Los Banos Rotary Club History
Urges Revision of Valley Water Plan

Speaking before the Rotary Club here Tuesday noon, Dr. John P. Benson of Five Points, Fresno county, outlined the Central Valley Water Plan as it was originally designed by the state and is now being pursued by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and pointed out some of the apparent control tendencies and designs as shown to date. Most specifically, Dr. Benson referred to the 160 acre limitation plan for water users; the attitude of the Reclamation Bureau compared with that of the Pine Flat Project, and increasing tendency of the federal government to ursurp state powers.

Himself a farmer after spending some 24 years as Fresno county farm advisor, Dr. Benson said he spoke solely as an individual and property owner, but that his opinion reflected the sentiments of most people in his area.
Recalling the early history of the Central Valley Water Plan, Dr. Benson pointed out that the original plan was conceived and developed by Colonel Marshall, wherein excess waters of the Sacramento Valley would be brought southward as far as Bakersfield to alleviate water shortage throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

The state improved a bond issue for 170 million dollars and then, unable to sell the bonds, took their problem to the federal government, asking that they accept the bonds. Instead, the government granted an advance appropriation of several millions through the Rivers and Harbors Act, and then, in 1937, assumed full control of the project under the Bureau of Reclamation.
Declaring that the water problem is purely intra-state, Dr. Benson expressed his belief that the state should reclaim its rights and, repaying the federal government for its work thus far, should continue the project as a strictly California project for California people.

He said that the 160-acre limitation clause, enacted in 1902 to prevent speculation in undeveloped public lands, was never intended to restrict private enterprise, or to force away from an individual that which he had personally built up. He further stated that contrary to some reports, the 160-acre clause explicitly authorizes the Secretary of the interior to set the acreage limit “between 10 acres and 160 acres.” No provision is made in the law, Benson said, for man-and-wife ownership of 320 acres.

As to the Pine Flat project, Benson said that contrary to some reports, there is not an over-abundance of water, and that by building a flood control dam, the irrigation period would only be extended during a longer season to the present riparian owners and would not be available for new lands.

However, he said, such increased use of Kings River water would bolster the water table on the west side, and present well irrigators could continue to pump for many years without serious water deteriation. If the Pine Flat dam was constructed by the Army Engineers, Benson concluded, the project would eventually revert back to the land itself; whereas, under Bureau of Reclamation sponsorship, the project would forever remain under governmental control, subject to the whims and uncertainties of the political group in power.

January 28, 1947

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