for it.

Mr. Rose. The bonds represent the purchase of the system and the improvement of the main system. We have two separate systems, the diverting system, operated by the district, which brings the water from the river to the valley, and the distributing system, operated by the mutual companies, which delivers the water to the farmers. The $2 per acre per year represents the maintenance of the distribution system and is paid to the mutual companies, and also 50 cents an acre-foot for 3 acre-feet of water per year, or $1.50 water charge, together with the $1.625 paid to the irrigation district as interest on bonds and for the maintenance of the diverting system. Mr. WELLING. I want to know this: How many people are there there, or are all the people there, satisfied with the project, and can they live under a project that charges them $6 a year in annual maintenance charge per acre?

Mr. ROSE. Yes. They could live under it if it were $10 or $12 a year, if they could get their water, and do well. There are approximately 60,000 people living in Imperial Valley now.

Mr. WELLING. Have the engineers submitted an estimated cost-I mean now the initial cost per acre under this enlarged projectproviding all this colored section of the map comes into your project?

Mr. ROSE. They have an estimate on the main canal, and that would be $33 per acre, which would amount to about $1.65 interest per year per acre, and the outside lands they would have to pay for their own distribution system, as we did on the 500,000 acres inside, they would have to build their mutual water companies system. Mr. WELLING. The twenty-five or thirty million dollar all-American canal would represent a cost of an additional $30, did you say, per acre?

Mr. ROSE. About $33 per acre.

Mr. WELLING. Have the engineers given any estimate as to the annual maintenance charge per acre of that land under the allAmerican system?

Mr. ROSE. They have not. In discussing the matter they have, of course, figured that it would really decrease our maintenance charge, because it would relieve us from maintaining that old river bed through Mexico and give us a good, well-built canal, provide a means for desilting the water by sluicing methods and so eliminate the necessity for maintaining a fleet of dredges, 10 in number; it would also do away with the cost of building and maintaining the temporary weirs in the Colorado River some $100,000 per year. (Thereupon, at 4.55 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned.)

COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION OF ARID LANDS,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Monday, July 14, 1919.

The committee met at 8.40 o'clock p. m., Hon. M. P. Kinkaid (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. Director Davis, there was something you had in order to complete your statement, was there not?

STATEMENT OF HON. ARTHUR P. DAVIS, DIRECTOR OF UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE-Resumed.

Mr. DAVIS. Yes; Mr. Chairman, at the convenience of the committee I have one or two little things that I would like to speak of. Following my testimony on Saturday last the attorney for the Imperial irrigation district took issue with one of the opinions that I had expressed concerning the wisdom of building this socalled first leg of the canal from Laguna Dam to Pilot Knob without having assurance that the all-American canal would be built, and I expressed the opinion that it would be a wise move, and from that he differed and I thought it only fair to give the reasons for my opinion. I have no criticism to make of the difference of opinion because he is entitled to his opinion as I am to mine.

Mr. SINNOTT. From Laguna Dam to where?

Mr. DAVIS. To Pilot Knob.

Mr. SINNOTT. At the present intake?

Mr. DAVIS. About there, right about there [indicating on map], where the canal strikes the Mexican line.

When I was in Imperial Valley, I think, the last time I was there and if I remember rightly it was the autumn of 1916-possibly Mr. Swing can correct that date, but I remember it was in the autumn anyway-various people interested in the valley told me that they had suffered from shortage of water that year, and the estimates of the losses due to the shortage of water varied in my hearing-in discussions by people who were acquainted in the vailey-all the way from five to twelve million dollars, and some very good judges said they thought there was no doubt but what the losses of crop that had been planted and cultivated were at least $7,000,000 that year. That was sufficient, or about sufficient, to make the connection between the Laguna Dam and Pilot Knob, which would have assured them the water supply. The only reason that water was short was because they couldn't put it into the canal. By bringing it to Pilot Knob it would be on a high line and could be dropped into the Imperial Canal, no matter how badly the canal is silted up. It would have to go back into the valley because there is nowhere else for it to go. If they diked it off from the river it couldn't go back there. They had a dam in the river then just as they have had since, and that dam was breached a few times, I think, and of course when it breached they were short of water. The head of the canal had silted up so that when the canal was in full commission they couldn't get a full canal, and if they had had the connection they would have been saved, and that, you see, pays for the connection in one year. Now, if they could pay 10 per cent per annum that would be a good investment.

