Senator FLETCHER. I asked as to the size. Senator HoWELL. You asked as to the size of the river. If you have been in the city of Omaha, it is about as large as the river is at Omaha, because the river is not reinforced particularly between that point and Omaha. Last summer I got in contact with the United States engineer at Kansas City and asked him if he would not accompany me to Niobrara and he did so, and we went over the ground together. Of course, before a definite work was undertaken, there should be a survey. However, a mere inspection indicates about what is necessary and gives one a very fair idea of about how much must be expended. Senator SACKETT. How long a strip has to be protected? Senator HOWELL. A strip, I should say, possibly from half a mile to three-quarters of a mile has to be protected there. Senator RANSDELL. It takes about $300,000 per mile on the lower river, but it would not be nearly as expensive where you want this work done. Senator HOWELL. No; it will not be so expensive. However, we would want the same kind of mattress work. The mattresses would not have to be quite so large. Senator RANSDELL. But the same character of work? Senator HOWELL. The same character of work as on the lower river. We have had some experience in Omaha, as the waterworks are located on the south bank of the Missouri River, about 6 miles above Omaha, and the river is right in close to the works. Senator RANSDELL. Do you find it cost as much as $300,000 to do that work and protect your bank by revetment and mattresses? Senator HOWELL. Yes. We have not been compelled at that point to protect so large section on the north side of Omaha-we are on the south side-but from time to time we have expended something like $300,000 ourselves upon the north side of the Missouri River to maintain the channel in front of our works and intake. But, as I say, it is not difficult to determine by mere inspection what is necessary at Niobrara, and I think the engineer at the time determined what was necessary. Senator GOULD. What is your method of protection there? Is it by driving piles or ripraps on the banks? Senator HOWELL. By weaving willow mattresses. Senator GOULD. How deep is the water there, where it is scouring out now? Senator HoWELL. At Niobrara? Senator GOULD. Yes. Senator HOWELL. I suppose the water at ordinary stage there now may be 18 to 20 feet. Senator GoULD. What is the subsoil or foundation there? Rock or hardpan? Senator HOWELL. There are comparatively few places where you reach rock. The bed of the river is over rock in eastern Nebraska and in South Dakota. Senator GOULD. But where this scouring out for a half to threequarters of a mile there is is occurring, it is simply washing off the soil to either rock or hardpan? Senator HOWELL. Yes. Well, it is not necessarily hardpan. It is simply the river forms a channel as near a semicircle as the size and depth of the water requires, and when it reaches the semicircle the maximum velocity takes place, and it cuts in on the bank; and it is an alluvial bank, sand and soil deposited in the past; and by weaving these mattresses and floating them on the water and then weighting them with rock, you, as it were, clothe that side of the river bank. Senator GOULD. That is all I was trying to get at; what kind of construction was required to stop this scouring; whether it would be mattresses, or walls built, or piles driven, or what it would be. Senator HOWELL. The only piles that would be used would be used to anchor the mattresses. Senator GOULD. Yes; I see. Senator HOWELL. However, there is another method that has been referred to here; the method used by the Woods Bros.; the work they put in retards to decrease the velocity of the water and thereby cause a deposit rather than an erosion of the silt. Senator RANSDELL. About what is the depth of your alluvial deposit there, Senator, before you get down to the hardpan that Senator Gould speaks of? Senator HOWELL. There are comparatively few places where you reach hardpan. At Omaha the rock comes pretty close to the surface, and there it is 17 to 18 feet below the surface at average mean water. Senator RANSDELL. Probably more than that at Niobrara? Senator HOWELL. Probably more than that at Niobrara. I am not familiar with that. Senator RANSDELL. That is rich alluvial soil until you do strike the hard bottom? Senator HOWELL. Yes. If we wait, before doing anything, until the War Department gets around to make a survey and then reports to Congress the damage may be done. I urged them to make a survey last summer, but they told me that they only had about $50,000 to $60,000, and that they had allocated it for other work. It seemed to me that they ought to have done it then, because it would not have cost but a few thousand dollars, and they would have been able to report definitely at this