COST INCREASES Now, over the period of time from 1956 to 1970, the construction. cost index increased 104 percent, or an escalation, whichever you want to call it, of 104 percent. The actual construction was accomplished at a 13 percent increase in cost over the 1956 estimate. With respect to changes, there have been announced at least $474 million worth of new and expanded industrial plant and port facilities in that area. Additions that are planned would add another $60 million to that figure. In terms of longer run impacts, we do not know today what the future changes will be, because there are many interacting influences. SOCIALOGICAL IMPACT Although water resources have contributed, we still do not know a great deal about all of the interaction. But we have asked our Institute for Water Resources, with the Washington University in St. Louis, to develop a plan for a study of the long-term effects of the Arkansas River Basin water resource development program on the region. We will carry this out with our Institute for Water Resources in cooperation with the Southwestern Division and we will try to give you some answers on these impacts. But, it is going to be quite a few years before we have those answers. Senator STENNIS. You certainly are justifying your judgment on this project. LAND ACQUISITION FUND Last year you requested $2 million to establish a replenishable fund for land acquisition in advance of project appropriations to be used in hardship cases. I am surprised and disappointed that this year's budget does not contain additional funds for this purpose. What use has been made of this fund during the current year? Judging from the number of letters received by the committee, there is a great need for such a fund. Did you request any funds for this purpose in your budget submission? General CLARKE. I would like to have General Koisch answer. General KOISCH. Sir, we did not request additional funds in the fiscal year 1972 budget for this particular purpose. The funds that were given to us last year we are still holding. We have not worked on the first case yet in terms of payout. You will recall the purpose of this was to take care of hardship cases during the advance engineering and design phases of a project, prior to the time when we have land acquisition or construction appropriations. We have difficulty in identifying the hardship cases unless they come to us. We do have knowledge of some. We expect to gain some experience with this fund during the remainder of this fiscal year in order to give us a basis for a fiscal year 1973 request. Senator STENNIS. All right. We will come back to that one, I am sure. LAND ACQUISITION PRACTICE Senator STENNIS. The committee often receives criticism from individual landowners of the amounts paid for their land. Would you briefly outline the present corps policies and practices in negotiating with landowners? General KoISCH. In the acquisition of land required for a public works project, it is the objective of the Department of the Army to pay a price for the land that is fair to the landowner as well as to the Government. This price is based upon an appraisal estimate prepared by qualified appraisers on the staff of the Army Corps of Engineers and professional appraisers under contract with the Army. The appraisal estimates are developed on the basis of concepts of fair market value as defined by the Federal courts. The owner or his designated representative is given an opportunity to accompany the appraiser during his inspection of the property. Each completed appraisal estimate is reviewed by a senior reviewing appraiser to assure that it is properly prepared, adequately supported by open market transactions of comparable properties and consistent with the appraisals of other similar properties. Prior to negotiations, the owner of the real property is provided with a written statement of, and summary of the basis for, the amount estimated as the fair market value. If only a portion of the property is to be acquired, a separate statement is furnished of the estimated just compensation for the real property interest to be acquired and, where appropriate, damages to the remaining real property. Negotiations with the landowners are based on the approved appraisal estimates of the individual appraisers, and are conducted in the same manner normally practiced between private parties. It is our objective to acquire land by direct purchase. However, if irreconcilable differences of opinion develop with respect to the price to be paid, the only alternative is to have the compensation determined through court proceedings and the Government and the landowner would have the opportunity at that time to present evidence as to the land value. At the time condemnation proceedings are filed, an amount equal to the appraisal estimate of the value of the property is deposited in the registry of the court for the benefit of the landowner. The district engineer will assist the owner in arranging to withdraw the funds from the court pending conclusions of the condemnation proceedings. Recently the Congress has enacted Public Law 91-646 which provides for uniform and equal treatment of persons displaced from their homes, businesses, or farms by Federal and federally assisted programs. The purpose of this law is to provide (1) relocation payments for reasonable expenses and losses to persons displaced from dwellings, businesses and farms; (2) optional fixed payments in certain cases; (3) additional payments up to $15,000 to enable a homeowner to acquire comparable