El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-08-17

! In the course of lengthy and very
| interesting article, calling atten ton to
the necessity of establishing great
storage reservoir of the flood waters of
the Rio Grande, a correspondent of
the Kansas City Star says:
The position taken by some of the
leading Mexicans is that, inasmuch, as
Colorado and New Mexico have ac-
CURED prosperity and at least 100 mil
ion dollars worth of property through
the use of water, of which by the
terms OF the treaty of Guadalupe-Hi-
dalgO Mexico owns one-half, that the
United States should right the wrong
at its own expense. The generally ac-
copied view, however, is tn at an inter-
national dam should be built just above
the city of Ell PaSo on the American
side, and above Juarez on the Mexican
side, the expense of which should be
borne equally by the two governments.
When Minister Romero called the
attention of President Cleveland to the
dispute, the latter at once recommend
ed to congress its immediate settlement
upon some international basis. Con.
gress then passed a bill providing for
an investigation into the matter by
means of commission of inquiry aud
complete surveys which are now in
progress The Mexican government
took cognizance of this action and sent
Une Oh Iue interior or tnaC
country TO view the location of the pro-
posed dam. The report was so favor
able to the project that an engineer
corps under j. Romero de Ybarrola is
now on the ground in cooperation with
the United States corps, which is
he AIDED by Capt. George McDerby.
The plan designed by Co'onel Arson
Mills, of the U:.ite States engineer
corps, will probably be adopted. 1t
a RI 70 no h,,il
across the river in mOuntai in pass just
above Ell Paso from which pass the city
takes its name. The crest of the dam
will be sixty five feet above the river
bed. It will create a lake fourteen and
one half miles long and four miles in
maximum width. The surface area of
this lake will be $4,000 acres of an
average depth of % feet aud a cubic
al contents of 537 900 "acre feet'' or
about II billion gallons of water. The
estimated cost of this dam is little
over $500, 900, to which must be add ed
the cost of moving the railroads
$500, 600. and the C jst of the land over
f1owed-S69, 900, making total includ-
ing incidentals of about ST ,O6O 600.
This cost, while in itself, is small
when the returns are taken into con-
feet' or IS billion gollons of water
would be available for irri cation pur-
poses, and would be sufficient to ir-
rigate the 200 900 acres of land on both
sides of the river in the valley below
The dam can be built during the dry
season and at the present rate of flo
of the river it would be filed the irst
food season. President D;az in his
message delivered to the Mexican con-
gress last April said:
In view of losses suffered by the in
haitian of the frontier through scare
ity and often absolute deficiency of wa
ter on the Rio Grande our representa-
tive in Washington has been instru cted
to enter into convention with the
government of the United States
whereby an international water bound
airy commission, being best acquainted
with this subject, shall examine several
pro ectS for the construction of an in
ternatiOnal dam. In this way the two
governments will arrive at an agree
ment for the realization of that great
work. which is of great Importance to
the agricultural industry lying along
the river in question.
This recommendation has been acted
upon and all the surveys and reports of
both United States and Mexican Off
Gals will be ready for the consideration
of the congress IS of the two repub lics
next winter, when, it is believed, APP
preparations will be made to carry out
the enterprises.
1t is only question of short time
when other storage reservoirs will be
needed higher up on the river, but they
will be of less magnitude and are mat
tiers of domestic and not international
concern.