The Office of Emergency Preparedness has requested the Corps to undertake: Demolition and debris removal of 200 residences and 30 to 50 business buildings. Restore water systems including repair and restoration of five dams and five wells. Provide temporary surface water lines to areas without potable water. Repair roads, streets, and sidewalks-earth is still moving-this may take 5 months. Repair sewage system-damage expected to be extensive. Rebuild a large storm drain; also part of county drainage system. Reduce a potential landslide area. COORDINATION WITH NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY Senator PASTORE. May I ask a question, Mr. Chairman? Senator STENNIS. Yes; I do not want to decline any Senator, but overall, let us shove on. I know you will. Senator PASTORE. I just want to ask one question before you move on to the budget request, because I have to leave. Is there any conflict between the Corps and the National Environmental Agency with reference to the environment? General CLARKE. I do not think there is any conflict. Senator PASTORE. Is there cooperation? Is there good liaison? Senator PASTORE. Because you do say, "Under the guidance of the Environmental Protection Agency." Is this a close association? General CLARKE. We have a close association, and what I am speaking of is regarding waste water treatment. Senator PASTORE. My experience has been sometimes the agency will do what it likes and another agency will come along and say that is not enough. We get ourselves into controversies that actually agitate the public without any just cause and we get into areas of emotion. General CLARKE. Here we have a capability that is not being fully used in this field and there is more than enough for everybody. We will not be duplicating anything. Senator PASTORE. Good. If I may be excused Senator STENNIS. Yes, sir. Thank you for coming by. You come back whenever you can. Senator PASTORE. Yes; if I get through in time. Senator STENNIS. Any time, today or any day. All right, sir. BUDGET REQUEST General CLARKE. I will now discuss the budget request which the President has submitted for the Corps civil works program amounting to $1,416,109,000. The request is $109 million greater than the appropriations made for fiscal year 1971, plus the $9,550,000 in budgeted supplemental appropriations requests to pay a part of the costs of approved classified pay and wage board increases during the current fiscal year. This comparison is not really a valid one in terms of new funds made available in the current year and proposed for the fiscal year 1972 because of budgetary reserve funds either being withheld or released in the 2 years. On that basis, the new money available in fiscal year 1971 would be $1,419 million compared to $1,457 million for fiscal year 1972, or a difference of $38 million. DISPOSAL AREAS FOR POLLUTED MATERIAL The 1972 request is predominantly for continuing, but slowed-down, progress on construction projects that were in the 1971 budget. The single most significant contributor toward the increased requirements is the $41 million requested under our operation and maintenance appropriation to initiate the diking of disposal areas to receive polluted material from the dredging of Great Lakes harbors. FISCAL YEAR 1971 BUDGETARY RESERVE The funds for 1971 budgeted new starts and for most of the prior year new starts which were not underway before January 1, 1971, have now been released from budgetary reserve, and those projects will be permitted to start in fiscal year 1971, or as soon thereafter as they can be scheduled to start. Funds for the continuation of work on those projects are contained in the new budget. The amounts which the Congress added to the 1971 budget request for new starts of planning, land acquisition or construction, and any increased amounts for budgeted projects, are to remain in budgetary reserve for release in fiscal year 1972 or later. The total amount in reserve is $45,649,000, of which $40,504,000 is now scheduled for release in fiscal year 1972. There are no funds in the 1972 request to continue the new planning, land acquisition, or construction projects which the Congress added to the 1971 budget request. Also, where 1971 budget amounts were increased by the Congress, those increased amounts will be used to supplement the 1972 amount required for the continuation of project work. The new request proposes the initiation of construction of eight projects, including one feature of the Mississippi River and tributaries project, and the initiation of five new planning projects. The total estimated Federal cost of the eight construction projects is under $120 million and of the five planning projects is $16,580,000. CONSTRUCTION, GENERAL Under the Construction, General, appropriation, we are asking for just under $847 million, generally to continue work at a considerably slower rate than would be required to meet the schedules presented to you last year. About half of the continuing construction projects. in this request show delays from the schedules of last year due to the funding level. The seven new construction projects under this appropriation title will require funds in the amount of $3,844,000. Our program of advance engineering and design will require $16,795,000, of which $205,000 is for the five new planning starts. In view of the important contributions which all of these projects, both continuing and new, will make to the economy of the Nation, and to the security and well-being of so many of its citizens, I ask that you provide the full amount of the request. MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES The budget request is $80,966,000 for the Mississippi River and tributaries project. Past actions of this committee are certainly evidence enough that you fully recognize the importance of this project, which is so vital to the lower Mississippi Valley. The budgeted amount will be augmented by the release from budgetary reserve in fiscal year 1972 of the $4,332,000 which Congress added to the 1971 budget request. OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE, GENERAL The request for the Operation and Maintenance, General, appropriation is $399 million and, as I mentioned previously, a substantial part of the increase in this request over last year is due to the $41 million required for the program of diking areas for the disposal of polluted materials dredged from the channels and harbors of Great Lakes projects. DIKING GREAT LAKES DISPOSAL AREAS The program is intended to terminate the open lake disposal of polluted material so as to insure that there will be no possibility of further deterioration of the water quality of the lakes from that source. Its effective implementation will require compliance with the provisions of Section 123 of the River and Harbor Act approved December 31, 1970. This section calls for the local assumption of responsibility for providing the lands and rights-of-way for the disposal areas, for a 25-percent contribution to the cost of constructing the facilities, and for their maintenance after completion. The contribution toward construction may be