The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-11-03

basins will raise the level of exit eme
high water some six to eight feet. In
view OF these facts Mr.. Seldom consid.
ers that the increasing risk due to ev
cry extra foot of levee height against
all the land along the whole valley
makes some less dangerous form Of
| protection absolutely necessary.
"Mr. Seldom proposes large reser.
voir system at the head of the valley,
and to utilize the st. Francis basin for
this purpose.
HE estimates that the capacity will
be sufficient to cut extreme high water
down to the bank level as far as the
mouth OF the Arkansas river, and that
below this very moderate systems of
levees will give immunity from over
flow, and he contrasts this with an ex-
IRENE food held ten or twelve feet
above the banks between some l,5OO
miles of earth levees.
"The sites for the reservoir would be
largely the unclaimed lands in the back
of the st. Francis basin. 1t is proposed
to. divide up this basin by series of
cross levees, so that flood water may be
impounded by series of moderate
earth embankments, and the rupture
of one of these banks would not entail
any serious danger to life and property.
This series of reservoirs is to be filled
from the top of floods, through controll-
ing works near Cairo.
Mr. Seldom proposes to discharge
these reservoirs from the lower end of
the basin, near Helena. during the low
water season, and considers that there
by not less than twenty feet of water
will be produced and maintained at all
times between Helena and the Gulf of
Mexico. He proposes system of slack
water up through his reservoir system
from Helena to Commerce. SO miles
above Cairo, there meeting the 2O-foot
project already outlined from Lake
Michigan to Commerce. He is of the
opinion that such system will not be
appreciably affected by sediment in a
century.
"The range between high and low
water from Cairo to Helena will be
materially reduced, and below Helena
,, Mr.. Seldom considers it will rarely
exceed 20 feet, in the place of a present
range of some so feet. The banks are
light alluvium, now subject to destruc-
tive bank erosion, and this change in
condition is expected to produce COM
parative stability. The present bank
erosion is estimated to average 125 feet
per year,
''Mr. Seldom states that a conserva-
tive estimate for bank protection is
$50, 900, with $5,OOO,O 900 yearly for
maintenance, and that this is given
up on account of cost, and a permanent
improvement of the low water channel
is necessarily given up with it, as dikes
can accomplish little in the absence of
fixed banks.
''For levees for flood protection the
states have spent some $4,000, 900 and
the United States some SIS, 100000, and
it is estimated that 5000 10000 more
will be needed to complete the system
and So, 100000 yearly for maintenance.
Mr.. Seldom states that there are pos
sible food combinations from the White
and Arkansas rivers that are beyond
the capacity of the work projected. Mr..
Se1don states that the present plans
for the Improvement of the Lowe Mis-
sissippi reduce practically. to the com
pletion of the levee system and to main
tanning such low water depths as may
be feasible by large feet of hydraul-
ic dredges, which cut channels across
the bars, to be obliterated by each sue
ceeding high water. The forty mill
ions which have been put into the river
he regards as largely paid to expert
ence. Not that it has been wasted, for
what could and what could not be done
with such river had to be tested once
foPall.
"Mr. Seldom contrasts the expendi-
lures and results with the alternative
project proposed by him, at an esti-
mated cost of s32, 900, 900 for his reser-
voir system and complete food protec-
tion, and S12, 900, 900 additional for the
extension of deep water navigation
from Helena northward through the
St. Francis basin. In round numbers
$50, 600, 900 may be taken as the total
to Commerce. Could the work have
started out with the primary idea OF
regulating the flow a complete river
Improvement would now exist, for the
river would have regulated itself. To
hold the river directly against the de-
structive forces of flood volume, by
means Of dykes and revetments, is pro
hibited by cost.
rr,.o ,,1vsfcal fact that IL reservoirs