Arizona republican., 1900-09-12
WATER STORAGE WORK
Another Interesting Meeting of the
 Committee Yesterday.

1 Another meeting of the general com mittee appointed to investigate plans i for securing a permanent water supply for the valley was held at the board of trade rooms yesterday. IL Is an en- couraging feature of these meetings that they are attended by greater de gree of interest than the most sanguiue expected when the committee was or ganiZed. In order that there might be no failure to transact business at every meeting nine was named as d quorum. At no meeting since held have fewer than twenty, or tWO-thirdS of the whole committee been present Very little has so far been accomplished. though much greater preparation has been made for beginning work than was expected in so short a time.
 At yesterdays meeting all the com mittees reported progress. The most tangible results were shown by the finance committee. which. in a couple of hours. had collected $250. half as much as it was expected would be ne cessary to meet the expenses of the in vestigation.
 Dr. J. M. Ford, W H. Code and Col onel McCowan of the committee on dam sites announced that they would leave. probably next Saturday. for the Tonto Basin. to examine the reservoir site there.
 w H. Code presented a commun- cation from Chief Engineer w. A. Drake of the s. F. P. &i P regarding the project of diverting. or otherwise obtaining water from the Colorado. Mir Drake regards it as impractic9bie. within any sum of money which couId be raised. He is probably more ia miliar with the topography of the coun- try between here and the Colorado than other man in Arizona. If possible he regarded the scheme of pumping water out of the Colorado as a little less impracticabie than diversion but he said that could be done only by means of engines and so many of them that they would cost many millions of dollars and that the fuel necessary to run them would cost $250,000 annually. Diversion. he did not say was impos- sible, but it would involve one of the most gigantic undertakings ever planned
 There was some discussion of a plan for the diversion of the storm waters
 
 supply. From the lay of the land be- tween the proposed point of diversion and this valley it was thought that this could be accomplished without a great deal of expense. The subject. however. is in the hands of the executive com mittee and will be given full consider atiOn before the ideas of the committee regarding it are made known.
 z
 silt read a government report on the Austin dam on the Colorado. which went out in a flood last spring. The re port showed that within four years 40 per cent of the capacity of the dam had been eXhaused by silt. This show ing however. was not dfscouraging, since the conditions along the Colorado for several hundred miles above the Austin dam and those on the Salt above the proposed Tonto Basin dam arc widely different The Colorado flow 5 through a country of extremely loose soil. whereas the courses of the Salt and it's tributaries are through an extremely rocky country No mention is made in the report that means were employed for the arresting | of the silt or for removing it after its deposit, All these questions will be in veStigated by the committee.
 A great many verbal suggestions have been made to the general commit | tee and to the executive committee. Many of them possess merit and the | committees desire to discuss them and | request that they be presented in a written form.
 The next meeting will be held at 1l | o'clock on Friday morning at the usual | place, the board of trade rooms.