Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-06-15
ELEPHANT BUTTE RESERVOIR
A History of the Organization and In
ceptiOn of This Great Work, the
COnsummatiOn of Which Means
aGreat Deal to New Mexico.
LARGEST RESERVOIR In The WORLD
The Government Seeking to Make Per-
petual An Injunction Enj joining the
Company from Completing
the Reservoir,

tory, one that has direct bearing upon
the present welfare and future develop
ment of New Mexico, was to have been
begun before Judge Bantz in Silver City
yesterday: that of the United States vs. The
Rio Grande Dam IL Irrigation company,
the government seeking to make perpetual
an injunction enjoining the company
from constructing the Elephant Butte
reservoir in the Rio Grsnde river. Neither
of the PARTIES, however, were ready for
trial, and the hearing has been postponed
for a short time. The history of the case
and the points involved, briefly stated,
are as follows:
In 1889 some citizens of New Mexico
and Texas organized the Rio Grsnde Dam
& Irrigation company for the purpose of
constructing the largest reservoir In the
world at Elephant Butte, just west OF
Engle, for the storage of water, intending
to let the same run down the stream to
the com mpany's canals and bitches during
the dry season of the year, generally from
June to September. For number of
years the company only secured sufficient
funds to make the surveys and do prelimi-
nary work, but last year the necessary
money was secured, and early in the
spring of 1896 an application for an ap-
proval of the selected reservoir site was
filed in the office of the secretary of the
interior at Washington. Secretary Hoke
Smith approved the maps placed on file,
in SO far as the public domain covered
thereby was concerned, and that approval
carried with it the right to construct the
reservoir within five years thereafter. In
January last the company began work on
a part of the proposed irrlgatlng system
by putting in a wier or divertlng dam
near old Fort Selden, which is all but fin
| ished at this time.
When the work began the promoters of
another irrIgating scheme, located at I'll
Paso and known as the International
dam, began active operations in Washing
ton, looking to the revoking of all rights
and privileges granted the Rio Grande
Dam and Irrigation company, on the
grounds that the Rio Grande is naviga-
Bile stream and that the construction of
dams in the stream will obstruot naviga-
tion, and the divertIng of water from the
natural channel would tend to lessen the
amount of water available for floating
crafts of any and all kinds. In this effort
the International dam people were par
| italy successful and early n May Secre-
tary McKenna issued an order stopping
work on all dams and bitches along the
river.
! On May %, the. Omitted States attorney
of New Mexico, acting under instruc-
tions from the attorney-general filed in
the Third district court petition for an
Injunction against the Rio Grande Dam
and Irrigation company, which as before
stated has begun the construction OF
dams and reservoirs by which it Is in-
tended with bitches, canals and pipe
lines from so to 5000 miles long, accord
ing to the prospectus issued by the com
pany, to irrigate large bodies of land
for the supply of municipal, manufacture
ing and domestic demands. The petition
for the injunction charges, in substance,
that the company is about to construct
dam across the Rio Grande at Elephant
Butte for the purposes stated, and that
the effect would be to practically destroy
the river as stream below the point OF
construction for all the year and each
year thereafter that by constructing the
reservoir and pipe lines on the scale de-
scribed .he effect would be to sub ject the
people living ad djacent to the river to
perpetual water rent and enable the COM
pany to hold monopoly upon nearly all
the water from Elephant Butte to Ell Paso,
or down the Rio Conchas 200 miles be-
low Ell Paso in Old Mexico, thus virtually
controlling the irrigable lands lateral to
the river above Ell Paso to the dam.
The act of congress under which the
suit is brought prohibits any person or
corporation from placing any obstruc-
tion in the waters of navigable river in
the United States, making such action a
misdemeanor, as we'll as providing for a
writ of injunction in the case of any such
obstruction being attempted. The ques-
ton therefore to be decided under the
rule of the court contained in the pre-
liminary injunction is, whether or not the
Rio Grande is q navigable stream. The
petition further sets forth that the river
has been used for the purpose of floating
logs and other commercial purposes
from point many miles above the pro-
posed dam to Ell Paso, is navigable from
there to the Conchas river, that it has
been declared navigable at Ell Paso by
the secretary of war and so recognized by
congress, and that, on account OF the CON
formation of the banks above Ell Paso,
as we'll as the channel of the river, it is
feasible to make it nsviQable above that
point.
The opinion has been advanced that if
the secretary of the interior granted
rights to the company to construct res
ervoir in the waters Of the river, such
grant was not authorized by law, as the
act referred to by the company as the one
under which its authority to construct the
dam was conferred, only empowers the
secretary to grant the right of building
reservoirs, bitches and canals upon the
public land of the United States, while the
act under which the petition was filed
specifically prohibits the placing of en-
obstruction in the channel or waters OF
any navigable river, which would interfere
with the free passage Of interested traffic.
If the court holds the Rio Grande to be a
navigable stream and perpetuates the in.
junction, New Mexico will suffer blow
from which it will never recover. Bot
such contingency seems hardly possi-
BILE. The greater part of the year the
stream above Ell Paso will hardly float a
light draught duck, and so far as depriv'
ing Texas and Old Mexico OF water that
is absurd ON it's face. During the food
seasons water enough passes through the
channel to fill all the reservoirs that may
be constructed for years to come. The
Elephant Butte reservoir can be filled
each year and plenty Of water remain
to supply the International dam-if j
is ever built--at Ell Paso with all tn,
water it will hold, and then allow for
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