NAVIGABLE BARGE CHANNEL ACROSS FLORIDA HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 2426 A BILL TO PROMOTE THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AND TO H. R. 6999 AN ACT TO PROMOTE THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AND TO 74347 JUNE 29, 30, JULY 1 AND 2, 1942 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1942 Hon. J. Hardin Peterson, a Representative in Congress from the First Roy Miller, active vice president of the Intracoastal Canal Association -11, 179 E. B. Germany, representing_Independent Oil Men's Emergency Transportation Committee, Dallas, Tex.......... Judge Oscar C. Dancy, county judge, Cameron County, Tex.. Henry H. Buckman, consultanting engineer, Washington, D. C.. Maj. Gen. Eugene Reybold, Chief of Engineers, War Department, Washington, D. C................ Robert E. Allen, Assistant Deputy Petroleum Coordinator for War. Ralph J. Schilthus, Assistant Director of Coordination, Office of the Aldace F. Walker, vice president, Trans-American Pipe Line Cor- Vincent G. Shinkle, consulting petroleum engineer, Trans-American Paul Hadlick, counsel, Trans-American Pipe Line Corporation Lt. Col. Paul Llewellyn, Resources Branch, Services of Supply, War Hon. Scott W. Lucas, United States Senator from the State of Illinois_ D. R. Knowlton, Director of Production, Office of Petroleum Coor- Rene F. Glerc, Washington representative, Board of Commissioners John Festa, consulting engineer, United States Asbestos Cement Pipe Carl Hanton, member of the Okeechobee Flood Control Board, Fort 69 Hon. Laurence F. Arnold, a member of the House of Representatives 102 Hon. John E. Rankin, a Representative in Congress from the First 105 Rear Admiral J. F. Hottell, United States Coast Guard, retired 108 111 Lt. H. L. Hunt, Corps of Engineers, United States Army.. 114 117 Allan K. Swann, general counsel and secretary, Tri-State Petroleum 127198 Cleveland A. Newton, general counsel, Mississippi Valley Association, CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF PIPE LINE AND NAVIGABLE BARGE CHANNEL ACROSS FLORIDA MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1942 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON RIVERS AND HARBORS OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, in the hearing room of the Senate Committee on Commerce, in the Capitol, at 10:30 a. m., Senator Josiah W. Bailey, chairman of the Committee on Commerce, presiding. Present: Senators Bailey (chairman), Caraway, Clark of Missouri, Bilbo, Radcliffe, Pepper, Lee, Vandenberg, and Barbour. Also present: Senator Burnet R. Maybank, Senator Tom Connally, and Representative J. Hardin Peterson of Florida. The CHAIRMAN. The subcommittee will come to order. This is a meeting of the Subcommittee on Commerce known as the Subcommittee on Rivers and Harbors, of which Senator Caraway is chairman. She has asked me to preside. We have before us two bills, with an amendment. The first bill is H. R. 6999, which I will read [reading]: [H. R. 6999, 77th Cong., 2d sess.] AN ACT To promote the national defense and to promptly facilitate and protect the transport of materials and supplies needful to the Military Establishment by authorizing the construction and operation of a pipe line and a navigable barge channel across Florida, and by deepening and enlarging the Intracoastal Waterway from its present eastern terminus to the vicinity of the Mexican border Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, in order to promote the national defense and to promptly facilitate and protect the transport of materials and supplies needful to the Military Establishment, there is hereby authorized to be constructed under the direction of the Secretary of War and the supervision j of the Chief of Engineers a high-level lock barge canal from the Saint Johns River across Florida to the Gulf of Mexico in accordance with the plans set forth in the letter of the Chief of Engineers dated June 15, 1942, and that there is also authorized the enlargement of the present Intracoastal Waterway from the vicinity of Apalachee Bay to Corpus Christi, Texas, and its extension to the vicinity of the Mexican border so as to provide throughout the entire length of the canal a channel twelve feet deep and one hundred and twenty-five feet wide: Provided, That between Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana, the project shall be modified in accordance with the recommendations of the Chief of Engineers in his report dated April 27, 1942: Provided further, That the Chief of Engineers is authorized within reasonable limits to vary, in his discretion, the above-prescribed dimensions wherever advisable: And provided further, That pending the completion of the aforesaid navigable channels there is authorized to be constructed under the direction of the Secretary of War and the supervision of the Chief of Engineers one or more pipe lines, as 1 |