Phoenix weekly herald., 1897-09-16
WATER STORAGE.
Governmental Ownership of StOr-
 age Reservoirs.
W. o. O'Neill Gives Facts and Figures in Favor of the Prop
 OsitiOn.
PRESCOTT, Ariz., Sept. II. 1897.

 recent date urging the necessity for the l Govern ment to undertake the reclsms- tion of the arid lands of she west, you l have presented the ore great vital issue on which all western men are. or should be, unit. Further progress in the west, on any material scale, is ebso- lutely impossible without an increase in the water supply for the purposes of ir- rigation-sn increase which private oap ital hes neither shown the ability OF in clinstion to provide in 8 manner pro poFtionete to the importance of the problsm. The same reasons which made is impossible to induce trivete ca pital to undertake saoh work in the deneely settled countries ot France, ip | Italy, in Algeria, in Indie, in Australia In Argentina, exist in even greater force | tn Arid America, and as the sole solu- sion of the irrigation problem in those l coun tries has been in the construction l of public works, and public control of l irrig!ble streams so will it be in Vest l ern America. To await any other so | lu sion is to waste effort, to waste life. | It is not necessary to go abroad for l an illustration why Governmental as- l sistsn ce is necessary in the construction oE such works, both ae 8 natter of 1 policy and public equity. Such illns- | trstions can be found in every irrigated section of the west. Nowhere stronger, | perhaps, than in the Salt River Valley. l What thinking man believes that Phoe- nix will ever be the city for which | nature provided so abundsntly, or that | the Sait River will evsF realize it's
 fullest possibilities without water
 storage? What thinking fmsn believes 1 that private capital will ever provide 1 the necessary storage especially if, as many of us, he has seen every storage
 scheme now contemplated discussed 1 and built on paper for every year dur ing the last twenty, with the absolute 1 knowledge to be faced that there is uot l today in Arizona a single wster-stoTsGe l reservoir used for agricultural purposes
 in existence after thirty years of white 1 occupancy? According to the census
 of 1890, the total area os land irrigated in Arizona was 5,62I acres, of which | 35,2 PIP acres were in Msricops county. | Ia the same year, 1890. Judge Kibbey l adjudiosted water rights in Msrioops county for 82,6OO acres of land, alleged l to have bsen cultivated during the year
 1884 ca the basis Of the water duty 1 established by the oouFt-100 acres per
 second foot-is would require for the filling of these rights alone 826 cub 6 | feet per second. According to Govern- mental observations the flow of the Salt | River iu July hes neveR exceeded 524
 second feet. Since 1884, by the con- 1 struction ot new canals, the area of | cultivated lands has been increased on the north side of the Salt River alore to 151 ,36O acres, requiring for:theiF actual
 cultivation 1513 cubic feet per second, as against 6 minimu m recorded flow of 524 second fest. Wher it isloonsideTed that through the construction os small l irrigation canals ou sucb streams IS the
 Verde, O.k Creek. Cherry Creek
 and others Ia Ysvapai aud Go conino oouutiss, as well as on Tocto, Pine, Rye and othsr creeks in Gtls and | Apache couuties-where the chief sun
 uer supply of water comes from-that the amount of water reaching PhosniX
 is being each year steadily diminished, /, 1 tbere can be but one conclusion: Either l the residents of those counties must be stopped from uslng the weters OF else | irrepsrable injury will be done to the Salt River valley. If such counties are l prevented from using the waters Bgri- cultural development must cssse with l in them, if thsy ara nos prevented the same result fellows in Yuma and Mari cope counties. Ia either instsnce the Territory suffsrs, and loss and hardship eneues to its citizens.
 These gre conditions which exist, l against which it is useless to deceive | ourselves or seek to deceive othsre. They should be met frankly and solved The folly of ignoring them has been | illustrated too often to justify it's repe- | sibiou Ar Florence, in our own Terri
 tory, the water necessary to it's exist ence has bsen taken from it tS the later
 settlers in Graham county, which county l is in turr being deprived of it's water by 1 the settlers along the heRd~ssers of l the Gila in New Mexico. The Rio | Grsnde in Nsw Mexico, Ts1es and Mex l ico-after thPer centuries of cultivation 1 has been made a desers by the fsrm-
 CTS who take the waters of that stream | to lrrigete their farms in Colorado, just I ss ths vallsy of the Arkansas in Kansas. 1 and of the Platte in Nebraska have been
 rsndered unpyoducsive by similar np populations made by the settlers of ! other states.
 There is no excuse for the existence of constant uncertainty to vested inter eets and rights either in Arizons or else where iu tbe Union. Annually there 1 falls water sufficient for all, if it were only stored fer use during the mouths when scarcity prevails On Tonto Greek exists a reservoir cite sufficient to store SOO,OOO acre feet-enough to re- claim six hundred thousand acres of
 new land in addition to what Is now cultivated in Maricopa county. It's construction will either settle the water question ID Maricope county for years s- ooroo c. aIee o1A fo