7. Unfit for livestock to drink, therefore destroyed pasture in many cases on account of being unable to fence. 8. Almost total destruction of all summer cottages along the bank of the stream. 9. Greatly affected value of city property in cities near the stream. 10. Destroyed value for ice. 11. Increase of stagnant water means increase of mosquitoes and gnats; making malaria more prevalent. 12. Destruction of all game fish. 13. The driving away of all fur-bearing animals from the main stream. 14. The depopulation of the river surface for health, pleasure, or residence. 15. The acid in the sewage shortens life of all boats. INCREASE HEIGHTS OF WATER. 1. Destruction of all timber on upper river above Havana. 2. Increased current velocity. 3. Obstruction to navigation on account of velocity. 4. Greater wind action on account of increased areas in back water and destruction of timber-same is great damage to navigation. 5. Destruction of timber line on the banks of the river above Peoria, have, and do make it almost impossible to navigate at night. This increases the number of lights and increases Federal expense. 6. Destruction of timber was the destruction of all natural mooring places. 7. Increased wave action on levees causing a great increase in maintenance caused by loss of timber and increased depth of water. 8. Loss of the use of land for agricultural purposes. loss, pasture. This includes crop 9. Destruction of pecan orchards and pecan forest trees from which the nuts are produced. 10. Destruction of all natural food and covering for water fowls, making it necessary to feed the same to attract them. 11. Increased pumping for levee districts both in days of operation, lift of water, and quantity of water pumped. 12. Filling at the mouth of all tributary streams. 13. Destruction of many roads leading to steamboat landings, thereby affect-· ing navigation. 14. Submerging of landing, thereby causing same to be raised. 15. Increase in the submerging of a part of the cities and villages. 16. Change in sewer systems in towns and villages, 17. Change in level of warehouses. 18. An invasion of real property rights, includes riparian owners and violation of the ordinance of Virginia. 19. It is the taking of property without due process of law. 20. Interference with interstate commerce by the interruption of railroad service. 21. Interference with delivery and transportation of United States mails by reason of flooding of post roads, streets, and railroads, 22. Interference with telephone, telegraph, light, and power service. 23. Under the conditions existing water is drawn heaviest from the canal when it does the greatest damage, namely-in periods or seasons of a heavy rain and times of great floods. 24. It tends to depopulate the entire valley. 25. It affects the value of adjacent grazing lands, to the extent of several miles back in the hills due to need for corn ground. 26. Affects value of improvements on higher land connected with injured lands in bottom. 27. Decreases the assessed value of the county in which the value is decreased and lessens total taxes assessed and collected in each county lying partly in the valley. 28. It saturates large acreages of other lands and renders them unfit for cultivation near the level of land that is flooded. 29. It makes much higher land unfit for cultivation because of low contours in the lands which are thus separated into high and low sections, thus making bad shapes of fields for cultivation. 30. It detaches various parts of the same body of land, thus rendering many otherwise valuable parts inaccessible. Permanent damages, not including flood of 1922. Damage since 1900: Timberland destroyed, 100,000 acres at $15. Pasture land destroyed, 65,000 acres at $1 for 15 years-$15 per acre Loss to cultivated land, 50,000 acres at $5 for 20 years-$100 (does not include levee land) – Extra cost of maintaining levees by pumping 180,000 for 16 years at $8____ Loss of crops in the field, stack, and bins before 1922 (12 years) on Extra cost of raising levees on account of raising water by reason Shellfish, no accurate estimate, but reduction due to pollution is Total.. $1,500, 000 975, 000 500, 000 1,440, 000 1,500,000 4,500,000 4, 520, 000 1,000,000 135, 000 350, 000 16, 420, 000 Damages by loss of personal property, livestock, stored grain, stored feed, and farm machinery $62, 500 Total damages and losses in drainage districts by reason of 1922 flood 2,653, 300 11, 740 15,000 8,800 100,000 185,000 10,500 115,000 150,000 9,300 10,000 860 8,600 17, 200 5,000 10,000 158, 550 831, 600 1,759, 200 DAMAGES TO LANDS OUTSIDE OF DRAINAGE DISTRICTS. Sangamon Valley, crop loss, 5,000 acres, at $20. Total damages to lands outside of drainage districts___. DAMAGES TO PUBIC UTILITIES. P. & P. Terminal. T. P. & W. Railroad. C. & A. Railroad... P. & P. Union Railroad_. C. & N. W. Railroad C. B. & Q. Railroad. B. & O. Railroad_ Post roads and bridges__ Illinois Bell Telephone Co.