time. If nothing is done, it is not probable that anything can be done before next year, and possibly the next year. Senator SACKETT. How close is the bank caving now to the town? Senator HOWELL. The bank is caving right within the municipal limits of Niobrara. The main section of the town now is something less than a half mile from the river bank. Senator SACKETT. And you say the railroad runs between the town and the river? Senator HoWELL. No; the railroad crosses the Niobrara River and then turns to the right, and then the town is off here to the left. Senator NORRIS. Senator, do not let them get the idea that the railroad is between the town and the river. The railroad crosses the Niobrara River, and not the Missouri River; and between the town and the river there is nothing but vacant lots. Senator FLETCHER. That is all cultivated? Senator NORRIS. Right there it is not, because it is a part of the town, and it is as level as this table. Senator FLETCHER. How far is the point where the Niobrara empties into the Missouri from the town? Senator NORRIS. Above the town. I should say not more than half a mile. I am just speaking from memory about that. It may be more and it may be less. Senator TYSON. Senator Howell, will you make a drawing of that situation there? Senator NORRIS. What do you think about that, Senator; how far above the town is the mouth of the Niobrara; I mean where it comes into the Missouri? Senator HOWELL. Where it comes in, the mouth of the Niobrara is about a half to three-quarters of a mile from the business section of the town. Senator FLETCHER. There is about as much danger from the Niobrara River as from the Missouri River? Senator HOWELL. No; the Niobrara River does not threaten the town in any way. The floods on the Niobrara are very short-lived. You see this shows how it runs into the Missouri River [handing drawing to Senator Tyson]. Senator FLETCHER. If you got this resolution passed, you still could not go on until you got your appropriation, and I do not see that you can get started before June or July. Senator TYSON. This is the town down below, and the water is running against here [indicating on drawing]? That is what you are afraid of, and its coming in here and eating the bank out [indicating]? Senator HOWELL. Yes. Unless something is done promptly, the worst may happen. Senator RANSDELL. Can you give us an idea of the rate of cutting that has been going on there in the last three or four years; the amount of the bank that has caved, annually? Senator HOWELL. No; I can not do so, because we have not the data. We had maps at the time I was there, and the War Department has maps which indicate in a general way about what has taken place. Senator TYSON. Have any houses actually fallen in? Senator HOWELL. No; it has not reached the buildings as yet. Senator SACKETT. Suppose we hear now from Senator McMaster. (Thereupon, the committee proceeded to the consideration of S. J. Res. 91, introduced by Senator McMaster.) [S. J. Res. 80, Seventieth Congress, first session] JOINT RESOLUTION Authorizing an appropriation for bank protection for the control of floods and the prevention of erosion of the Missouri River at and near the town of Niobrara in the State of Nebraska Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is authorized to be appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $250,000 for bank protection for the control of floods and the prevention of erosion of the Missouri River at and near the town of Niobrara in the State of Nebraska; said work to be carried on under the control and supervision of the Chief of Engineers of the War Department. STATEMENT OF SENATOR W. H. McMASTER, OF SOUTH DAKOTA Senator SACKETT. Senator McMaster has a joint resolution (S. J. Res. 91) authorizing an appropriation for bank protection for the control of floods and the prevention of erosion of the Missouri River at and near the town of Yankton, in the State of South Dakota. Will you proceed, Senator? Senator MCMASTER. Mr. Chairman, first I wish to reaffirm all of the statements made by the Senators from Nebraska (Mr. Norris and Mr. Howell) in regard to this project at Niobrara. I have visited Niobrara many times, and I know of the circumstances there and I know of the deep necessity that that community is in. However, I came here not only on behalf of that particular resolution but also another resolution which I introduced in reference to a project at Yankton. It is a continuation of the story of trials and tribulations of the people living on the Missouri River or Mississippi River. When I introduced my resolution I did it because of the fact that I had voted for a flood relief measure which involved identically the same principle as these resolutions involve, the protection of property on the Mississippi River, and the protection of property