The copper era., 1905-12-14
SALTON SEA AND
IMPERIAL COUNTRY.
An Interesting Array of Facts by One
 Competent to Speak.

the engineers to stop the flow of that stream into the Imperial canal in- take. has aroused new interest and new speculation concerning the Sal ton Sea and the possible fate of the rich farming section known as the Imperial valley. Sometime ago En- gineer George Y. Wisner, of the reclamation service, was widely quoted in the newspapers in this matter and he was interviewed upon the subject by a Republican reporter:
 The Salton basin and Imperial country, says Nr. Wisner, was origi- nally beyond a doubt part of the Gulf of California. The Colorado river began the formation of delta or sand beds along it's west bank and these were gradually added to until the Imperial country was formed, the Salton Sea being the part of the gulf that was cut off. As this new land on the west was formed the river gradually bore to the left, cutting the channel to the gulf now recog- nized as it's natural bed. The Salton sink being cut off from any great supply of water gradually evapor- -ated, leaving in it's bottom a vast amount of salt which deposit was ad- ded to by the washing of the salt left on its sides, down into the basin, by the action of rains and torrential streams. The matter of elevations is the next thing to consider. The water service of the Salton Sea, that is the water level, at the pres ent time is about 26O feet below sea level. Imperial, on the canal, which is now carrying almost the entire Colorado river, is about sixty feet below sea level, and the canal head is 100 feet above sea level. Imperial, therefore is 16O feet lower than the intake, though yet 200 feet above the water service of the Salton Sea. 1t is estimated that it might take the river ten or twelve years, perhaps longer, depending on the annual pre- cipitation in the southwest, to ulti- mately fill the sink to a point ap- preaching sea level, but fill it is bound to do unless prevented by the enterprise of human agency. The certainty of this result can be under stood by the fact that the fall from the intake south to the gulf through the hitherto established bed of the river? So great is this difference that the service level in the canal lower than the old bed of the river at point just below the intake, and which latter channel was dry when MT. Wisner visited the place in
 August It should be stated here that just below the intake is an is land in the old bed and the channel above referred to is the one between the island and the California side. At that time there was only a very few inches of water running through the channel on the eastern side of the island, a flow one could easily roll up his pants and wade across. Since then, newspaper reports have stated that this channel was almost as dry as the other, at least until the recent flood.
 When MT. Wisner visited Yuma last August he found $500 second feet of water flowing by that city, just about the same volume that was flowing there one year before. But he was somewhat startled to discover that the bed of the river. was two feet lower at Yuma than it was the year before.
 The natural conclusion is that the current caused by the rush into the intake below had already scraped two feet off the bottom of the river as far up as Yuma, twelve miles above the intake. With a fall of loo feet between the intake and I'm perial, and still greater fall be- tween that point and the Salton Sea, one can scarcely appreciate what the old river may do in a few years in the way of digging out it's own bot tom in the vicinity of Yuma.
 The suggestion has been made by some one that even if the river con tinues to flow into the Salton Sea the evaporation will equal it's vol tune. Figures again prove the con- trary. The area of the Salton sink at sea level is about 1000, ,OOO acres. The annual evaporation in those parts is about eight feet of water or total for the entire area of S,OOO,- 900 acre feet. Against that the an- nual average discharge of the Cole rado river is 11,OOO,OOO acre feet. There would then be an annual gain of 3,000,000 acre feet over any possi- ble evaporation.
 In respect of how to prevent what seems at first thought to be the in- evitable, there are two or three pro- jects under way that will certainly prove of great benefit and many oth- CTS may be devised before there is wide disaster. Of those assured Mir. Wisner makes particular mention of the Laguna project. When that is completed and thousands of acres be- low it are brought under cultivation a vast amount of this water will be u+i1iza6 IVba1 tho Dooea-o14 l.