Reservoirs for Mississippi Valley Flood Protection

For many years there has been an insistent demand for reservoirs to regulate stream flow throughout the United States in the interest of flood protection, navigation irrigation, drainage, power development, and various other works connected with water resources. In fact, the idea that reservoirs will cure most of the evils from which the country is suffering has been widely accepted as more or less axiomatic in spite of the fact that such projects as have been studied in detail have presented so m any difficulties that few of them have been found economically feasible. For five years, as Chief Engineer of the Federal Water Power Commission, the writer spent most of his time studying reservoir possibilities throughout the country to determine whether proposed power developments would conform to a general plan insuring maximum economic use of the water resources for all purposes, including irrigation, flood protection, navigation, etc. As a result of this experience the writer, while not accepting reservoirs as cure-alls, believed that they might form a valuable part of a complete Mississippi flood project.