The Arizona sentinel., 1904-07-20
THE GREAT COLORADO RIVER

iht GREAf GULURaDU RIVER
 The great Colorado river is the largest stream, both in drainage area and discharge 1hat lies wholly within the arid portion o
 The United States. It is formed by the june ton ofthe Greer and Grand rivers, rising in Colorado and Wyoming respectively, iii re EiOnS of great precipitation, mainly In the form Of snow. Only a small percentage of the
 water yielded by the basin of the Colorado
 sssS as vet been utilized for irrigation, and
 practically none for any other purposes. The
 obstacles are many. Through most of its sSarse this river and it's tributaries flow al the bottom of profound canyons, from which it Is impossible to divert them upon irrigablC lands. The river emergeS from it's canyon a short distance above the Needles-the cross ing of the santa Fe Pacific ralroad-and has a series of valleys which between thus point and the Mexican line aggregate about 500,000 acres. In this region the waters are heavily EIdcn with sediment. which is a serious Ob- stacle to their diversion The grade Of the river is so flat that a diversion canal taken cut at the rivers bed must have SC slight a fall and so low velocity that it would quickly fill with sediment from the river. For the same reason a 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 m!ni- mum of about 3Ge0 eStl1c feet per second. Its maXimam discharge is unknown, but Proba- ply exceeds cae-haElf million cubic feet per second. As the riveP is supplied mainly by melting SHOWS, it's season of high water cul- FninateS in June, and the low water season is fn the winter. wheE1 its sources are frozen.
 The rjVer iS nssVig:tteG more or less from it's plt,pths to. the Needles by fat-bottom, stern- wheel boats, wh:.h sometimes even ascend to She mouth of Virgin river. Its navigation, However, ts SO difficult and precarlous as to sa.,l1e it almost useless. At low water the channel is so broad, shallow and changeabe shat bORts arc continually running aground. sometimes being nearly a week in advancing Sen or fifteen miles. In times of high water she swift current greatly impairS navigation. Wherever wagon transportation is possible, this is preferred 10 the river.
 The chief obstacle to the utilization of the waters of this basin are: First, the great fuctuation in discharge; second, the paucity of land that can be reached by them; third, the large quantity of sediment, making i'm practicable any diversion on a 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 at all seasons of the year.
 The development of inc mineral resources, in which this country is rich, is greatly ham, pered by the great cost of power and the lack eff transportation, both important requisites for the mining industry. The proposed plan will completely solve both problems.
 sUBTRoPIcAL. CLIMATE
 All Of the land that can be irrigated from the lower Colorado may be regarded as hay ,ng a Semi-trOpical climate, where the grow Ing season for most products continues the year rOund-the requirements for water, how ever, being greater in the sumn~~ se2S1n than in the winter Ii is here assumed that the maximum Gsr rs-~July will be twice great as the minimum requirements in January; and that q stream with the maximum flow of two cubic feet per second in July, furnishing about 1000 acre-feet per annum, will supply 200 acres of land.
 It is probable that with proper regulation the Colorado river will be able to furnish a continuous stream of water for industrial uses varying from 10000 cubic feet per second in winter To 20,000 cubic feet per second in summer, in years of smallest discharge, al- lowing the great floods Of wet years to sweep to the as at present. This will be suffi- eent to irrigate 0D acres Of land, and is so far in excess of the requirements below the Grand Canyon that'n restriction need to be put upon storage and diversion Of waters from the tributaries of the Colorado.
 considerable portion of the valleys of the lower Colorado consists Of sandy flood plains su ubject to occasional inundationS, and rough, gravelly foothills with soil unsuitable for cul- tivation. There are also considerable areas of sand dunes, and some tracts rendered bar ren by alkali. All these it is proposed to re- claim by impounding upon them the silt which annually passes down the Colorado Siver.
 SERIES OF DAMS.
 The general plan here proposed is the pro- vision of d series of reservoirs on the Colo = at numerous points where the topography is EavoFaSble and where the possible storage is Barge All Of these dams will be provided with large SluicewayS through the base, in sfdeT that the stored waters may be entirely Srsswn off, together with their load of silt, ! whenever it is found desirable to do so. The 1 aservoiyS will serve as settling basins for sed- | STuent. The dams will also be utilized to | raise the waters into canals, for the double i purpose of enclosing more irrigabie lands by | such canals and Of giving them a velocity | ff l.Y. If ,nI,f in suspension until it can be deposited upon | the fields. The declivity given to the canals | will depend largely upon the character of the | soil, and will be the highest permissible with l put involving destructive erosion. The fall Of | the Colorado river is so slight that reSer- voirS of enormous capacity may be construct ed without involving dams of impractieable | 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 to the sluce gates; this beingfhe longest dimension and deepest part of the will in all cases form an important part of this storage capacity, and to this eX- sent evcry reservoir can be permanently kept slear Of sediment without expense. With this exception each reservoir is expected to fill; when this occurs it is proposed to draw down the surface of the reservoir 20 to 10 feet, and to convert all If the reservoir site except the river channel nto irrigated farming land, and, Unnecessary. construct another reservoir for storage pur- poses higher up on the stream. This policy vill greatly increase the arabic area. It will then be practicable, whenever dcSired to dose the sluices and inundatc all Of the agri- sultural land in each filled reservoir and thus trtilZe it, as is naturally done by the river Nile for the valley. This is done artificially al some parts Of Europe and Africa. With he deep, alluvial soil, semi-tropical climate, grid atmosphere, abundant water supply, and the possibility Of fertiiZing the fields svery year without expense. it is believed lat such regions can be farmed the year round, and several crops taken off annually, m acreage production being thus attained 'itirely without precedent in history.