711.4216 M 58/150
The Secretary of War (Davis) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: In accordance with the request contained in your letter of July 25, 1928,31 your reference W E 711.4216 M 58/146, I take pleasure in presenting to you my comments on the statements of the Canadian Government as set forth by the Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada in a note to the Minister of the United States at Ottawa, dated July 11, 1928, regarding the proposed construction by this Department of compensating works in the Niagara and St. Clair Rivers.
The note points out that the proposals while providing for a substantial measure of compensation, so far as navigation is concerned, for diversions or losses of water from the upper lakes and Lake Erie, do not provide compensation as regards navigation in the St. Lawrence System below the Niagara River, nor compensation for the loss of power at any point. It expresses the view of the Government of Canada that any plan for compensating works should cover all the waters and interests affected, and should form a part of a final settlement of the issues created by the Chicago diversion.
Commenting on these statements, I may point out that the compensating works proposed in the Niagara and St. Clair Rivers have for their purpose the compensation of lowered lake levels irrespective of the cause of such lowered levels. The compensating works proposed for the St. Clair River, following the plans prepared by the Joint Board of Engineers on the St. Lawrence waterway, are intended to correct a total lowering of one foot in the levels of Lakes Huron and Michigan, resulting from diversions and the enlargement of the contracted section at the head of this river. The dredging of gravel for commercial purposes under color of authority of the Canadian Government is a major contributing cause to this enlargement.
The compensating works proposed in the Niagara River are similarly intended to correct the lowering of the levels of Lake Erie, resulting from diversions both in the United States and Canada for sanitary, canal, and power purposes.
[Page 52]A comprehensive and final settlement of the far-reaching issues created by the Chicago diversion is unquestionably desirable. Such settlement involves, however, covering all the waters and interests affected so as to render it impracticable within a reasonable time to present a satisfactory, all inclusive plan. It would appear contrary to the best interests of Canada as well as of the United States to defer for an indefinite period remedial measures whose immediate execution is feasible. The construction of the proposed projects will in no way prejudice any other features of the plan of final settlement.
From a physical standpoint, the works proposed for remedying the lowered lake levels are entirely independent of any works or measures appropriate for remedying the effect below the Niagara River. The Joint Board of Engineers on the St. Lawrence waterway made an exhaustive investigation into the possibility of constructing more elaborate works in the St. Clair and Niagara Rivers which might be operated to improve the outflow of the St. Lawrence and unanimously came to the conclusion that such works are inadvisable and impracticable.
While the recent rise in the levels of the Great Lakes, due to ample rainfall, has rendered somewhat less acute the need for works for the correction of their levels, yet it is in such periods of abundant supply that the compensating works should be constructed. Their construction will necessarily diminish slightly the flow of the St. Lawrence during the period of adjustment of the lake levels, and the works cannot be constructed at times of extreme low water without some injury to Canadian interests. By taking advantage of the present opportunity to construct them, future extreme low levels of the lakes, injurious to the interests of both Canada and the United States, will be forestalled.
I suggest that it may be advisable to bring these special considerations to the attention of the Canadian Government, and to request a further expression of views.
In reply to your specific inquiry, the Congress has not yet made an appropriation for the proposed works. The authorization of such an appropriation has been recommended to Congress in a report dated April 26, 1928, from the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, on a preliminary examination and survey of the Great Lakes—their connecting waters, principal harbors, and river channels, authorized by the River and Harbor Act approved January 21, 1927. This report is printed in House Document No. 253, 70th Congress, 1st Session.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