replacement housing; (4) additional payments up to $4,000 to assist displaced tenants; (5) advisory services and assistance to displaced persons to relocate; (6) assurances of replacement housing; and (7) authorizes Federal agencies to take all actions necessary to assure availability of housing, including construction, relocation or rehabilitation of housing and loans to provide interim financial assistance. Pending the issuance of implementing regulations and procedures, we are assuring the owners, by inclusion in their offers to sell, that they will be afforded all benefits provided by this legislation to which they may be entitled. Payments to the owner and tenant pursuant to this law are in addition to the payment of just compensation for the land or interest acquired by the Government. AQUATIC PLANT REMOVAL Senator STENNIS. Last year you stated that the corps was experimenting with the use of natural insect enemies and with the use of laser energy. Can you report any progress being made with either one of those methods? With respect to the use of natural insects, if you are successful in controlling aquatic plant growth, how can you be certain that these insects will not develop an appetite for crops and other desirable vegetation on the land? General KOISCH. I will take the last part of that first, about their appetite for crops other than the ones for which they are specifically brought in. We deal with the Department of Agriculture specifically with regard to these insects, and they are not brought in unless the Department OKs them. The ones that are identified as being possible to use with regard to harmful weeds, they isolate them in foreign countries and when they are certain we can utilize them here, they are brought in. Otherwise, not. We have had some success with the alligator weed, using a South American flea-beetle, again with the Department of Agriculture OK. With regard to the other methods, we have done some laboratory work with closed circuit laser that appears to work in the laboratory in biologically unhinging these water plants. We are now in the process of using our Waterway Experiment Station in developing a field model of this laser and we hope this year to get it tested. It appears to have some promise. Senator STENNIS. I come from the farm country, and if you succeed with these insects, we will take them down there and work on the cotton boll weevil. Senator Young, do you have further questions? SNOW COVER-RED RIVER OF THE NORTH Senator YOUNG. Just one more. With respect to floods on the Red River of the North. I just came back from North Dakota last Sunday. Practically all of the snow is gone on the North Dakota side and I think on the Minnesota side, in the upper reaches of the Red River Basin. If a flood occurs there, it would have to be at Grand Forks and the Pembina area, would it not? General CLARKE. I am speaking of the area from Grand Forks, north, and mostly on the Minnesota side of the river. That snow belt lies east of the Red River. I hope that we can confine it to a small area. General KOISCH. We might note the Weather Service is putting out an advisory every week. The next one is out on the 11th of this month. Depending on how they show up will have something to do with how much effort we put in. Senator STENNIS. Senator, there is another section here to this presentation. If you can, stay. If you cannot, that is entirely all right. We come now to what is called the general overview of the survey program of the corps. GENERAL INVESTIGATIONS STATEMENT OF F. P. KOISCH, DIRECTOR OF CIVIL WORKS ACCOMPANIED BY: BRIG. GEN. R. H. GROVES, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CIVIL WORKS HARRY COHEN, CHIEF, PROGRAMS DIVISION, CIVIL WORKS SURVEY PROGRAM Senator STENNIS. Would you give us a general statement of your survey program, including the increased cost and time required for compliance with some of the laws recently enacted by the Congress. Proceed, gentlemen. General KoISCH. Mr. Chairman General CLARKE. I have an airplane I have to meet. I wonder if you would be kind enough to excuse me. Senator STENNIS. We verv reluctantly will excuse you. We know General Koisch will do a good job. Thank you very much, General, for coming in. We will be eeing you. What do you want to do about your statement here, General? I will stay with you. We have to do the best we can on our time. I can stay with you. General KOISCH. If you permit me, I will submit the statement for the record. And for purposes of discussion here, I would like to highlight it. Senator STENNIS. I wish you would, and then we have some questions here we can ask you. With all of that together, we will have covered it. General KoISCH. Let me highlight three items. Senator STENNIS. We will insert the statement. (The statement follows:) PREPARED STATEMENT SURVEY PROGRAM All Civil Works construction is a follow on from preauthorization studies under the survey report activity. Basically the survey report activity involves the determination of immediate and long-term water resource development needs together with formulation of sound plans for meeting those needs in an orderly, efficient, and timely manner. Included are studies ranging from consideration of a relatively local navigation, flood control or beach erosion control improvement to consideration of a comprehansive multiple-purpose and multi-objective development of water and related land resources of a major river basin involving improvements under the programs of other Federal Agencies coordinated through the Water Resources Council. Our water and related land resources are being planned to serve man and at the same time provide for a quality environment. