§702j Projects Relating to Tributary Streams; Report to Congress; Appropriation

Summary

Congress wants the surveys of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, authorized by the January 21, 1927 Act and House Document 308, to move forward as quickly as possible. The Secretary of the Army, using the Army Corps of Engineers, must prepare and send Congress flood‑control plans for every tributary that can cause destructive floods. Those plans must cover the Red, Yazoo, White, Saint Francis, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers and their tributaries. The reports must study how holding floodwater in reservoirs would affect the lower Mississippi, how less erosion and silt would help navigation and farming, whether local soils can hold reservoir waters, possible income from selling stored water, how much water could be used for public or private needs, and whether return flows into soils would stabilize streams and reduce erosion. The reports must first go to the Mississippi River Commission, and its views must be sent to Congress with the Secretary’s report. Up to $5,000,000 is authorized from the appropriation in section 702a, in addition to amounts from the 1927 River and Harbor Act, to be spent under the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Engineers to prepare these projects. The surveys must be done at the same time as the other authorized Mississippi flood‑control work, and the President must have the Secretary of Agriculture and other agencies study how forestry practices might help control floods in the Mississippi Valley.