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Show 130 Congress in 1928 enacted flood-control legislation which fur- ther broadened federal responsibility.16 It adopted a project for control of floods of the Mississippi River in its alluvial valley in accordance with a plan of the Army Engineers,18 and authorized appropriations of $325,000,000 in addition to the unexpended balance of appropriations under the 1917 and 1923 legislation." Significantly, this legislation reaffirmed the prin- ciple of local contribution, but provided that it would not be required here because of large expenditures in the past by local interests.18 It should also be noted that, while the 1928 Act made immediate provision only for the extension of the levee system and diversion floodways, it also directed the completion of studies for supplementing the levees by a system of tributary reservoirs.19 Prior flood protection had depended principally on confine- ment of water to rivers by means of levees, with resulting diffi- culties from increase in flood heights, and studies showed that reservoirs were necessary to reduce flood heights.20 Before 1936, Congress gave express recognition to this use of reservoirs in legislation relating to specific multiple-purpose projects.21 From the interstate nature of the problem of controlling floods, it became increasingly apparent that federal action was de- sirable to assure protection which often required an integrated system of reservoirs and levees, usually affecting more states than one. Following major floods in 1935 and 1936, Congress for the first time authorized numerous flood-control projects through- 18 Act of May 15,1928, 45 Stat. 534. M Set forth in H. Doc. No. 90, 70th Cong., 1st sess. (1927). " § 1, 45 Stat. 534,33 U. S. C. 702a. M § 2, 45 Stat. 535, 33 U. S. O. 702b. 19 § 10, 45 Stat. 538, 33 U. S. C. 702j. *° Hazen, Flood Flows : A Study of Frequencies and Magnitudes, p. 172 (1930) ; COMPREHENSIVE REPORT ON RESERVOIRS IN MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN, H. Doc. No. 259, 74th Cong., 1st sess. (1936) ; Ohio River, H. Doc. No. 306, 74th Cong., 1st Sess. (1936) ; Report of the Chief of Engineers, Com. Doc. No. 1, 75th Cong., 1st sess. (1937). "Act of December 21, 1928, § 1, 45 Stat. 1057, 43 U. S. C. 617 (Boulder Canyon); Act of May 18, 1933, 48 Stat. 58, as amended, 16 U. S. C. 831 et seq. (Tennessee Valley); Act of August 30, 1935, § 2, 49 Stat. 1028, 1039 (Parker and Grand Coulee). |