Arizona republican., 1904-05-21
THE COLORADO RIVER
Proposed Dam for Storing Its Waters
 Near Their Source.

The following special dispatch from
 Washington to the Los Angeles Times
 is of special interest to western Ari-
 zona and California and of general in terest to all western people as it shows how comprehensive the work of the
 reclamation service is becoming. It has been a general belief heretofore that such a magnificent stream as the Colorado could never have a short wa
 ter supply, but with the immense rec lamation projects along it's lower reaches, such predictions have been made and the reclamation service, with
 great foresight, seems already engag- ed in studying economical methods for conservation of the precious fluid on the watershed. hundreds of miles away. The dispatch says:
 The withdrawal from entry today, by the secretary of the interior, of a large body of land in Colorado, marks an inn portant step in the development of ir- rigation possibilities along the Cobra do river. The withdrawal areas will embrace what is known as the Krem- mling reservoir site in the canon of the Grand river, the largest tributary of the Colorado. The government en- gineers, finding it impossible to pro- vide storage in the lower reaches Of the Colorado for the extensive systems of irrigation they had planned, have investigated the valleys of the princi- pal tributaries and decided upon Krem- mling as the most valuable site avail able. This investigation and the with drawal which followed are only an in dication of the far-sighted and prsc- tical policy which characterizes the government work of reclamation These works are not being built for single generation, but for all time, and every step taken is carefully consid- cred.
 The knowledge that a vast storage reservoir is to be constructed al the headwaters of the Colorado river will relieve much of the apprehension that now exists in the lower valley regard ing the proposed diversion of this stream upon lands above Yuma. It will also simplify, in a large measure. many vexing questions which might arise between Mexico and this country over the division of water.
 A board of six consulting engineers, with J. B. Lippincott, supervising en- gineer of work on the Colorado, and B. T. Perkins, engineers in charge on the ground, recently made a thorough study of the results of surveys and in vestigation in the lower valley. As proper storage could not be obtained on the lower Colorado river, a recm-l me hdation for the withdrawal of the K1 emmling reservoir site was made to tf.e secetary. The area which can be irrigated by the proposed government work is estimated at about two mil- lion acres. These lands are not only unusually fertile, but on account of the climate will produce crops during practically the entire year. The cli- mate and physical characteristics of the river and the features upon which the irrigation will depend partake largely of the nature of the Nile in Egypt, involving much the same prob lens and returning much the same products. For the successful comple- tion of these works the normal flow of the stream must be supplemented in midsummer by storage, for. without the storage of water, it would not be possible to irrigate more than one fourth to ope-third of the amount of land that can be supplied with proper storage facilities.