The Arizona sentinel., 1905-11-15
THE COLORADO RIVER
Engineers Discuss Some of the Great Irrigation Projects.
ILos Angeles Times, Novembers, 1905. ]

The channel of the Colorado river, from the lower intake of the Imperial canal to the head of the Gulf of California, is now dry land, and the entire stream is flowing into the Salton basin. The engineering difficulties in the way of turning the river back into its old course are great, but the task is not impos- sible, declares so high an author ity on hydraulic engineering as J. B. Lippincott of the United States reclamation service.
 "I believe it will be done be- cause of the magnitude of the interests involved" said Engi- neer Lippincott at the monthly meeting and dinner of the En gineers' and Architects Associa ton at Cafe Bristol last night.
 It was one of the most largely attended meetings of the aSsocia- tion held for some time, nearly fifty members being present. The president of the association, Donald w. Campbell, presided. The attendance of the engineers interested in irrigation projects was very large because of the scheduled addresses Of Homer Hamlin and J. B. Lippincott on the great irrigation projects in the valley of the Colorado river. The lectures were profusely it. lustrated with maps, charts and drawings of the plans for divert ing the waters of the Colorado to reclaim the desert lands of California and Arizona.
 THE YUMA PROJECT.
 MT. Hamlin's paper dealt with ''The Yuma Project on the Colo rado River," and was of @ tech nical nature. Being one of the engineers directly in charge of the work, he was able to illus trate the work now being prose cuted there under the federal re. clamation act very graphically. Ills remarks were confined chief ly to the construction of the La guna dam and the canals leading from it for the irrigation of the lands on both sides of the river from 8 point twelve miles above Yuma to the Mexican boundary.
 He said there will come under these canals about 1000 acres of valley land, and there on the Yuma mesa 92,000 additional acres which could be brought nnder cultivation by raising water from the river. It is pro- posed to irrigate about 9, 900 acres of these mesa lands by pumping water from the main canal on the Arizona side. The duty of water required for irri- gation, he said, was expressed in acre feet, an acre foot mean ing one acre covered to the depth of one foot, or 43,6O0 cubic feet to the acre. Irrigation expert ments in the Yuma valley had demonstrated that about 5 feet of water per annum were re- quired for each acre irrigated. The amount required for each respective month of the year is as follows: January, 20 of an acre foot; February, .25; March, 80; April, 40; May, .52. June, 70; July, go; August, 80; Sep tember, .56; October, 3S; Mo- vember, .26 December, .22; to- tai, ,. 49. The size of the canals. will be such as to deliver 10 acre feet per annum, if necessary, for all the lands to be brought under cultivation.
 Work on the Laguna dam, the first of the kind in the United States, MT. Hamlin said, was now we'll under way. The con- tractors, J. G. White 6 Go. have it we'll in hand. He exhibited drawings showing the plan of construction and said it was of the same general type as many great irrigating dams in Egypt and India which had stood the test of time. One at Madras, built by the native Hindoos, has stood for 1900 years before the British occupation.
 The length of the Laguna dam will be 5, 40 feet with a maxi