The Arizona sentinel., 1904-12-14
THE GREAT COLORADO RIVER

The great Colorado river is the largest
stream, both in drainage area and discharge,
that lies wholly within the arid portion of
the United States. 1t is formed by the june
! ton of the Greer and Grand rivers, rising in
| Colorado and Wyoming respectively, in re-
| gions of great precipitation, mainly In the
! form of snow. Only a small percentage of the
water yielded by the basin of the Colorado
| has as yet been utilized for irrigation. and
! practically none for any other purposes. The
obstacles are many. Through most of its
course this river and its tributaries flow at
| the bottom of profound canyons, from which
| 1t Is impossible TO divert them upon irrigable
| lands. The river emerges from its canyon u
short distance above the Needles-the cross
! Ing OF the Santa Fe Pacific ralroad--and has
o series of valleys which between this point
| and the Mexican line aggregate about 100000
acres. In this region the waters are heavily
| laden with sediment, which is serious OBJ
Stacle TO their diversion The grade of the
river is so fat that diversion canal taken
out at the rivers bed must have so slight
a fall and so low a velocity that ii would
quickly FIJI with sediment from the river.
For the same reason q canal must be very
long in order to command any considerable
area of land In the river valley.
TWO AND A QUARTER BILLION GALLONS A
MINUTE.
Measurements of the flow near Yuma show
! that the river sometimes discharges a mini
! mum of about 5000 cubic feet per second Its
| maximum discharge is unknown, but pToba-
! bly, exceeds one-haf million cubic feet per
second. AS the river Is supplied manly by
melting SHOWS, its season Of high water cul-
! inmates in June, and the low water season is
! in the winter, when its sources are frozen.
| The river is navigated more or less from its
| mouth to the Needles by fat-bOttom, stern
| wheel boats, which sometimes even ascend TO
| the mouth of Virgin river. Its navigation,
! however, is so difficult and precarfous as to
make il almost useless AT low water the
channel is SO broad. shallow and changeable
shat boats are continually running aground.
sometimes being nearly a week in advancing
Axr1r I.s
| the swift current greatly impairs navigation.
! Wherever wagon transportation is possible,
/ this is preferred to the river.
/ The chief obstacle to the utilization of the
waters of this basin are: First, the great
! 6uctuation in discharge; second, the paucity
! of land that can be reached by them; third,
! the large quantity of sediment making inn
| practicable any diversion on o small scale.
! A comprehensive project is here presented,
which, If upon investigation, is found inn
| practicable, will largely remove all of these
+. difficulties. and will also greatly Improve
navigation ut all seasons OF the year.
| The development Of the mineral resources,
In which this country is rich, is greatly ham
| pered by the great cost Of power and the lack
| of transportation, 10th important requisites
/ for the mining industry. The proposed plan
t sill completely solve both problems.
/ sUBTRoPIcAL CLIMATE.
| All ofthe land that can be irrigated from
| the lower Colorado may be regarded as hav-
,lg o Semi-tr0pfcal climate, where the grow
| ing season for most products continues the
year rOund-the req uirements for water, how
ever, being greater in the summer season than
! in the winter. It is here assumed that the
maximum use In July will be twice as great
as the minimum requirements in January;
| and that stream with the maxfmum flow of
two cubic feet per second in July, furnishing
about 1000 acre-feet per nnnum will supply
| 200 acres OF land.
1t is probable that with proper regulation
the Colorado river will be able TO furnish a
continuous stream, Of water for Industrial
| uses, varying from 0,000 cubic feet per second
In winter TO 10000 cubic feet per second in
| summer, in years OF smallest discharge, al
lowing the great floods of wet years to sweep
to the sea as at present This will be suffi-
cient to irrigate 900 acres or land, and Is
SO far IN excess Of the requirements below the m
| Grand Canyon that no restriction need TO be
put upon storage and diversion Gf waters
from the tributaries ofthe Colorado.
a considerable portion of the valleys Of the
lower Colorado consists of sandy flood plains
subject to occasional inun datiOns, and rough,
gravelly foothills with soil unsuitable for cul-
tivation. There are also considerable areas
| OF sand dunes, and some tracts rendered bar
rem by alkali. All these it Is proposed to re-
claim by impounding upon them the silt
which annually passes down the Colorado
river.
SERIES OF DAMS.
The general plan here proposed is the pro-
vision OF u series of reservoirs on the Colo
RADIO river by the construction OF high dams
at numerous points where the topography is
favorable and where the possible storage Is
large All of these dams will be provided
with large suiceways through the base In
order that the stored waters may be entirely
drawn of, together with their load of SILT,
whenever it is found desirable to do so. The
reservoirs will serve as settling basins for sed-
iment. The dams will also be utilized to
raise the waters into canals, for the double
purpose of enclosing more irrigable lands by
such canals and of giving them q velocity
sufficient to carry a large amount OF sediment
In suspension until 1t can be deposited upon
the fields The decIivity given to the canals
will depend largely upon the character ofthe
soil, and will be the highest permissible with
out involving destructive erosion. The fall OF
the Colorado river is so slight that reSer-
vors of enormous capacity may be construct
ed without involving dams OF fimpracticable
height. At any time, by opening the sluice-
ways of the reservoir, the current of the river
will quickly cut a channel through the de-
posted sediment from the upper end OF the
reservoir to the sluice gates; this being the
longest dimension and deepest part of the
reservoir will in all cases form an important
part of this storage capacity, and to this ex-
Hnt every reservoir can be permanently kept
clear OF sediment without expense With
this exception each reservoir is expected to
gradually fill; when this occurs il is proposed
to draw down the surface of the reservoir
permanently 20 to 40 feet, and to convert all
of the reservoir site except the river channel
into irrigated farming land, and, If necessary.
construct another reservoir for storage pur-
poses higher up on the stream. This policy
will greatly increase the arabic area. 1t will
then be practicable, whenever desired, 10
close the sluices and inundate all of the agri.
cultural land in each filled reservoir and thus
fertilize it, as is naturally done by the river
| Nile for the valley. This is done artifcially
In some parts of Europe and Africa. With
the deep, alluvial soil, semi-tropical climate,
arid atmosphere, abundant water supply,
and the possibility of fertiiiZing the fields
every year without expense. it is believed
hat such regions can be farmeG the year
round, and several crops taken off annually,
an acreage production being thus attained
entirely without precedent in history.
L