Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-04
DEBRIS.
FIFTY-THIRD DAY OF THE sLIcKENs
CASE IN COURT.
Judge Rhodes Presents other Views of
the Case for the People-Inter-
esting Argument.

At $50 A. N. yesterday, before Judge Tenn
pie in the Supreme Courtroom, the argument
in the case of The People vs. Gold Run Min.
ing and Ditch Company was resumed.
Judge Rhodes, for the plaintiff, addressed
the Court. We think, he said, that we have
shown in this case that the rivers have been
filled largely, navigation seriously obstructed,
highways impaired, public health injured,
and private property injured; that these
results flow from the hand of man, ard if the
defendant in any degree has contributed
thereto it is guilty, and should be restrained !;
for if these facts have been shown nuisance
has been proven, and one of its authors has
been pointed ont.
WHEN THE ARGoNAUTs
Arrived here, the waters of the Sacramento
were clear and pure and those of the Ameri-
can river were deep and limpid and the Sac
ramento was in its whole course freely open
to navigation. The American. clear up to
Alder creek, flowed in great volume, deep and
steady, over a ssndy bed Above Folsom it
ran over q firm bed rock, rushing with the
power of a torrent. and perfectly clear and
free from all mining sediment. So it was in
1851. So, too, largely, in 1861, down to which
time. no doubt. large amount of material
had been cast into the stream. The floods of
each year had, however, swept away most of
the lighter material The food of 1862, it ia
shown, cleared out the sire am and restored il
to its original condition, the matter of
the early mining having been mainly car
ried away by the waters. Nevertheless, and
despite all counsel for defendant say, the Sac.
river, it is proven, all this tine was
not injured, and its navigation had not been
impaired, large vessels being able to go up
and down it clear down to 1865 and in no
part had the river been materially injured.
THIS FILLING
OF the Sacramento river has been destructive
to the levee system maintained under the
authority Of the State. It has checked the
and rendered practically impos-
sibls the reclamation of lands the State au-
thorized and encouraged to be reclaimed.
Thus the lands bought Of the State were de.
stroyed and the authorized levee system
to their protection. Plaintiff does
not claim that there is no natural erosion.
We know it and admit it. 1t always does
follow the settling up of the face
of the earth, aud adapting it to mans
uses. Wherever water runs it will carry
matter from the higher to the lower places.
Yet, in full recognition of th.t fact, we
claim still to hold the defendant, and even
admitting the erosion to be as large as de-
fendant claims it to be. Admit that the
American river carries es much matter as
the Po; but what of it? Our duties, respon-
si5ilities and privileges are upon us in the
face of it, and of the true knowledge Of the
power and action of the streams, and the de.
fendant must look to it that he does not oc.
casion US greater outlay still to protect our
property than we otherwise would. We do
not hold him responsible for natural erosion,
but hold he must so conduct his business as
not to add to this natural erosion in any de-
gree.
BUT DEFENDANT G ClsTs
Into the body of the stream a vast amount Of
1t is heavy material, and it passes
down to the more level reaches, where the
water was twenty feet deep, between high,
well-de6ned banks, high and Steep They
push on down TO the points where the water
can no longer nova it, and there the materi-
ais drop and there they lie. The next install
ment Gomez, and it drops, and 80 the process
goes on. The sand moves on till the heavier
falls, and the lighter pushes still farther on,
and SD till the finer sands have gone the
greatest distance. This process makes a
graded, macedenizsd way for the passage of
still further material. The American river
being thus filed, the Sacramento river was
There come sudden rises next that
wash out the lower cou ses of the American
and carry the deposits into the Sacramento
and add to its Glling. Now, movement from
natural erosion is different. In case OF natural
erosion the material is largely of organic mat.
ter, just enough of decomposing vegetable
matter to unite with tae river material, and
it GENES Just fast enough and no faster to
equal the forces Of the water, and it is con-
stsntly carried on, added to the banks etc.,
and GO the relative congenial character of the
banks and the bed of the river is maintained,
not changed. We find where thousand of
cattle and sheep have been herded for years,
where the soil has been trampled over for
years, where there has been no mining, where
there are rains, torrents and floods, that still
the streams there flowing remain as they were
and suffer 10 material changes. This is true OF
the upper Sacramento, of the streams leading
toward the San Joaquin, and those streams
flowing out of the coast range.
HOW PAINFUL
Is the contrast when we look at this action Of
natural forces, and what we find on the
American, the Yuba, the Bear, the Feather,
the Costumes, etc. The artificial erosion is
filing the Sacramento; the natural erosion
has not injured its navigation. Counsel here
sketched the filling OF the Sacramento, the
creation of bars and stoppaSe practically of
navigation and loss Of power in the river due
to its unnatural filling and the action of
foods from inability of the ,er to d. its
duty. This has been going on. until water
that would float "a " has filled up at Sac
full fifteen feet, and so on down to
Sfao hoe ell rfrho oy,l fa fha cr,1 Il
flow of the tide, and still the filling goes On,
and we come to Suisun Bay and find even it
filed up to the extent Of thousands of acres,
and narrow channel has been worn
out through the "fill" in the bay
by the river waters. The waser no
longer has the free exit it had, and
the river cannot clear itself as once,
and these distractions, thus placed in the
mouth of the stream, tend to Increase the de-
position of material above. and also to causa
the deposit of other matter that else would
have gone on and out at the Golden Gate
So great was the power Of the waters 10 the
Hood Of 1862 that-as the Court will take
judicial notice thereof-the rivers sent out,
clear through San Francisco bay, vast vol.
ume and current through the Golden Gate
and out to sea, resisting even the tide itself,
and cleaning ont the bay largely. By the
filling of the Sacramento, its water level has
been greatly raised, its waters held back, and
as result comes sipage and the destruction
Of the bank lands, which defendant SO con.
terms swamp lands. Thus the
agricultural strip of arabic lands is steadily
narrowed year after year, and rendered less
valuable and less habitable. 1t is needless to
speak
OF MARYsvILLR,
Its condition is too well known. As to Sac
ramento, here is the evidence. The soil is
alluvia], and underneath all this valley there
Is a stratum permitting the passage of waters
below, induced by pressure from above. Let
these processes go on, and when all the
streams are filled it will be easy to see what
will be the result. The waters must spread
over the lands Of the valley, and new chan
nels be formed and new sections be destroyed
AS the drainage prism on the west side of
the Sacramento is narrowed by it, 10 will be
the agricultural lands and their value. The
food of 1881, though comparatively small,
filled the basin in Yolo as full as in 1852
Every inch of fill in the Sacramento's bed
means an encroachment of many feet upon
the agricultural area on the west side.
It is said the levee system of the State
is not good system that the sewer
age system of Sacramento il not
good. Well, the State established the
one. and ore of her municipal corporations
the other. But has the defendent therefore
the right to make either system worse
Have they the right to so add to the
fill of the rivers that the leyees