Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-06-28
STORAGE RESERVOIR.
Mammoth Undertaking of the Santa
Fe Water Company-Largest
Dam in New Mexico
Tearing Down Hills by
Hydraulic Pres
sure,

The preliminary work on the mammoth
new water storage reservoir of the Salta
Fe Water 4 Improvement company, IN
the extensive arroyo north of the federal
building grounds and the gas works, has
been in progress for several weeks, but
few people realize the magnitude of the
undertaking or that the most approved
and vigorous methods known to Cali
fornia hydraulic placer mining will be
employed in accomplishing the desired
result. representative of the New
MEXICAN sought light on these subjects
this morning of Constructing Engineer
Howells and was amply rewarded.
The plan of the company, which will
be executed as rapidly as men and water
can do the work, contemplates the con-
struction of a substantial and enduring
dam a half mile long across the arroyo
mentioned. This dam will be 1888 feet
wide at the base, thirty feet wide at
the top and eighty-elght feet high. The
RESERVOIR ABOVE WILL CONTAIN
about 200 acres, as compared with twenty
acres in the new reservoir up the Santa
Fe canon, and will be capable of storing
5OO,OOO,OOO gallons of water and irri-
eating $4,000 acres of land.
This great work will be accomplished
chiefly by the use of the Little Giant of
hydraulic mining fame, whereby the
hills above the proposed dam will betorn
down and carried in solution through
twelve inch mains to the point where the
material is needed, about one.th1rd of the
mass passing through the mains being
solid matter. The center of the dam dur
ing the process of construction will be
kept richly supplied with water SO that
the coarse material will fall on the out
side, riprapping both faces with boulders,
and the silt or fine particles will be pre-
cipitated in the center, forming an i'm
pervious core. The entire inside of the
reservoir will be made water tight by the
same process of precipitating silt.
LARGEST DAM IN NEW MEXICO.
The new dam will be the largest in the
territory and one ofthe largestin the world.
The reservoir will be supplied with water
from the Rio Santa Fe, the Tesuque, the
| Nambe and other creeks, besides catching
the surplus that flows down the tributary
arroyos during the rainy season and the
time of melting snow.
The Little Giant is supplied with water
from fourteen inch main laid from the
reservoir in Santa Fe canon, a distance
of three miles and a half, to the hills on
the left hand side of the big arroyo going
north. It's wonderful power as factor
IN moving earth was exhibited to a New
MEXICAN representative by Mr.. Howells
for the purposes of this sketch. With n
pressure in the fourteen inch main from
the reservoir of 100 pounds 1t is capable
of tearing down and
MOVING HILLS
at the rate of three cubic yards per
minute. This earth is carried in two
twelve inch mains to the dam and there
disposed of as aforefaid. The action of
the water as it energies from the nozzle
of this marvellous machine is simply ter
rife. It would instantly kill q man at a
distance of ten PAGES, and a man could
no more cut the column of water it sends
forth with an axe fifty feet away than he
could sever in twain bar of railroad
iron at blow. The axe would fly from
his hands the moment it touched the
resistless column of water.
As soon as the smaller hills are re-
moved the machine will be started in on
the larger ones and then it's operation
can be studied to the best advantage.