on the Missouri River. The difference in the two principles, as I understand it, is this, that in the Mississippi floods the water is over the land; and when the Missouri starts to go over the land it not only goes over the land but takes the land with it; and just south of Yankton at the present time there is great erosion that has taken place, and there are thousands of acres of land that are being taken and that will be taken. In addition to that there is one other circumstance surrounding this Yankton proposition. There is what is known as the Meridian Highway that extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Dominion of Canada, and this Meridian Highway is a national highway that was built by State and Federal aid, and at Yankton, S. Dak., crossing the Missouri, there was no bridge to complete the connecting link, and the citizens of Yankton, a small town of 5,000 people, raised $1,250,000 and built a bridge at Yankton to make the connecting link in that national highway. After that connecting link was completed it saved the tourists going through that part of the country a detour of practically 100 miles. They would have had to go by way of Sioux City or cross by ferryboats at various places; and, of course, ferry boats do not run after dark. Now, of course, the War Department have no authority-they claim that they have no authority, and that is correct, so far as being able to expend money at this point is concerned, because the city of Yankton is not under what is called the authorized navigation project. It will be only a short time, however, before it is so. I think even that the engineers in the War Department, or those interested in the proposition, will concede that both Yankton and Niobrara will soon be included in this project, and the only reason they are not included in it at the present time, in the Kansas City and Sioux City project, is that by accident there had not been a survey made at that time. Otherwise there is no question but what these points would have been included in that project. Now, I wish to reiterate the statements made by Senator Norris in answer to questions that were asked, I think, by the Senator from Mississippi. As I understand it from the report of the engineers of the War Department, lying north of Sioux City and Niobrara-and this includes Yankton and this territory [indicating on map]-there is about 200 miles subject to this erosion, where thousands and thousands of acres of land are taken in the Missouri River and carried away and deposited in the Mississippi River; and then all of that has to be dredged out at some future time and at great expense. I wish to reiterate that statement because it is, in my judgment, a matter of great importance. As far as precedents are concerned, I felt in coming before this committee that the Mississippi control bill itself was a sufficient precedent for work along this line without any question. I also wish to call the attention of the committee, if they need other precedents, to the fact that this bridge at Yankton forms the connecting link in this national highway. It was only the other day in the Senate that we voted some $200,000 or $300,000 to complete a connecting link in a highway in Oregon-in a national highway where the road ran through an Indian reservation. Yesterday out of the Indian Affairs Committee a bill for $250,000 was reported to complete a connecting link for a national highway in Wyoming, that road running through Indian land. This appropriation is not asked for the purpose of building a connecting link in a highway, but it is asked for the purpose of protecting a connecting link in the way of a bridge that cost $1,250,000. I do not want to take any more time. Senator FLETCHER. The bridge has already been constructed here? Senator McMASTER. Yes. Senator FLETCHER. This erosion takes place near the bridge? Senator MCMASTER. The erosion at present is taking place about a mile and a half west of the bridge, and if it continues, will cut the bridge out entirely and leave it on high and dry land. Senator LA FOLLETTE. That is, it will eat out the roadway? Senator MCMASTER. It will eat out the roadway constructed by State and Federal money, and will go right through and change the channel and leave the bridge on high and dry land, that cost $1,250,000. Senator SACKETT. You can not put the bridge on rollers? Senator LA FOLLETTE. And that was contributed by the citizens of Yankton? Senator MCMASTER. By the people, largely; by the citizens of Yankton. Senator TYSON. How long has that bridge been built? Senator MCMASTER. The bridge was completed about four years. ago. Senator SACKETT. Have you had an estimate of the cost of the work that is necessary? Senator MCMASTER. The War Department will have that report very shortly. I have had that matter up with them, and they sent |