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Show reservoirs will be located. Aside from the actual responsibility for such improvements, the reim- bursability of costs so incurred is also a question. The States are required to participate in the expense of some fish and wildlife developments within their boundaries. This contrasts with irri- gation, power, or flood control developments, all the direct benefits of which may accrue within a single State but for which no State contribution is required. Experience on the Columbia as a Basis for Standard Evaluation and Financing This brief analysis of project economics has dis- closed a number of weaknesses in present proce- dures which should be rectified to meet the require- ments of comprehensive basin program develop- ment. In the first place, in its efforts to evaluate the water resources program thus far developed in the Columbia Basin, the Committee could obtain no published figures for costs and benefits of the entire program by function, particularly in the absence of estimates for flood control and navigation. This is true in part because the available information has never been segregated and assembled, but also because final cost and benefit allocations have not been made for many of the multiple-purpose struc- tures already constructed or under construction. It would appear that substantial advantages could be derived from viewing the economic aspects of the entire program relating to a specific function, particularly if basin accounts are to apply to water development. In the future on all river basin programs which are proposed for authorization, it would seem desirable to maintain accounting by function in the program, so as to assist in program evaluation. Otherwise, no rational analysis or review of the functional parts of a program is pos- sible. Analysis would have to be confined to the program as a whole or to individual projects. In the second place, in order to schedule develop- ments so as to undertake first those promising the greatest total gain to the region and Nation, the costs and benefits of the important alternative pos- sibilities for given projects should be available. In the analysis of irrigation project costs and benefits, for example, the committee discovered that while some comparisons were available for irrigation areas other than those proposed, practically no data exist on costs and benefits for incremental amounts of production on land in need of drainage, land re- quiring clearing, or other methods of increasing production in the humid areas in the country. If development policy is to proceed on the basis gen- erally recommended, studies of costs and benefits of other forms of reclamation and of improvement of existing farm lands will be essential. The same situation applies in considering navigation and other forms of transportation, where satisfactory cost comparisons have not been available. In the third place, because of the pressure result- ing from the continuing development of primary phases of the Columbia Basin program, the Fish and Wildlife Service has found it necessary to em- bark on this program with inadequate basic scien- tific knowledge. Had sufficient research funds been available earlier, adequate information likely would now be available to guide the program. As similar river programs are developed else- where, the necessity for launching some critical in- vestigative programs will become apparent. In such cases, it would be well to determine imme- diately what basic scientific information will be necessary to carry out the program properly. Where such information is essential, early appropriation for collection, analysis, and interpretation is an indispensable prelude to efficient planning, con- struction, and operation. In the fourth place, despite the fact that the Columbia Basin program already has developed far beyond the initial construction stage, no informa- tion is available as to costs of a program of water- shed control because the Department of Agriculture had not been able earlier to prepare a comprehen- sive watershed program. In the Columbia Basin there is at present little evidence for assuming that the completed agricultural survey will cause major modifications of the comprehensive plan. 35 |
