Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-07-16
THE INTERNATIONALLY DAM.
Chief Engineer lbarrOIa Throws = hOme
Light on the Project to store
Waters of the Rio tirande.

Senior Ibarrola, chief engineer for the
Mexican government on the international
boundary survey, hurriedly left Ell Paso
for the City of Mexico recently and there
has been much conjecture as to the OBJ
iect of his return to the Mexican capital
In an interview in the Herald. Senior
Ibarrola said:
81 have come to receive instructions
from the government on certain points
which may be better settled by words of
mouth than by correspondence.
have left my force on the ground. 1t
consists of Civil Engineers Flores and
Calderon, Lieutenants Pedro and Jose
Mensssess and Ignacio Trgns, and Topo
graphical Engineer Eduardo Beaven.
|ssthey es-all quartered- at old Fort
Bliss, most kindly placed at the disposal
of the Mexican commission by the
American government. They are now
engaged in preliminary survey on the
Mexican side. We were very we'll re-
ceived in Ell Paso and no courtesy on the
part of the authorities or the people has
been omitted. feel confident that when
the American contingent under Capt.
Derby get to work with our men they will
act like one commission and l look for
ward to signing joint report. Both
parties will work not in petty spirit, but
with the intention of making the best of
the project and of protecting the equit-
able interests of the inhabitants on both
sides of thu river.
"My appointment by the department
of foreign affairs makes me chief of a
special section of the Mexican interna-
tional water boundary commission to
treat with an American commission as to
the best and most feasible means of se-
curing an equitable distribution and use
of the waters of the Rio Grande between
the United States and Mexico. The ap.
pointment of such commission was pro-
vided for by the convention of May 6,
last, and since that time the United States
government has shown worry favorable
disposition towards the project, refusing
all applications for reservoir sites above
the dam until the pending water questions
in the riparian region have been amic-
ably settled. This friendly spirit and the
courtesy of our reception give augury of
satisfactory understanding in carrying
out the great enterprise.
Gas for the dam itself, the work done
is as yet strictly preliminary. The idea,
as you know, WAS that of Dol. Anson
Mills, and the preliminary surveys we're
made by Engineer Follet, formerly of the
United States geological survey. But
nothing has been done but surveying for
dam sites and calculating the capacity of
the reservoir to be formed. No borings
have yet been made to determine the
strata to be encountered and the kind of
formation we can secure as foundation
for the dam wall. This is an important
point. What we want is hard rock
foundation, to prevent the filtration of
the water underneath the dam wall and
the gradually loosening and failure of the
latter. Then there are other problems to
be studied, 9. g., how many years the res
ervoir, when once made, will take to silt
up, what chances will have to be made in
the location of railway tracks, including
those of the A., T. & s. F. and Southern
Pacific, and other matters. The Ameri-
can engineers feel confident of the sue
cess of the dam and am quite prepared
to tnke the same view when once the
great essential of satisfactory founda-
tion has been proved to exist. The spot
where the dam is to be bnilt is narrow
valley about three miles above Ell Paso.
Two sites have been located, the upper
and the lower, and though neither has
been chosen yet, the American engineers
are inclined to favor the former. The
pject of the dam is to store the storm
water of the Rio Grande for irrigation
purposes and thus restore the agricultural
prosperity of that neighborhood de-
stroyed by the excessive use of the waters
of the upper river in the United States"