Mr. SINNOTT. What would be the cost of that connection?
Mr. DAVIS. About $7,000,000. That is, roughly speaking.

I don't want anything that I have said or that I will say to be construed in any kind of opposition to this bill, because I am very heartily and very strongly in favor of its passage, and I can not too strongly commend the general spirit and intent of this bill, but I am here to give the facts, and so far as pertinent, opinions, and when they are attacked, of course, I want to give the reasons therefor in fairness both to you and myself.

Mr. HAYDEN. A question of fact was raised the other afternoon. The statement was made by Mr. Swing that the cost of the Laguna Dam was $1,700,000, and that the Imperial irrigation district was required to pay $1,600,000 for the privilege of connecting with it, implying that they were to pay within $100,000 of the entire cost. I stated at the time that I was sure there were other features connected with the works at Laguna which would be of use to the Imperial irrigation district, which ran it up to a much larger sum of money. I wondered if you had the figures as to what those features cost and on what basis the division was made whereby the Imperial irrigation district was required to pay $1,600,000?

Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir; I am glad that came up, because I would like to explain it. The same thing has been stated at other times, and I had about a year ago occasion to make a showing before the department on that point.

At page 67 of the Sixteenth Annual Report of the United States Reclamation Service you will find a tabulation of project costs from the books of the Reclamation Service. Of the items that are there tabulated there are properly chargeable to this feature that we are talking about, either in whole or in part, seven items, and I will read them as to the total of each item and the amount charged in this $1,600,000:

Evamination and surveys, $172,544.80, of which are charged to this feature, $25,000.

In the preliminary work there is a charge of $167,514, and only $5,000 of that is charged to this feature.

The diversion dam at Laguna between the abutments, $1,749,041.32. Of course, that all has to be charged to this feature because it doesn't relate to any other.

The headworks, sluiceways, gates, etc., $352,334.25. That feature has to be divided, because not all of it is available for use for the Imperial Valley. The sluiceways are available on the California side; on the Arizona side they are not charged in at all, and the gates are not charged in at all, because additional gates will have to be installed for the valley. Only $75,000 of these items were charged to the common account.

The lands, right of way, buildings, etc., on the project cost $173,153.09, of which only $33,000 is charged to this feature.

Of the telephone system, costing a total of $12,175, only $2,000 is charged to this feature.

Of unadjusted accounts for plant, machinery, etc., amounting to $200,910.18, only $90,000 is charged to this feature.

Item:

Summary of items common to Yuma project and Imperial Valley.

Cost (round

figures).

$25,000

Examination and surveys (part).

Preliminary work (part)__.

Dam between abutments__

California sluice works (part).

Lands and buildings............

Telephone system (part).

Plant accounts (part)___.

5,000

1,750,000

75.000

33,000

2,000

90,000

Total to be prorated between Yuma project and other

lands___

2, 000, 000

Such a statement necessarily involves some estimate. Fundamental costs are from Reclamation Service books, but some of these must be prorated between various features of Yuma project, just as the total here given is prorated between the project and Imperial Valley. The division is considered liberal to the new lands and a higher figure could readily be defended.

Mr. SINNOTT. What do you mean by this feature?
Mr. DAVIS. The Laguna Dam and accessories.

Mr. SINNOTT. Is that charged to the district? Do they have to pay for that? When you mention "this feature" you meant what?

Mr. DAVIS. Laguna Dam and the headworks. That is the works that will be of common benefit to the Government project and Imperial Valley, footing up $2,000,000, in round numbers. Most of those items, all but one of them, had to be prorated, and different judges will differ as to just exactly what pro rata to charge to the Laguna Dam or to feature that is used by the Imperial Valley, but the benefit of every doubt was given to the Imperial Valley and a total of $2,000,000 was necessary to prorate between the people using that dam, the Imperial Valley, and the Yuma project. The Yuma project in its completion is estimated to cover 120,000 acres. There are 586,000 acres, I believe, in the Imperial district, not all of which is irrigable, but certainly over 500,000 acres are irrigable, so that there is more than four times as much land irrigable in the Imperial district as there is in the Yuma project, and they are charged just four times as much; that is, they pay four-fifths according to the

contract.

