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Show -105- Senator McCarran. The Department of Agriculture, Mr. Phillips. Statement of George R. Phillips, Office of Land Use Coordination, Department, of Agriculture Mr. Phillips. My name is George R. Phillips, I am of the office of Land Use Coordination, Department of Agriculture* I do not have much to add, Mr. Chairman, to the report of the Department favoring the compact, and the enact- ment of the proposed legislation* Senator McCarran. That report is here? Mr» Phillips. It is before the committee, I believe; yeso Senator MoCarran. That will also be put in the record at this point* Senator Butler. I request that the following letter from E. H* Wiecking, land-use coordinator, Department of Agriculture, be inserted in the reoord at this timet Department of Agriculture, Washington, March 12, 19U3« Hon. Hugh Butler, United States Senate• Dear Senator Butler: I have your letter of February 27 with the attached copy of a letter to Commissioner John C. Page of the same date* A report on the upper Republican River Basin in the States of Neb- raska, Colorado, and Kansas was prepared for guidance of Department act- ivities under the water facilities program about a year and a half ago» This report contained rather comprehensive information on the upper Republican Basin with regard to its water and land resources and agri- cultural developments to date and potentialities for the future. In general, information on the basin was divided into reports on various segments, or subareas, of it. In the report on the portion of the basin in which I gather you are most interested, that designated as the western section of the main stem of the Republican River between Benkleman in Dundy County, and the eastern line of Gosper and Furnas Counties, it was brought out that soils there , as in other parts of the basin, are very fertile. In the subarea referred to, they belong to the Chestnut and Chernozem soil groups. Yfithin this subarea the rainfall averages about 19 inches in the western portion and nearly 23 inches in the eastern portion,, and 2,39& square miles contribute to surface discharge. The mean annual discharge is 52*800 acre-feet. In addition to that originating within this segment, some other water is avail- able from upstream discharge so that a total of 80,600 acre-feet of water could be available for use in this area under the water facilities plan for the basin as a whole. Within the subarea there are 56,653 acres of first-grade irrigable land. The report recommends that the available water supply be utilized for the irrigation of JL4.3*09^4- acres of this land sinoe |