- Western Union Telegraph Co... Power companies in the valley Delay of United States mails by reason of interrupted service of railroads due to flood waters___. Total damages to public utilities. DAMAGES TO CITIES AND TOWNS. Peoria Pekin Liverpool (includes ice and ice house) Snicarte (elevator) ---. Browning (20 houses inundated) Frederick Beardstown: Business houses (200, at $1,000). Residence property (700, at $800) Household furnishings Flour mill_. Lawns Public buildings Public works. Ice houses__ Mexedosia. Naples Valley City. Total damages to cities and towns-- $100,000 15,000 115, 000 $25,000 10, 000 255, 000 10, 000 25,000 340,000 35,000 14,500 93, 600 150, 000 5,000 75,000 2,000 1,040, 100 $50,000 15,000 10, 000 1,500 10, 000 5, 000 200,000 56,000 14,000 10,000 25,000 7,000 19,000 20, 000 2,000 25, 000 5,000 497, 000 The $20,725,400 above mentioned does not include damages above Peoria, except as to cultivated lands outside of levees, and to the Hennepin district. We believe this damage is not proportionately as great as to property as it is below Peoria; though it is our opinion that the damages by polution is proportionately greater. The Chicago Sanitary District has the following named inlets respectively: 6,250 cubic feet of water per second by way of the Chicago River; 1,750 91739-24-PT 1-14 cubic feet per second through the north branch of the Chicago River from the Wilmette and Lawrence Avenue pumping stations to the south branch of the Chicago River; then the south branch of the Chicago River will carry 8,000 cubic feet per second to the west fork where it will be increased by 2,000 cubic feet per second will be added at Sag, Ill., the intersection of the Calumet-Sag Channel with the main channel of the sanitary district lying south of Eighty-seventh Street in the city of Chicago, which is known as the Calumet district, and to furnish additional water for oxidizing purposes for the sewage and drainage diverted to the main channel north of Sag, Ill. In 1906 the sanitary district made application to the Secretary of War for permission to construct the Calumet-Sag Channel. This is an adjunct to the main channel and extends from the main channel at Sag, Ill., easterly to the Little Calumet River at or near Blue Island. The maximum capacity is 2,000 cubic feet per second. It is designed to reverse the flow of the Little Calumet River at most times during the year and divert from Lake Michigan the sewage and drainage arising in that portion of the sanitary district lying south of Eighty-seventh Street in the city of Chicago, which sewage and drainage substantially passes into Lake Michigan by way of the Calumet River. Thirty-two miles from the mouth of the Chicago River near Lockport on the west side of the canal is constructed a controlling works equal to that of the canal. The locks or dams are of the weir type. The water flows from this weir into the Des Plaines River and then into the Illinois River. Two miles below the above described bear trap dam is constructed a power house with eight electric generators of 4,000 horsepower each and three small electric generators of 2.500 horsepower each. There is an extra stall or foundation built in which a generator has not been placed for another 4,000 horsepower. All of these generators are propelled by the water from the canal and the Des Plaines River. While these generators as now installed represent 39,500 horsepower they are not all in operation the full 24 hours per day, but it is our understanding that they generate something like 36.000 horsepower daily. This amount running half-time will produce more than 100,000,000 kilowatts annually, and by their own engineer's last statement it was 122,000,000 kilowatts in 1922; which sold at 2 cents per kilowatt an hour and charging off 50 per cent for operation, depreciation and collection will produce $1,200,000 annually-at the expense of the people in the valley. The heads at this point vary from 43 to 37 feet, with the amount of water that is being drawn from the canal. Below this point there are other water-power plants and sites owned by the State of Illinois and under the jurisdiction of the department of public works and division of waterways. With this statement we herewith submit a map of the inlets and adjacent territory from Lake Michigan to the Des Plaines River showing all the various inlets as above stated, marked "Exhibit D" and hereto attached. Also a map marked "Exhibit C" showing location, area and sea level elevation of the various Lakes. Exhibit D is a profile of the surface of the Illinois River. Following is a memorandum of Secretary of War, Mr. Stimson, January 8, 1913: "I do not for one moment minimize the importance of preserving the health of the great city of Chicago; but when a method of doing this is proposed which will materially injure a most important class of the commerce of the Nation and which will also seriously affect the interests of a foreign power, it should not be done without the deliberate consideration and authority of the representatives of the entire Nation. The weighing of the sanitation and possibly the health of one locality over against the consideration of our rela-en tions and obligations to Canada in respect to a great international waterway are not matters of mere technical or