Los Banos Rotary Club History
Upholds 160-Acre Reclamation Law

Cecil White, Democratic nominee for the post of U.S. Representative for the Ninth Congressional district, addressed members of the local Rotary Club Tuesday noon on the affirmative aspects and possibilities of the much discussed 160-acre law, which would limit maximum water benefits within U.S. Reclamation projects to not more than 160 acres per individual owner.
White, who personally favors the law, said there is a lot of general misunderstandings of the law, both for and against; but that the most important point is one that has generally been overlooked: that money used to build dams comes from tax money derived from throughout the nation, and if we are to totally develop the water resources of our state with federal funds we have no alternative but to comply with the stipulations demanded by Congress as provided for in the Reclamation law.

In support of this argument he pointed out that before approving federal funds for development of the Central Valley Project, Congress had on four previous occasions refused to approve the project for the single reason that the 160-acre limitation clause had been omitted.

In the present plan, he said, little or no provision is made to supply water to excess lands on the West Side. Such water supply, he said, can only come from future development of water resources in the northern section of the state, most important of which is the proposed Folsom dam. Eastern members of Congress, White said, "would never approve a thin dime for construction of Folsom dam unless the limitation clause was inserted."
As to his personal opinion as to feasibility of the acreage limitation, White expressed himself as favoring a change in the law which would put the limitation on a water-use basis rather than an acreage basis.

Discussing a statement made by Senator Sheridan Downey that "co-mingling" of surface and underground water would result in unpaid benefits to the large farmer at the expense of the small farmer through replenishment of the underground water supply, White said it was his experience there was no surface seepage into the underground water reservoir, at least on the west side. However, he said, large landowners, who use deep well pumps would be glad to pay a part of the cost for any benefits derived.
As to the 160-acre question as a whole, White said he believed it was a political football, aimed to disguise other phases of the project, among them being the operation and distribution of electric power.

September 13, 1948

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