OCR Text |
Show 409 objective is improvement of streams "for purposes of naviga- tion," and for the prosecution of such navigation improvement "in combination with" development for power, flood control, and irrigation. Thus, these surveys are concerned primarily with navigation improvement in much the same way as the Federal Power Commission surveys are concerned with power development. Mississippi River Flood Control.-In legislating for the control of floods in the Mississippi River, Congress in 1928 pre- scribed requirements moving in the direction of basin-wide, multiple-purpose planning.80 The Act directed the earliest practicable submission of the "308 Report" for the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and in addition specified that the flood-control reports therein authorized must include:91 the effect on the subject of further flood control of the lower Mississippi River to be attained through the con- trol of the flood waters in the drainage basins of the tributaries by the establishment of a reservoir system; the benefits that will accrue to navigation and agricul- ture from the prevention of erosion and siltage entering the stream; a determination of the capacity of the soils of the district to receive and hold waters from such res- ervoirs; the prospective income from the disposal of reservoired waters; the extent to which reservoired waters may be made available for public and private uses; and inquiry as to the return flow of waters placed "Act of May 15, 1928, 45 Stat. 534, 33 U. S. O. 702-702m. 91 § 10, 45 Stat. 538, 33 U. S. C. 702j. Suggestions of such provisions had appeared in earlier legislation. In 1921, the Mississippi River Commission was directed to survey the Atchafalaya, Black, and Red Rivers in Louisiana and to specify a plan that "will give the greatest measure of protection to the basins of said rivers from the flood water of the Mississippi River con- sistent with all other interests of the lower Mississippi Valley." Act of March 3, 1921, 41 Stat. 1354. In the same year, preliminary examinations were authorized for the Yazoo River in Mississippi and the Calaveras River in California in accordance with the provisions of the Act of March 1,1917. Act of July 29, 1921, 42 Stat. 146; Act of August 18, 1921, 42 Stat. 171. In 1924, such preliminary examinations and surveys were authorized for a number of other streams. Act of May 31, 1924, 43 Stat. 249. |