scientific deduction. They are broad questions of national policy. They are quite different in character, for example, from the question of fixing the proper location of a pierhead line or the height or width of a drawbridge over a navigable stream, fair samples th of the class of questions which come to the Secretary of War for decision under the above-mentioned act of 1899. While the researches and opinions of ex perts in the respective fields are necessary and useful as an assistance toward reaching a fair and proper policy, the final determination of that policy should belong not to an administrative officer but rather to those bodies to whom I we are accustomed to intrust the making of our laws and treaties." We would further state that we altogether agree with Mr. Stimson in his deductions and are firmly of the opinion that any power plant run by the sanitary district for the general health of the city like Chicago is entirely wrong; because it is a great temptation to cut loose at times when fuel is very scarce—as during the coal strike of 1922 when the greatest flood of record came down the Illinois River, for people in the valley all believe, and have reasons to so believe, that the flood never would have been half as disastrous had it not been for the coal strike in the bituminous fields of Illinois and other near-by States, thereby subjecting waterpower generally to increasing use, in place of coal. Permit us at this point to say that had the Illinois River been somewhat higher than it was at the time the March rains in 1922 began, so that an additional foot of elevation beyond that recorded had been reached, it is safe to assume that the entire valley, practically speaking, so far as levees are concerned, would have been wiped out. Which is to say, every district would have been flooded. This would have added incalculably to the loss experienced. While the damage to the Great Lakes has never been estimated to be more than from three to five million dollars, yet there have been three or four investigations by the Federal Government as to the damages caused by the withdrawal of the water from Lake Michiga We have had damages ranging all the way from $20,000.000 to $50,000,000 in the valley, still not a single investigation on the question of damages has been made by the Federal Government; yet it is a question of national policy, and we respectfully request of this committee before a report is made on any 10,000 C. F. S. bill that an investigation be made at least to the extent of knowing whether our statements are not substantially true, and if convinced that they are true we believe that this committee will be of the opinion that the Chicago water mill at Lockport should be junked, and the city of Chicago be compelled to treat their sewage completely within the next fi ve years, so that the flow of water from Lake Michigan into the Illinois River may be cut to 1,000 C. F. S., which amount is, in the judgment of the War Department engineers, sufficient to serve all purposes of navigation, an further for the reason that we believe the valley damage is irreparable. We further respectfully suggest that in such investigation the feasibility of placing a lock or controlling works in the Chicago River be considered as a means of preventing the backing up into Lake Michigan of said river during the sudden influxes of storm water, such as are now experienced and which are used as an additional reason for demanding an average flow of 10,000 C. F. S. We also call your attention to the fact that in the State law of 1889, creating the sanitary district, it was stated that before water would be permitted to flow through the canal proposed, dead animals and parts thereof, garbage, and other solids should be removed from the same. As we understand it. a start ha s been made to do this. It is now 35 years since the sanitary district was created. We feel that five years more is sufficient in which to complete works of sewage purification, which according to the statute should have been concurrent with completion of the other district works in 1900. In concl ision permit us to say that in an investigation of the Illinois River Valley, by General Wilson in 1867, it was stated substantially that owing to the character of said valley it would probably never be suitable for human habitation, except along its fringes, for the reason that it was timber, jungle, marsh, and low land, and therefore unhealthful. Since that time it has been wreste from the wilderness at a tremendous cost. It is among the most fertile valleys of America and in our limited Corn Belt. It is not. therefore, entita to exact and painstaking consideration? Certainly no great city can the endure which has no fertile lands tributary to it. Is it not axiomatic that ealth of nations comes from the soil? lon rir. BARRETT. We have a copy of this engineer's report here, and m wondering whether your stenographer will copy all of that, or ether we might have a duplicate of that from these engineers so t we could inspect it. Mr. JARMAN. I will give you a copy. Mr. BARRETT. And also a copy of your own statement? |