El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-03

|
square miles in extent, and between
Elephant Butte and Ell Paso about
800 square miles. From Elephant
Butte to Rio Grande City the water
| shed, deductipg basins apparently not
dischsrging into the Rio Grande, lie
about 10000 square miles. The
source of supply of the waters flowing
past Rio Grande City, the head OF
navigation, is largely this comparative
1y enormous water shed of 10000
square miles below Elephant Butte,
feeding the Conchos, San Juan, Pecos,
Devils river, Good Enough and other
perennial streams, as well as many
other smaller or torrential streams.
| Records Of overflow past Ell Paso in
recent years are as follows:
1890. ............... 971, 900 acre feet
1891. ......... L ,943, 600 acre feet
1892. ..... 94l, OOO acre feet
1897. l. 1863, 600 acre feet
| 1898. . 6S9, 900 Scre feet
1899 to Sept. Both 10000 acre feet
! Here follow tables based On cross
sections made by MIR. FOllett between
Rio Grande City and Brownsville, de-
signed to show the amount of water
| necessary to raise the river a given
height at those points: also a table Of
distances.
| Judge Parker then goes on to say
/ that the proposed Elephant Butte dam
and reservoir would contain eleven bill
| lion Gu bic feet of water, or 253, 600 acre
feet; that defendants propose to irri-
gate 23O, 900 acres of valley land and
800, 900 acres of mesa land, in al. $780,
| 000 acres; and that according to she
practice in Colorado and New Mexico,
it will require 954, OG0 acre feet of wa
ter to irrigats that quantity of land. or
three times the capacity OF the pro-
posed reservoir.
Then follows a table showing that it
would take nine to forty days of the
maximum flow of the river in various
years to fill the reservoir, while in the
year 1899 the total flow was but 70, 600
acre feet.
Still another table shows the length
of time it would have taken to fill the
reservoir in various years, after allow
ing 500 second feet to pass for supplying
the existing canals 10 the Ell Paso val
ley. The shortest period in any year
is % days, while in 1898 the surplus
above the 500 second feet was II, 900
acre feet less than the capacity of the
reservoir, and in 1899 during the whole
season only 800 acre feet passed Ell
Psso gauging station above the 500
second feet.
Here Judge Parker branches out into
some computations on his own account,
as follows:
IN attemp ting to arrive at a con-
clusion in this case, l have made some
computations based partially upon
known data and partially upon prob
abilities arising from the evidence.
In such computations l have assumed
the following conditions:
"3. 1t seems probable that loss by
seepsge and evaporation will be as
great between FL Paso and Preside
del Norte as between San Marcial and
Ell Paso. The loss may be greater
owing to the greater distance.
81. From Preside to Rio Grande
City, food waters from Ell Paso would
encounter in the bed the perennial
waters known to exist there. To what
extent they furnish water table for
these flood waters to travel upon, is un-
known: but l have assumed in this COM
putation that losses by seepsge and
evaporation are thereby lessened, and
have taken an arbitrary 20 per cent. rs
representing the probable loss from
such causes
"5. 1t appears by comparison of the
tables of measurements at the gauging
stations of San Maacial and Ell Paso
that there Is no material hattening or
failing out of the floods in the Rio
Grande. If this remains true through
out the entire course of the river. q l
body of water passing Ell Paso would
reach Rio Grande City, if at all, in |
practically the same form as to length
and height as at Ell Paso, less losses be-
tween those points.
SO. Il seems possible from the con-
dition of the bed and banks of the |
stream. and the climate of the country
through which 1t passes, that any flow
of less tn an 1000 second feet at Ell Paso
or 5000 second feet at San Marcial can
not possibly have any effect on the
- IL 81
also seems probable that such
flows as are above this amount, and are
sustained for q considerable period,
could reach the head of navigation In
substantial quaint ties.
''5. 1t seems probable that a flood
passing Ell PasO would reach Rio |
Grande City, if at all, in from fifteen |
to twenty-five days. assuming the river |
to have Comparatively a uniform fall /
between those points.
SO. 1t appears from the evidence |
that rise of two feet above low water
mark between Rio Grsude City and i
Brownsville Is necessary to make such /
navigation practicable; and as these /
waters usually flow down to that point,
if at all, at a season when other SUPP
plies are low, l assume a rise of two
feet to be necessary to be of any sub
stantial benefit to navigation"
Assuming the above couditionsI
Judge Parker has prepared table
showing:
U That the duration of
flood over 1000 second feet
at Ell Paso for the years
from 1890 to 1899 varied from "a DAYS
to "a days, averaging 60 days, except
in 1894. dry year when no record was
kept, and 1899, when there was no
food.
~ That the number of acre feet
passing Ell Paso during the time Of
such flood varied from 157, 600 in 1896