The record-union., 1896-01-22
RESTORATION OF THE RIVER.
What a Prominent Civil Engineer Has
to Say on the Subject.
The Plain Duty of the Government,
and How It Should Work to
Protect Navigation.

the Commissioner of Public Works.
with the following excellent article re-
viewing the condition of the Sacra-
mento River and its chief tributary, the
Feather Mr.. Price also explains, from
the standpoint of an engineer, the eff
fects Of levee- breaks along the rivers
and how the Government should OPP
crate in order to restore them to some
thing approaching their natural con-
dition, before the channels were choked
with debris resulting from hydraulic
mining. He says. under the. caption,
river IMPROVEMENT"
The question of river Improvement is
of more Importance to the people of the
State of California than any other sub
1ect at present presented. The General
Government has, by virtue of its pow
ers vested by law. taken complete con-
troll of all navigable streams in the
State. To the General Government.
therefore, we must look for river i'm
proYement. The Examining Commits
sion on Rivers and Harbors in their
report of 1890 (page 114) say:
THE time has come when the policy
of river treatment should be finally de-
cided upon. The State and the people
Of the State should know to what extent
the works of the United States, con-
structed solely in the interest of navi-
cation, may be expected to improve the
drainways of our great valleys. Facility
should be afforded to decide upon a cor
rect and comprehensive system of river
T1Ia of
works should be agreed upon and an
apportionment of expenses incurred in
their construction should be made"
The bill now pending in Congress
known as the johnson bill is q step in
the direction of river improvement.
Five years have elapsed since the Ex-
amining Commission made its report,
and we are as far to-day from a sys-
tematic plan of river improvement as
we have been at any period during the
consideration of plans for river i'm
provement.
We hold that it is an automatic fact
that no permanent river improvement
can take place until the Government of
the United States adopts a systematic
plan for the improvement of the naviga-
tion Of the waterways of the State
That the conditions that now prevail
will end in ultimate destruction to nav
igation and disaster to property inter-
ests is a foregone conclusion, so far as
the heavy silt-bearing streams Of this
great State are concerned. 1t is there
fore Of paramount Importance that
Congress should at the present session
demand a better policy of river i'm
provement
A commission of engineers should
take charge of our river improvements,
under the direction of the General Gov
ernment, and such works as will i'm
prove our rivers should be inaugu-
rated as soon as possible. Tt is our
opinion, based upon well-def1ned prin-
ciples of hydraulics and experience of
the results of similar conditions, that
the conditions now prevailing at a
point some five or six miles below the
mouth Of the Feather River, on the
Sacramento, whereby a large volume Of
the f1ood-waters are permitted to es-
cape into the Yolo Basin, is dangerous
In the extreme.
Probably no river system presents
exactly the same conditions that are
here obtained. The Sacramento River,
above the confluence of the Feather
and Sacramento, is not a heavy silt
bearing stream. It's waters are amply
able to care for the small amount of
silt flowing into it, and would, if prop
erly treated, preserve its present regi-
men for centuries to come. Indeed, it
is safe to say that these waters, by vir-
tue of their unloaded condition, espe-
cially in low-water periods, is one of
the agencies that largely assists the
silt-bearing capacity of the Lower Sac
ramento.
The Feather River, being the outlet of
the Bear and the Yuba, becomes the
cesspool for all hydraulic mining debris
now brought to the Sacramento River
above the American. It's gentle grade
of ten inches to the mile from the mouth
CT the Feather to its confluence with
the Bear, and of fourteen inches from
the Bear to its confluence with the
Yuba, necessarily means the filing of
all natural channels and the ultimate
destruction Of navigation on this por-
ton Of the Feather. Prior to the in
PRODUCTION of hydraulic mining this was
not the case.
We read from the report of G. H.
RTendell, LieuItenant-Colo of Engi-
neers, U. S. A, February 20, 1880: THE
State Engineer finds the filling of the
bed Of the river at the mouth Of the
Feather to be three to four feet; al
Marysville, on the Feather, to be thir-
teen to fifteen feet; at the Yuba Mill. on
the Yuba River, near where it emerges
from the foothills, in a part of the
stream that never was navigated, sixty
eight feet; and at Smartsville, still fur
ther up in the foothills, at the outfaA OF
some large mines, the filling is reported
TO be 125 feet
We observe, therefore, that the old,
well-aIigned and regulated navigable
channel of the Feather River has been
filed until it is almost impossible to
confine the course Of the river to we'll
defined, permanent channel.
We may add that the Sacramento
River has been filled from sixteen to
nineteen feet in depth in front of the
city Of Sacramento. and that the low
water line of 1854 has been raised as
follows for the ensuing years: In 1875
the low water plane had risen 81 feet
from 1854 TO 1885, 81 feet; from 1854 to
1890, So feet; from 1854 to 1895, 81
feet.
The above figures show a lowering OF
the low-water surface between 1890 and
1895 of Is feet. or q return to within
one foot of the Iow-water Of 1880 and
1894
To the effects of the Paine break, or
crevasse, we can probably attribute the
extreme elevation of low water in 1890
while, on the other hand, to the con-
struction of Government work on the
rE5ERsM tfP.1re