Arizona republican., 1903-06-08
SLUICING THE RESERVOIR
Mesa City Correspondent Kills An
 other Straw Dragon,

To the Editor of The Republican Sir: It is habit with many people to cross all of their bridges before they get to them, and when the time comes for the actual crossing. it is done me chanically and unsconciously while their minds are employed in magnify ing the difficulties to be encountered in crossing some other bridge yet further in the future. Instead of hop ing for the best and preparing for the worst" some of us actually and under all circumstances hope for the worst, and are never in a frame of mind to be benefited by any best" There are many in this abnormal condition of mind who really believe that the reser- voir will be filled with mud faster than the dam can be raised, and by the time it is completed that instead of d basin there will be brand new mountain on the map of the country.
 People with such an imagination need never be discouraged even if the reality should be greater than they imagine: just think what q water pow CT we would have if we could get a fall of the natural flow from a height as great as Pike's peak. In that case we would not need d reservoir, for we could then have a pumping power sufii- cient for all our needs.
 Had there never before been res ervoir and had there never been any calculations made on silt deposits there might be some room for specula- tive apprehensions, but once we con slider the technical and practical trainS of the engineers and their access to accumulated data of every kind, we would certainly be exhibiting super lative degree of conceit to proclaim to
 the world that we know more about It than they do
 Before worrying yourself, or your neighbors, about this mountain of mud. just go out on your ranch and make an estimate of how much the elevation of your land has been increased by q twenty-years' flow onto it by the Salt river water. You will find that you are not much nearer heaven than you were
 twenty years ago.
 There are many reservoirs in other countries that are fed by other streams.
 Statistics go to show that the deposit from Salt river is comparatively small and can be very materially lessened by protecting the head waters of the stream The greatest surplus of water
 
 mountains that should carry the small est proportion of mud. The English are constructing large storage reservoirs on the headwaters of the Nile. Now get out your map and go over the situation and prdct what their work will
 amount to.
 There is some future probability that the natural flow will be diverted from the river at some point above. the reservoir body and brought around, We will say, on the rim of the reservoir and dropped to the channel below the dam. In this project we have the needed facility for sweeping out the reservoir. Sluice gates can be put in every few hundred yards. When the reservoir is empty a large body of wa ter can be turned through these gates with a fall and force sufficient to not only take out the mud, but sweep out the very bottom of the reservoir. We will have not only a world wonder. but a world marvel. Mark the words; there will soon be a corps of English engi- neers on the ground for no other pur- | pose than to take lessons. :. | Mesa City. June 1.