But that is not the whole story. The charge of $1,600,000, which is made in the contract to the Imperial district, is spread over a period of 20 years and in graduated payments, and its present worth is less than half of that amount. On a commercial basis it would cost the district more than three times as much as the charge against them if they had to put in their own dam, headings, sluice works, and everything, and we don't consider that an oppressive charge, especially as they never have taken any of the risk of the dam washing out or anything. It has had 10 years' trial now, and they have never taken any of the risk or never assumed any of the uncertainties connected with the early history of that dam. They are given a tried product at cost just about divided by two; that is, on terms that amount to only half the cost, practically.

Mr. SINNOTT. Four-fifths of the $2,000,000 would be $1,600,000. That is the way you arrive at it?

Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir.

Mr. TAYLOR. I don't think there is any complaint, Mr. Davis, about the amount at all that you fixed. I think they just wanted to get in the record the basis upon which you determine it.

Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir; that is my purpose in reading this.

Mr. TAYLOR. Now, Mr. Davis, as to the quantity of water in the Colorado River, do we understand that the amount there is sufficient to warrant this expenditure to irrigate this new land without storage reservoirs?

Mr. DAVIS. No, sir.

Mr. TAYLOR. And if not, how much do you contemplate expending on the storage reservoirs, and how many different reservoirs, and what can you say about the storage feature that you fear will be necessary, and how large and to what extent? Give us a statement, if you can, on that matter.

Mr. DAVIS. The contract between the Imperial irrigation district and the United States provides for a certain payment for connection with the Laguna Dam, and other things, and provides also that lands outside of the Imperial district may be given this same privilege, and the money which they pay for that privilege shall be devoted to the construction of storage works. That is the contract between the district and the United States, so that the east mesa and the west mesa-whatever lands are taken in addition to the Imperial district under this-will pay what the Secretary of the Interior may determine is a just charge for the similar privileges, and that money will be devoted to the construction of storage works.

In this bill there is a proviso that the public land that is to be taken in, mostly on the east mesa, may be sold at $10 per acre. The Secretary has recommended that the term be used "not less than $10 per acre," so that it may bring more than that. He also recommends that the proviso be made that the moneys received from the, sale of that public land be expended in storage works, invested in storage works. So, with those two together, there is ample provision. Both are very rough and neither can be figured accurately at the present time, but I am satisfied that if this legislation is passed in the way recommended by the Secretary of the Interior, that the storage feature will be taken care of, both in the interests of the present Imperial irrigation district and the Yuma Valley, as well as to a greater extent the interests of the new land that demand this storage, because if 300,000 or 400,000 acres of additional land is put under irrigation without storage it will threaten the water supply of the whole valley, because we all know the pressure that comes upon anyone getting water to help out the fellow that is short.

Mr. TAYLOR. You don't contemplate that this entire proposition will in any manner interfere with whatever appropriations of water there may be on the Colorado River and its tributaries already developed, do you?

Mr. DAVIS. Absolutely not. My position is-and I do not understand it to be questioned or combatted at all by any of the Imperial Valley people that no diversions, either heretofore or hereafter to be made on the upper Colorado River that do not take the water out of the basins are really antagonistic to any material extent to the interests of the Imperial Valley and the Yuma project. Representing the Yuma project on behalf of the Government, which is interested in that, I take that position on its behalf, and the same thing applies to the Imperial Valley.

Mr. TAYLOR. Are there any irrigation works in use from the Colorado River in the State of Nevada?

Mr. DAVIS. There may be on tributaries of the Colorado River, but very small amounts.

Mr. TAYLOR. Most of it comes from Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah?

Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir; very little of the water of Colorado comes from Nevada, but there are some tributaries there from which a little irrigation is done. But the use of water on the headwaters, so long as the water is not taken out of the Colorado River basin, and so long as it is not stored during the low-water month is as beneficial as it is harmful. In the long run, I think it will be beneficial