OCR Text |
Show and stabilizing the banks, the Corps.of Engineers reports th-at this work will result in substantial benefits from prevention of bank erosion. They estimate tSiat benefits resulting therefrom will be 17 million to 19 million dollars annually. Accord- ing to the Corps about 1.8 million acres on the flood plain will "benefit by having greater stability of pro- duction. The annual benefits thus are estimated to average a little over $9 an acre, excluding the points of major concentration of value such as bridges, a_:nd the cities and water works located along the river. Corps of Engineers current esti- mates of b»enefits from bank stabilization are a total of about 2 14 million dollars to date. Assuming the costs are allocated in proportion to benefits, tlie Corps of Engineers considers the total annual charges of the channel improvement assign- able to navigation must be 4.5 million dollars annually. The estimated annual navigation bene- fits are $7,850,000. In 194S on the reach from Kansas City to the mouth, total traffic was 797,214 tons and on the reach from Sioux City to Kansas City 810,507 tons of freight were moved. The total ton-miles amounted to 38.4 million. About 60 percent of the tonnage, but considerably less than an equiva- lent percentage of the ton-miles, was for construc- tion materials in connection with improvement of the river. In a 1950 survey by the Corps of Engineers to determine the potential commerce that was suitable and economical for transport on the completed navigation channel, it was found that around 4 million tons were presently available. The Corps anticipates that over 5 million tons will be trans- ported a. total of over 4 billion ton-miles after completion of the channel and reasonable time for development. This may be 20 years. The over-all ratio of benefits to cost for the channel improvement project is 1.66 to 1, based on annual benefits of $7,850,000 from navigation and 17 million dollars from bank stabilization and annual costs of 15.6 million dollars. Except for local works constructed on the initia- tive of local interests, the navigation investment is nonreimbursable. Flood Control Incomplete information was available in Novem- ber 1950 as to flood control costs and damages. On completed flood control projects of the Corps of Engineers, annual Federal carrying charges are estimated roughly to be 2.2 million dollars-allocat- ing a sixth of the cost of Fort Peck to flood control. These annual carrying charges include interest at 3 percent during construction and thereafter, an amortization period of 50 years, and operation and maintenance charges. Annual benefits are cal- culated at roughly 3.7 million dollars. This gives a benefit-cost ratio on completed projects of approxi- mately 1.6 to 1. Certain of these projects have had a much more favorable ratio. A levee project at Glasgow in 12 years prevented flood damages over four times the construction cost of the project. The $730,000 levee project at Topeka has prevented over 1 million dollars worth of damages in 7 years. Flood damages in the last decade have been large; the 1947 damage alone was estimated to have been 200 million dollars. The Corps of Engi- neers estimates that at the present stage of develop- ment of the Missouri system flood plains, a recur- rence of the floods of the past 10 years would cause losses of 600 million dollars. Eleven flood control projects are under construc- tion. Allocating costs in proportion to allocated reservoir capacity, total cost for flood control of these projects is estimated to be 16 million dollars. Flood control benefits for 10 projects are estimated at approximately 20 million dollars, without con- sidering correlative benefits. The benefit-cost ratio is estimated to be over 1.35 to 1 for projects under construction. The Corps of Engineers de- scribes its flood control program as "amply justified." Annual carrying charges for flood control on proj- ects authorized but not yet under construction are estimated to be 4 million dollars, with benefits esti- mated at 7 million dollars. On this basis the bene- fit-cost ratio on these projects is 1.75 to 1. The Corps of Engineers recognizes some benefits from flood control in the basin which are not sub- ject to estimate in monetary form, or capable of entering into a benefit-cost ratio. Most important among them is preventing loss of human life. Bureau of Reclamation projects also provide flood control benefits and carry corresponding al- locations of costs and carrying charges. In addi- tion, the works of the Department of Agriculture yield some benefits from a reduction of flood and sedimentation damages, but its estimates do not carry any cost allocation for these purposes. 191 |