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Show Chapter 11 Land Reclamation THE RECLAMATION ACTIVITIES of the Federal Government until recently have been mainly in the field of irrigation in the arid or semiarid West. Today these activities include actual and potential drainage programs in the more humid regions. Reclamation, in fact, em- braces not only irrigation and drainage but also flood control and the clearing of trees and brush from potential cropland. Reclamation of land for agriculture represents the oldest and most important activity associated with the building of this country. Initially it was the primary activity of the pioneers who came to these shores and pushed their way west- ward. Until the frontier reached the one hun- dredth meridian, which splits Nebraska in half, reclamation consisted largely in clearing the forests and reducing the land to the service of man. But as settlers pushed on into the West with its regions of scant rainfall, irrigation be- came the predominant form of reclamation. Policy Questions Congress has determined that reclamation is so important to the general welfare that it should be carried on with public funds, and that the fanner who cultivates and harvests the irrigated acres should pay only in accordance with his ability, based on the increased productivity of the land. There is no serious question as to this pol- icy. But the great expansion of the irrigation program to include higher and higher cost under- takings, the inclusion of irrigation projects in basin-wide multiple-purpose programs, the in- creasing social importance of hydroelectric power as a region builder, and the aspects of agricul- tural policy designed to assure the people abun- dant supplies of agricultural products without causing disastrous declines in farm prices-all have tended to raise issues requiring policy decisions. Certain of these issues concern the economic and financial aspects of irrigation programs. They affect the determination of economic jus- tification of projects and the need for adjustments in the general pay-out provisions to satisfy the present requirement of financial feasibility. The Commission has discussed these issues at some length in chapters 4 and 5, on evaluation and re- imbursement, recommending that the financial feasibility requirement be eliminated and the project justification be determined on the basis now applying to navigation, flood control, and other water resources projects. Other issues involve the Nation's agricultural policy and the fundamental purposes of reclama- tion undertakings. One of the most difficult concerns the use of reclamation to bring in new farm land while we are trying to dispose of seem- ing surpluses under the price support program. The broad question is: Why invest large Fed- eral funds in bringing new lands into production by irrigation or drainage at the same time that other large Federal funds are being expended in supporting prices in the face of seeming over- production from existing lands? 149 |
