The Coolidge examiner., 1937-02-18
First Flood Check
Measure In United
States Was In 1717

MAN proposes, God disposes. "
That ancient adage can be aptly
applied to the problem of flood con-
troll.
First flood control measure N
this country was taken by NeT
Orleans in 1717, when a levee was
built First Federal action came IN
1850 when Congress appropriated
$500 for a survey of the Mls9is-
sipDi. Since that time billions or
dollars have been spent by various
units of government in attempts to
curb the destruction caused oy
rivers on a rampage. Since the
great 1927 flood alone, several
hundreds of millions of dollars nave
gone into dikes, levees, reservoirs.
II was widely believed that the
flood menace had at last been
eliminated. at least so far as i'm
portant centers of population were
toncerened. Then came 1897, ana
man-made devices again proved in
adequate.
AS a result, flood control, past,
present and projected, has AGAIN
become q national issue, is engag-
ing the attention of public men and
engineers alike.
Most flood control projects, as
Nicholas Roosevelt writes in the
New York Herald Tribune, "are
dealing with results, not causes:
They are seeking to curb the tam
age of the waters, not to curb Lne
waters themselves. If the waters
are to be curbed, land now given
to cultivation must be returned to
grass and woods, in order to hold
rain and prevent excessive run oil
Experiments have shown that where
the run-off in a grazed, cleared lot
is nine per cent, the run-Off in q
similar watershed which is unSrQz-
ed and timbered will be as little
as one-sixth of one per cent.
Obvious question is, Why, then,
have we spent our millions for
dams and levees and reservoirs
when we might have curbed the
water at its source?
In 1927, according to Time, army
engineers pointed out that 20 re-
duce a Mississippi flood ole foot
would require the holding out Of
100000 to 100000 acre-fcet Of
water. If 100000 acres of reforest-
ed land held back just ha'f-inCn
more water than would flow off
cultivated farm land, a flood vOulH
be reduced a half-inch and no more.
Similar objections were brought
out by the army to the building Of
headwater reservoirs-it was said
that at least $1,00O,000,000 would be
required if spent for this purpose,
to do as much good as $300,000,000
worth of levees.
This gives some idea of the
magnitude of the problem. And
the upshot is, according to Turner
Catledge of the New York Times,
that it is now proposed to promote
a coordinated, longtime program
dealing with reforestatiOn, up
stream control, prevention of soil
erosion, ETC., all measures which
steady the flow of water to the
sea. The evidence is now complete
that our past activities have been
too scattered to really solve the
scientific approach. 1t is estirlated
that at least 20 years would be re-
quired to complete such a program.
In the meantime, 27O different
control projects have been authoriz-
ed, at a cost of $3OO,OOO,OOO blythe
Flood Control Act of 1886 They
will affect every state, and be locat-
ed in 81 states. They include
reservoirs for the Marrimac River
Valley in Vermont and Massachu.
setts; levees along the Susquenhan-
ma; another series of reservoirs il
Pennsylvania. Virginia and Ken
tunck; levees along the upper Miss
lssippi in Iowa, Illinois and
Missouri; -levees, reservoirs and
debris basins in Southern Cali
fOrnia.
IL has been widely forecast thar