The Arizona sentinel., 1905-03-15
THE GREAT COLORADO RIVER

HE UnLH UULUnHUU niTLT
 The great Colorado river is the largeS l stream, both in drainage area and discharge | that lies wholly within the arid portion o
 the United States It is formed by the june
 tion Of the Greer and Grand rivers rising il ] Colorado and Wyoming respectively, in re gions of great precipitation, mainly In thu l form of snow. Only a small percentage of tht
 water yielded by the basin of the Colorado
 has vet been utilized for irrigation, anC practically none for any other purposes. The l obstacles are many. Through most of it.
 course this river and it's tributaries flow a
 the bottom of profound canyons, from which l it Is impossible to divert them upon irTigahlt | lands The river emergeS from it's canyon short distance above the Needles-the cross 1 ing of the Santa Fe Pacific railrOaG-and ha! | a series of valleys which between thIS pOin | and the Mexican line aggregate about 5000N | acres. In this region the waters are heavily laden with sediment, which is a serious Ob | Stacle to their diversion The grade of tho
 river is so flat that diversion canal takeI
 out at the rivers bed must have so slight {
 a fall and so low a velocity that it would
 quickly fill with sediment from the river | For the same reason a canal must be very | long in order 10 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 something's discharges mini | mum of about 5000 cubic feet per second. Its l maximum discharge is unknown but proha 1 bly, exceeds one-half million cubic feet per | second. As the river is supplied mainly by
 melting snows, it's season of high water cul-
 inmates in June, and the low water season is l 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 1 the mouth of Virgin river. Its navigation, | however, is so difficult and precarious as to
 make it almost useless. At low water the 1 channel is so broad shallow and changeablC I that boats are continually running aground, sometimes being nearly a week in advancing ten or fifteen miles. In times of high water the 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 the mineral resources, in which this country is rich, is greatly ham pered by the great cost of power and the lack of 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 hav- .ng a sem-tropical climate, where the grow ing season for most products continues the year round-the requirements for water, how ever, being greater in the summer season than in the winter. It is here assumed that the maximum use in July will be twice as great as the minimum requirements in January; and that a stream with the maximum flow of two cubic feet per second i'll July, furnishing about l000 acre-fcet per annum, will supply POO 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 l0,0OO cubic feet per second in winter to 10000 cubic feet per second in summer, in years of smallest discharge, al- lowing the great floods of wet years to sweep to the sea as at present. This will be Suffi- cient to irrigate 100000 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 nundations, and rough, gravelly foothills with soil unsuitable for cul- tvation. There are also considerable areas of sand dunes, and some tracts rendered bar rcn by alkali. 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 off, 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 10 raise the waters into canals, for the double purpose of enclosing more irrigable lands by such canals and of giving them a velocity sufficient to carry a large amount of sediment In suspension until it can be deposited upon the fields. The declivity given to the canals will depend largely upon the character Ofthc soil, and will be thehighest permissible with ont 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 impracticable 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 reservoir to the sluice gates; this being the longest dimension and deepest part of the reservoir will in all cases form an important part of this storage capacity, and to this cX tent every reservoir can be permanently kept clear of sediment without expense. With this exception, each reservoir is expected to gradually fill; when this occurs if is proposed to draw down the surface of the reservoir permanently 20 to 40 feet, and to convert all of the reservoir site except the river channel into irrigated farming land. and, if necessary. construct another reservoir for storage pur- poScS higher up off the stream. This policy will greatly increase the arabic area. If will then Gc practicable, whenever desired, to close the suiees and innndate all of the agri- cultural land in eash filed reservoir and thus fertilize it, as is naturally doHc by the river Nile for the valley This is done artificialy in some parts of Europe and Africa. With the deep, alluvial soil, semi-tropical climate, arid atmosphere, abundant water supply, and the possibility of fcrtiiiZing the fields every year without expense. it is believed 1 hat such regions can be farmed the year round, and several crops taken off annually, an acreage production being thus attained entirely without precedent in history.