Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1904-06-15
+. H. Newell Of Reclamation Ser.
vice Has Doubts About Rio
Grande Reservoir
Projects.
UTILIZING THE
UNDERTOOK
Many Difficulties in the Way Of Strong
Flood Waters in New
... .. Mexico.

Last evening F. H. Newell, chief en-
gineer Of the reclamation service, ad
dressed meeting at the Commercial
Club at Albuquerque, and indicated
that New Mexico cannot expect much
in the near future, in government aid
for storing the flood waters, but that
immediate development must be along
the line OF pumping the underfow for
irrigation purposes. He was accom-
panied by o. H. Ensign of Los Ange.
les, California, an expert on pumping
Engineer NeWells talk was quite ex.
plicit.
He said that the Hondo reservoir in
the Pecos Valley was one of the set
tied projects of the department and
lie hoped that contracts for the work
there would soon be let. His reference
to the work in the Rio Grande Valley,
held out little hope of the undertaking
of any project either at White Rock
Canon or elsewhere in the near future.
Indeed, his remarks tended to show it
as his belief that even if the flow Of the
Rio Grande were sufficient to supply
even ono large reservoir, that one was
not likely to be attempted by the gov
ernment in the immediate future.
He described the Rio Grande Valley
as at once the most attractive and
most difficult problem, from the engi-
neer's point of view, now before the
service. The observations commenced
by himself in the valley of the Hondo
in 1880, had been carried on to the
present time, the engineers had moved
slowly and had made careful examina-
tions everywhere and in every case, he
said, they had encountered some ap-
parently insurmountable obstacle. He
believed, however, that eventually,
every drop of water that flows into the
Rio Grande would be stored.
The difficulty he found with the
White Rock Canon project, was that
the hard rock is on the surface, while
that beneath where it would be neces-
sary to go, for a foundation, is soft.
He believed that an earth dam would
be necessary and that an earth dam of
the size necessary was something that
had not yet been undertaken by NOR
tai man. The railroad was also in the
way, and likely to prove formidable
obstacle, owing to the difficulty of Sc
curing another grade so favorable.
He said that the service must get still
more information before settling on
any one project in the Rio Grande Val
ley, and that the intention was to have
every bit of available information and
data, SO that when the time came to
begin some work for this section the
most feasible project would have been
decided.
Possibilities Of Pumping.
From this rather gloomy resume of
conditions surrounding the possibility
of storing the water Of the Rio Grande,
Mr.. Newell turned with evidently
more cheerful and hopeful tone, to the
possibilities of irrigation by means
of pumping. He said that while
pumping was expensive and while it
had thus far not always been success
full, yet he grew more and more en-
over it's possibilities every
day.
He said, so broad were the terms of
the reclamation act, that the govern
ment, were it feasible, had the power
to build and operate great power sta
ton to furnish power for pumping wa
ter sufficient to irrigated large area.
He suggested the possibility of the
of such plant in one of
the nearby coal camps, where fuel
would be cheap for the transmission
of the power to community wells or to
individual wells through the valley
He believed the underflow here to be
so great that such method might be
used for many years without lowering
it perceptibly.
Turning to a rough estimate of the
cost of establishment of such plant
to supply water to forty thousand acres
of land, he thought the cost might be
approximately $25 per acre, and this
under the system of ten per cent pay
ments each year to reimburse the
until the total first cost
had been met, would be $3.50 a year
an acre. He added to this cost of
approximately $3.50 an acre for main
tenance and operation of the power
plant. He concluded by leaving 1t
to his audience as to whether the
lands in the valley would Justify this
annual cost.
Finally Mr.. Newell said that he
could not say that the engineers of the
reclamation service would recommend
any storage dam in the Rio Grande
Valley. He pointed out as evidence
that the government must go slow,
that all irrigation enterprises built by
private enterprise in America thus far,
had been failures. Within the past