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Hugh G. Hansen papers
WRCA 159
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Title: Hugh G. Hansen papers
Date (inclusive): 1930-1971
Date (bulk): 1946-1959
Collection Number: WRCA 159
Creator:
Hansen, Hugh G.
Extent:
4.08 linear feet
(8 boxes)
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Abstract: This collection is composed primarily
of research files compiled for Hansen's study of federal-state relations in the Central
Valley, which resulted in his dissertation, The Central Valley Project: Federal or
State?(also published by the California State Assembly Interim Committee on Conservation,
Planning and Public Works as Volume 13, no. 6, of the Committee's reports). Includes
extensive interview notes, correspondence, reports, and detailed annotations of sources
consulted.
Languages: The collection is in English.
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the University of California, Riverside Libraries,
Special Collections & University Archives. Distribution or reproduction of materials
protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of
the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions apply, permission for distribution or
reproduction from the applicable rights holder is also required. Responsibility for
obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
[identification of item], [date if possible]. Hugh G. Hansen papers (WRCA 159). Water
Resources Collections and Archives. Special Collections & University Archives,
University of California, Riverside.
Gift of Hugh G. Hansen, July 1996.
Processed by Randal Brandt, WRCA Technical Services Librarian, and Erica Nordmeier,
2001.
Collection number updated February 2019. Legacy collection number was MS 96/7. This change
was part of a project in 2018/2019 to update the collection numbers for collections in the
Water Resources Collections and Archives.
Hugh Groves Hansen was born on August 25, 1917 in Chico, California. He earned an A.B.
degree from Oberlin College in 1938, a M.P.A. from University of Michigan in 1946, and a Ph.
D. in Economics from the University of California, Riverside, in September 1955.
From July 1951 to July 1952, Hansen was employed as an economist in the U.S. Office of
Price Stabilizationin San Francisco. The OPS was established in 1951 as part of a price
control law intended to restrain inflation during the Korean War. While not empowered by law
to regulate public utility rates, the OPS could appear as a "friend of the court" -- or in
this case, the California Public Utilities Commission -- in the national interest, which the
San Francisco office undertook to do in opposing a rate increase requested by Pacific Gas
& Electric Companyin November 1951. Hansen was intending to present his arguments before
the PUC, but was unable to do so when the hearing was established on short notice and he was
out of San Francisco on another assignment at the time. Another OPS staff member presented
Hansen's findings to the Commission, which acknowledged, but rejected, his arguments in
their final decision.
In 1952, Hansen obtained a research fellowship grant from the John Randolph Haynes and
Dora Haynes Foundation of Los Angeles to undertake a study of Central Valley water
development. In the summer of 1953, he joined the staff of the Bureau of Public
Administration at the University of California, Berkeley,as a Public Administration Analyst.
His initial assignment was to conduct a brief study of federal-state relations in the
Central Valley. The study lasted over two years and resulted in a detailed report submitted
to the California State Assembly Interim Committee on Conservation, Planning, and Public
Works.The report, Central Valley Project: Federal or State?, also served as Hansen's
dissertation.
After receiving his Ph. D., Hansen served as Professor of Economics at the University of
North Dakota and the State University of Iowa.
From February 1958 to October 1959, Hansen worked as Chief of the U.S. Census of
Irrigation,a division of the U.S. Census of Agriculture,under Ray Hurley.He was primarily
responsible for the direction of reorientation of the 1960 Census and for the working out of
new concepts for statistical data gathering and tabulation of irrigation water data. The
direction of reorientation was toward an emphasis on quantities of water diverted, used for
irrigation, and transferred between drainage basins, and a de-emphasis on the previous
practice of measuring characteristics of irrigation organizations. The 1960 Census
emphasized "acre feet of water flows" rather than the previous emphasis on "acres
irrigated."
Hansen died on June 25, 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming.
This collection is composed primarily of research files compiled for Hansen's study of
federal-state relations in the Central Valley, which resulted in his dissertation, The
Central Valley Project: Federal or State?(also published by the California State Assembly
Interim Committee on Conservation, Planning and Public Works as Volume 13, no. 6, of the
Committee's reports). Includes extensive interview notes, correspondence, reports, and
detailed annotations of sources consulted.
Also includes materials on electric power rates (compiled by Hansen as an economist at the
Office of Price Stabilizationfor submission to the California Public Utilities Commissionin
the "PG & E rate case" of 1951), the irrigation districts movement in California, and
the 1960 Census of Irrigation.
- Central Valley Project studies, 1942-1947. Reports integrated into pre-existing collection. Filed under call number WRCA MS 95/2.
- United States. Bureau of Reclamation. Central Valley Federal Reclamation Project : letter from the acting Secretary of the Interior transmitting a report presented to Secretary Krug ... on the Central Valley Federal Reclamation Project in California, February 24, 1947. Washington, D.C., 1947. House document / 80th Congress, 1st Session ; no. 146. WRCA G4316 G7-6
- Hansen, Hugh G. Central Valley Project : federal or state? Sacramento, Calif. : Assembly of the State of California, May 1955. Assembly Interim Committee reports 1953-1955 ; v. 13, no. 6. WRCA G4316 H5-1
- Baker, Clyde C.,and Hugh G. Hansen. The Central Valley Project : federal or state?Berkeley : Bureau of Public Administration, University of California, June 1955. 1955 legislative problems ; no. 8. WRCA G4316 H5-3
- United States. Bureau of Reclamation. Region 2. Advance power program 1954-1963 : program of power development, fiscal years 1954 through 1963. Sacramento, Calif., 1953. WRCA G266 G6-1 1954-63
- United States. Bureau of Reclamation. A study of future power transmission for the West. Washington, D.C., 1952. WRCA 26.3 H2-1
- United States. Bureau of Reclamation. United Western Investigation : interim report on reconnaissance. California section. Salt Lake City, Utah, 1951. Report ; UWI-2. WRCA G407 H1-2
- United States. Congress. House. Committee on Public Works. Sacramento-San Joaquin Basin streams, California : letter from the Secretary of the Army ... on preliminary examinations and surveys of Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basin streams, California, for flood control and allied purposes .. Washington : U.S. GPO, 1950. House document / 81st Congress, 1st Session ; no. 367. WRCA G430 H-1
- United States. Bureau of the Census. United States census of agriculture, 1950. Volume 3, Irrigation of agricultural lands. Washington, D.C. : U.S. GPO, 1952. WRCA 77 Y 1950 v.3
The collection is arranged into 5 series as follows:
- Series 1. Central Valley Project, 1943-1971
- Series 2. Electric Power Rates, 1951-1956
- Series 3. Irrigation District Movement, 1950-1954
- Series 4. Census of Irrigation, 1930-1964
- Series 5. Research Notes, circa 1952-1956
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Central Valley Project (Calif.)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
United
States. Bureau of the Census
Electric utilities -- California -- Costs
Electric utilities -- Rates -- California
Irrigation districts -- California
Irrigation water -- United States -- Statistics
Water resources development -- Government policy --
California
Correspondence
Reports
Research
notes