waived by the Secretary of the Army if the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency finds that the responsible entity is participating in an approved plan for upgrading its waste treatment facilities and that applicable water quality standards for the area are not being violated. APPLICATION OF REFUSE ACT Another very important step which the Department of the Army and the Corps proposes to take toward improvement of the quality of our navigable streams and their tributaries is in the vigorous application of the permit requirements of section 13 of the 1899 River and Harbor Act, now commonly known as the Refuse Act. The Federal Register of December 31, 1970, specifies the proposed policies and procedures we expect to follow in carrying out that act utilizing the $1 million appropriated in the Supplemental Appropriation Act for 1971 to initiate the inspection and monitoring of effluent discharges into our streams. This budget contains $4 million to continue the monitoring on a year-round basis. The balance of the increased requirements under this appropriation are for new project completions, for projects coming to fuller operational status, for wage board and classified salary increases, for higher price levels on contract work and supplies, and for the upgrading of sanitary facilities for the visiting public. GENERAL INVESTIGATIONS Turning our attention now to the General Investigations appropriation, the budget request is for $50,169,000, which is more than $10 million larger than the 1971 appropriation. A substantial part of that increase is due to the intensified effort we consider essential in the prosecution of some of the surveys in the special studies category. One of these is the Chesapeake Bay Basin study, where construction of the hydraulic model of the bay should proceed rapidly if we are to have a sound bas s for the protection and wise use of ths valuable natural resource. Another is the Northeastern United States Water Supply study where our time is growing ever shorter to evolve the regional plans for insuring safe and efficient domestic water supply systems for this center of great urban concentration. Other increases will be noted in the research and development category, particularly in our civil works investigations program where we have a pressing need to move forward rapidly into many promising fields of investigation. ANNUAL WATER RESOURCES REPORT The Institute for Water Resources has been pursuing many of these studies and will continue investigations in the environmental area. The institute is doing a fine job and I have its second annual report to give to the committee at this time. Senator STENNIS. I look forward to examining this report and it shall be available within the files of the Committee. GENERAL EXPENSE General CLARKE. It is axiomatic that our plans for water resource development and use will only be as sound, effective, and well-balanced as the talents of the employees available to conceive, develop, and manage them. With that in mind, I urge your favorable consideration of our General Expenses request for $27,745,000. This is an increase of $879,000 over the amount for the current fiscal year, including a proposed fiscal year 1971 supplemental appropriation request to cover the costs of classified pay increases. PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS The increased funds will permit us to hire 34 additional people, of whom 26 would be for division offices, six for my staff here in Washington, and two for the staff of the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors. Twenty-four of these new positions are essential to, and directly related to, our ability to conceive well-balanced plans and to make regulatory decisions which give appropriate weight to environmental and ecological considerations. The remaining 10 are required to enhance our field capabilities in investment planning and programing and, though not so directly involved with environmental considerations, these positions will assure that the corps future investment programing gives proper consideration to environmental and social factors as well as to the traditional economic criteria of the past. FLOOD POTENTIAL, FISCAL YEAR 1971 Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I would like to give you a report on the flood potential we see in 1971, before ending my state ment. Senator STENNIS. Very well. General CLARKE. The greatest flood potential now existing as a result of above-normal snowpack is found in the Upper Mississippi River Basin in Minnesota, northern Iowa, northwestern Illinois, and Wisconsin and the portion of the Red River of the North Basin in Minnesota. Severe flooding could well develop in any of these areas of heavy snow cover in the event of abnormal meteorological conditions such as widespread rainfall with very rapid snowmelt and severe ice action. In addition to the Upper Mississippi and Red River of the North Basins, recent snow surveys indicate above-normal snow cover in the Cascade and northern and central Sierra Nevada Mountains of the west coast States, on watersheds of the Snake River in Idaho, in central and northern Utah, northern Colorado, in Wyoming and southwest Montana, and Lake Superior drainage in Wisconsin, and in the New England States. Water content of the snow cover is especially heavy throughout Wisconsin, averaging 5 inches over the State, and ranging from 3 to 4 inches in the southern part to 6 to 8 inches in the northern areas with a maximum of over 12 inches in the Lake Superior drainage. If major flooding develops, it is anticipated that greatest damage would occur in the Chippewa, Black, Trempealeau, and Wisconsin River Basins. The National Weather Service believes that the present heavy snow cover in Minnesota and Wisconsin could produce moderate to severe flooding over most of the Upper Mississippi Basin above Guttenburg, Iowa. Also, the present snow cover alone could produce flooding in the Red Lake River Basin and in the Red River of the North mainstream and tributaries in Minnesota at and below Grand Forks. OPERATION FORESIGHT 1971 I might also add the snow potential in Alaska above Fairbanks is at the highest on record. And this morning, the White House, the Office of Emergency Preparedness, the Weather Service, and the Corps of Engineers announced a new Operation Foresight 1971, similar to the operation we had in 1969. So we will be visiting all of the areas that I mentioned here. We have been actually at work in this area since January, visiting with the Governors and the local communities. But I thought you would like to be brought up to date. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. As you note, I have General Koisch and his staff. Collectively, we will be glad to answer any questions you may wish to ask at this time and, of course, the division engineers will present the details of the work in their areas of responsibility. Senator STENNIS. Thank you, General, thank you for a splendid statement. Thank you for this annual report on water resources and for the additional report you gave us with reference to the flood control planning for 1971. |