Mcallen Daily Monitor

PLANS RUSHED FOR CONGRESS CONSIDERATION
Federal Aid Reported Encouraging; Texas Has Appropriated Over $6,000,000.

AUSTIN. Dec. 8. (AP)- Engineers and geologists worked at top speed today to complete technical and economic data for proof before congress next month of Texas' right to $50,000,000 new deal funds to finance the southwest's largest water conservation and hydroelectric project on the Brazos river.

Encouraging tentative reports have been forwarded to Congressman J. P. Buchanan of Brenham, already in Washington. The veteran congressman and chairman of the house appropriations committee has shouldered the task of directing a campaign in congress to secure federal financing.

Buchanan's plan of action was incomplete pending final reports from the Texas technical staff substantiating the engineering and economic practicability of the gigantic project.

Meanwhile, Texans awaited the congressman's instructions.

They were optimistic, however, recalling recent statements of Buchanan that prospects would be materially bettered if Texas contributed a share.

Supporting that belief, the Texas legislature recently appropriated $6,180,000 property taxes over a 20-year period if congress would provide at least $30,000,000 by 1940.

Local sponsors understood that (Continued On Page Two)
Plans Rushed-

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federal funds aggregating $50,000,000 would be sought by a special act, either in the form of a grant and loan without interest, or merely an advance.

Two engineers and two geologists meanwhile trudged up and down reservoir and dam sites to confirm surveys of the Texas board of water engineers, which 10 years ago mapped out the comprehensive natural resource conservation program as the most necessary in Texas.

John A. Norris, chairman of the water board, was elated over tentative reports of the technical expert. He termed them very encouraging. No discrepancy in previous findings was uncovered, he said, although he explained if any were detected, there were many alternate dam sites available.

Site One of Best.

The site chosen for the largest power dam, Norris said recently, was pronounced by a veteran geologist "as one of the very best he had ever seen." It was the site in Palo Pinto county on the main stream of the Brazos river. It would impound 300,000 acre feet of water and its turbines would generate 21 per cent of the 300,000,000 kilowatt hours annual output of the entire project.

The field force planned to complete its recheck of data before Christmas. Two engineers directed to ascertain the feasibility of locations for water supply and hydro-electric power generation, and two geologists, who inquired into geological structures to determine their ability to support dams and store water, composed the field force.

Thirteen major dams, seven equipped to generate electricity, were projected as the counterpart of the Tennessee Valley authority or the four-state Boulder Dam for a vast Southwestern region yet untouched by the administration's new deal in natural resource conservation and electric power generation.