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Under current practice, specific projects and systems of projects for development of water and related land resources have been investigated for engineering and economic feasibility in studies and investigations specifically directed by Congress. The basic objective has been to formulate a program to meet the needs of an expanding national economy. However, with increased emphasis currently being placed on preservation and enhancement of the environment and other objectives such as regional development and the quality of life, new dimensions are being incorporated in the planning process and costs of carrying out the studies have been increasing. The Environmental Policy Act of 1969 specifically provides for the preparation of a 5-point Environmental Impact Statement as a part of or supplement to each report. Due to the advanced stage of completion of the reports for which these statements have been prepared to date, our efforts in this direction have been based largely on available information and have been relatively inexpensive. However, in keeping with the intent of the Act and in consideration of the comments we have received from the Environmental Council and other agencies, it is essential that our study efforts be expanded to assure that the environmental impacts are adequately analyzed and documented, and reflect the high level of coordination that is necessary to make these statements fully responsive to the Act. In many instances this will require increased staffing and use of consultants and will add to the costs of carrying out our pre-authorization study program. Inherent in this process is the need for greater public involvement in the planning process. We are devising procedures for accomplishing this objective. Such measures will add to the complexity and cost of conducting the survey program but in our opinion will led to a more efficient overall operation and make our reports more responsive to the public interest. BENEFIT-COST INDEX For the past two years a special task force of the Water Resources Council has been undertaking a review of the basic benefit-cost practices embraced within Senate Document No. 97 with a view to developing a revised and expanded statement of evaluation standards and procedures. The major thrust of this effort is the explicit recognition of the contribution of water resource development to the objectives of national economic development, regional development, environmental quality, and social well-being objectives. Water resources evaluation within this structure of multiple objectives would require a full display of all beneficial and adverse effects associated with each objective. Rather than there being a single measure of worth for a given project, namely the national efficiency benefit-cost index, there would be several measures, each displaying the relative merits of a given proposal in terms of its contribution to the several national objectives. These standards would also require that all benefits and costs be shown including secondary benefits and intangibles which heretofore have not been appropriately evaluated. Further, greater stress would be placed on the need to develop alternative plans where there may be conflicts in meeting multiple objectives. The initial task force report published in June of 1969 was the subject of extensive public hearings and was tested upon a number of representative projects. The final report of the task force on principles and procedures was submitted to the Council in June 1970 and is under review by the Council and the Executive Department. While these procedures have not yet been adopted, Section 209 of the 1970 Flood Control Act expresses the intent of Congress that these four objectives be included in Federally financed water resource projects, and in the evaluation of benefits and costs attributable thereto, giving due consideration to the most feasible alternative means of accomplishing them. WATER AND RELATED LAND RESOURCES The Water Resources Council has defined four types of water and related land resources planning activities: (1) The framework studies for large regions coordinated by a river basin commission or other Federal interagency state coordinating organization, are designed to develop a general appraisal of overall water and related land resource development needs as a guide to further detailed planning within each region; (2) the more detailed comprehensive regional or river basin studies of feasibility or survey scope, also accomplished through a coordinating organization, define programs in sufficient detail to recommend action plans and programs to be pursued by individual Federal, State, and local entities for projects to be initiated in the next 10 to 15 years (budgets for these two types of studies are coordinated through the Water Resources Council); (3) individually budgeted feasibility or survey scope studies of narrower geographic or analytic compass which are undertaken by a single agency for project or program authorization with cooperation as necessary be other Federal agencies and states; and (4) state and local political sub-division sponsored surveys of water and related land resources for all or part of a state in which one or more Federal agencies participate, e.g., the New York State study authorized by Section 214 of PL 89–298 and the Puerto Rico study authorized by Section 204 of PL 91-611. |