The Arizona sentinel., 1904-05-18
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. u is formed by the june
 lion Of the Green and Grand rivers, rising in
 Colorado and Wyoming respectively, In re-
 gions Of great precipitation, mainly In the
 form Of SHOW. Only small percentage of the
 water yielded l;y the basin of the Colorado
 has as vet been utilized for irrigation and
 practically none for any other purposes. The
 obstacles gre many. Through most of it's
 course this river and its tributaries flow at
 the bottom of profound canyons, from which
 tt Is impossible to divert them upon irrigable
 lands. The river emerges from its canyon a
 short distance above the NeedleS-the cross
 Ing of the santa Fe Pacific railroad-aud has
 series of valleys which between thIs point
 and the Mexican line aggregate about 5Gf,m0
 acres. In this region the waters are heavily
 laden with sediment, which is a serious Ob-
 stacle to their diversion The grade of the
 river is so flat that diversion canal taken
 out at the rivers bed must have so slight fall and so low velocity that it would quickly fill with sediment from the river. For the same reason a canal mast be very long in order to command any considerable area of land in the river valley.
 TWO AND QUARTER BILLION GALLONS A
 MINUTE.
 Measurements of the flow near Yuma show that the river sometimes discharges a mini mum Of about 3O00 cubic feet per second. Its naXimum discharge is unknown, but probn- bly exceeds one-haf million cubic feet per second. As the river is supplied mainly by melting SnOWS. its season or DlEh water clil-
 minateS in June, and the low water season is In the winter. when it's sources are frozen.
 The river is navigated more or less from its mouth to the Needles by fiat-bottom, stern wheel boats, which sometimes even ascend to Ihe month Of Virgin river. Its navigation, however is so difficult and precarious as to make it almost useless. At low water the channel is so broad shallow and changeallc that boats are continually running aground. sometimes being nearly week in advancing ten or fifteen miles. In times of high water no frY nnN iUO 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 ffuctuation 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 a small scale.
 \ comprehensive project is here presented, which, if upon investigation, is found i'm difficulties, and will also greatly improve navigation at all seasons of the year.
 Tie development Of the mineral resources, | in which this country is rich. is greatly ham, | percd by the great cost of power and the lack l of transportation. both important requisites | for the mining industry. The proposed plan | will completely solve both problems
 sUBTRorICAL CLIMATE.
 All of the land that can be irrigated from | the lower Colorado may be regarded as haV- | ing a sem-tropical climate, where the grow ing season for most products continues the i year round-the requirements for water, how
  in the winter. It is here assumed that the | Inaximum use in July will be twice as great ! ;ts the minimum requirements in January; | and that stream with the maximum flow of | two cubic feet per second ill July, furnishing 1 about l0OO acre-fect per annum, will supply 200 acres of land.
 It is probable that with proper regulation the Colorado river will be able to furnish continuous stream of water for industrial uses, varying from f6,0O0 cubic feet per second in fwinter to 200G0 cubic feet per second in summer in years Of smallest discharge, al- lowing the great floods of wet years to sweep 10 the sea as at present. This will be suffi cient to irTiGatc 2,000 900 acres of land, and is so far in excess of the requirements below the Grand Canyon that no restriction need to be put upon storage and diversion of waters from the tributaries of the Colorado.
 A considerable portion of the valleys of the lower Colorado consists of sandy flood plains subject tO occasional inundations, and roug6, gravelly foothills with soil unsuitable for cul- fivation. There are also considerable areas of sand dunes and some tracts rendered bar ren by alkal. 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 series of reservoirs on the Colo rado 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 sluiceways 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 irrigab!c lands by such canals and of giving them a velocity sufficient to carry a large amount of sediment in suspension until il can bc deposited upon the fields. The declivity given to the canals will dcpend largely upon the character ofthe soil, and will be the highest permissible with nut involving destructive erosion The fall of the Colorado river is so slight that reSer- roirs of enormous capacity may he construct rd without involving dams of impracticablc height. At any time, by opening the Sluicc- WAYS of the reservoir. the current of the river will quickly cut a channel through the de poSitcd sediment from the upper end of the to the Sluice gates; this being the longest dimension and deepest part of the will in all cases form an important part of this storage capacity, and to this eN- tent every reservoir can be permanently kept , dear Of sediment without expense. With ihis exception each reServoir-is SA4-recttts 10 fill when Iis occurs it is proposed To draw doWn thc surface Of the reservoir , permanently 70 tJ 10 feet, and to convert all Df thc reSeryQSe site except the river channel l Into trriGoted farming land, and, if necessary. 1 ronstuct another reservoir for storage pur- , poses higher up on the stream. This policy Til greatly increase the arabic area. It will [ then he practicable, whenever desired, to rlose the suices and inundate all Of the agri- rultural land in each filled reservoir and thus 'ertiiZe it, as is naturally done by the river Nile for the valley. This is done artificially l in some parts of Europe and Africa. With , the deep, alluvial soil, semi-tropical climate, arid atmosphere, abundant water supply, znd the possibility of fertiiiZing the fields I rysFy year without expense. lt Is believed |, hat such regions can be farIned the year round, and several crops taken off annually, an acreage production being thus attained ( entirely without precedent in history.