Arizona republican., 1904-05-18
As to Fixing the Acreage Under the
 Reservoir.

There seems to be a considerable sentiment in the valley in favor of urgently requesting the secretary of the interior to state officially and def initely the acreage which is to be serv- cd by the Salt River reservoir. This sentiment exists because it has become pretty definitely known that sub stantial portion of the acreage sub scribed could not at this time be as- sured of a supply of stored water. Practically, there never has been any reason to doubt that an excess of acreage would be subscribed, but it seems that Cnly recently has there de- veloped a general appreciation of the fact that this surplusage of applicants for reservoir water is a tangible real ity. It is natural, therefore. that there should be a general desire to know what the status of each applicant is. By making their subscriptions of acre age the various applicants have be- come shareholders in the Water Users association-at least tentatively-and it is desirable that everybody should know at as early a date as possible just what lands are to be included in the reservoir service and what lands are to be left out.
 IL is quite another thing for the gov ernment to find itself able to supply this information, however. It remains to be seen what the secretary of the interior will do in the premises, but the difficulties in the way of settling at this time the question of reservoir acreage are ct once apparent.
 Assistant Chief Engineer Davis Of the geological survey reached the conclu- sion last year that the maximum area which the government could safely un- dertake to irrigate with stored water would be 1S0,OOO acres. Inasmuch as more than 19O,OOO acres have been sub scribed. and enough acreage addition al has been applied for to swell the total beyond 100000, it would be neces- sary on the basis of MT. Davis esti- mates, to deny the applications for approximately 2O,0CO acres. But MT. Davis has consistently pointed out that his estimates as to acreage must be considered p~ovisional-that latitude must be reserved for final revision Of the figures. Yet, it does not follow that the lands which cannot receive reservoir rights in the first instance must go without an augmented supply of water. Possibly they can be SUD- piled with water pumped from the underfiow by electric power furnished from the reservoir dam.
 But as matters stand, there are two undetermined factors, and each of them is of great importance:
 First-The prevailing drouth and the decreased supply of water in sight render it impossible to say even ap- proximately what quantity of water will be stored in the reservoir.
 Second-Only exhaustive tests will determine what quantity of water can be made available from the under ground flow.
 The existing weather conditions are extraordinary, 1t is true; but nobody can say when they will give way to normal conditions. Should the water users insist that the government at this time must fix the boundaries and acreage of the territory to be served by the reservoir, and should the gov ernment accede to the demand, the re- suit might be far from pleasing to a great majority of the land owners. The officials in charge might conclude that it was their duty to base the acreage on the average supply that has been available during this period of unusu- ally low water. Moreover, if this acre age should be allotted to the lands which were first subscribed, the result would be exactly contrary to the ends which some people may think would be gained by having this question of acre age settled TOW.
 But it is safe to say that the gov ernment will take no steps involving such an injustice, and in order to pro- tect all interests it is reasonable to ex- pect that the secretary of the interior will refuse to fix the acreage until he has more data before him than he has now. Indeed, a careful conservation of the rights of everybody would seem to require the government to delay ac- tion on this vitally important question as long as possiple-untn the reservoir is almost ready for service, in fact
 
 And after all, the desire to have the acreage problem settled now is based more on sentimental than practical reasons. No harm will come to anybody from waiting for the officials of the reclamation service to unite the knot in due course. So far, they have shown themselves equal tQ every ques-