The Arizona sentinel., 1905-05-17
THE GREAT COL ORADO RIVER

The great Colorado river is the larges
stream, both in drainage area and discharge
that lies wholly within the arid portion O
! the United States. 1t 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 tn,
form of snow. Only small percentage of thu
| water yielded by the basin of the Colorado
| has as vet been utilized for irrigation, anC
| practically none for any other purposes. Thu
obstacles are many. Through most of it!
course this river and its tributaries flow n
the bottom of profound canyons, from which
| 1t Is impossible to divert them upon irrigabl,
| lands. The river efnerges from its canyon
| short distance above the NeedIcS-the cross
ing OF the Santa Fe Pacific railroad-and ha!
a series of valleys which between this point
| and the Mexican line aggregate about J000O
acres. In this region the waters arc heavily
laden with sediment, which is n serious oh
stacle TO their diversion The grade Of tho
river Ia so fiat that a 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 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 Il mini
! mum of about 5000 cubic feet per second. Its
| maximum discharge is unknown, but proba
! bly, exceeds onc-half million cubic feet pei
second. As the river is supplied mainly ny
melting SHOWS, its season: OF high water cul
| inmates in June, and the low water season is
! in the winter, when its 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
| the mouth of Virgin river. Its navigation
| however, is so difficult and precaTiouS as TO
make IL almost useless. At low water the
| channel is so broad, shallow and changcable
that boats are continually running aground
sometimes being nearly Il 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 to the river.
The chief obstacle to the utilization Of the
waters of this basin are: First, the great
nuctuation 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 small SCALE,
A comprehensive project is here presented,
which, if upon investigation, is found i'm
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
Viii completely solve both problems.
sUBTRoPICAL CLIMATE.
All of the land that can be irrigated from
the lower Colorado may be regarded as hav-
ing q 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 summer season than
in the winter. 1t is here assumed that the
maximum use in July will be twice as great
as the minimum requirements in January;
and that 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.
1t 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 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 10000 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 ofthe Colorado.
A considerable portion Of the valleys of the
lower Colorado consists of sandy flood plains
subject to occasional foundations, and rough,
gravelly foothills with soil unsuitable for cub
tiVatiOn. There are also considerable areas
of sand dunes, and some tracts rendered bar
rem by alkali. All these it is proposedto 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 a series of reservoirs on the Colo
RADIO 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 sideways through the base, in
order that the stored waters may be entirely
drawn off, together with their load of silt,
whenever il is found desirable to do so. The
reservoirs will serve settling basins for sed-
iment. The dams will also be utilized to
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
dppliVifV canals
will depend largely upon the character ofthe
soil, and will be the highest permissible with
out involving destructive erosion. The fall OF
the Colorado river tx so slight that reser-
vOirs of enormous capacity may be construct
ed without Involving dams of impracticable
height. AT any time, by opening the sluce-
ways OF the reservoir, the current OF the river
VIII quickly cut 81 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 viii in all cases form an important
part of this storage capacity, and to this ex-
tent every reservoir can be permanently kept
clear of sediment without expense. With
this exceptions each reservoir is expected to
gradually fill; when this occurs ii is proposed
to draw down the surface of the reservoir
permanently 20 to 80 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-
poses higher up Oh the stream. This policy
will greatly increase the arabic area. twill
then be practicable whenever desired, to
close the sluices and inundate all of the a2ri-
cultural land in each filed reservoir and thus
fertiliZe it. as rs naturally done by the river
Nile for the valley. This is done artificially
in some parts Of Europe and Africa. With
the deep, ailuval soil, semi-trepical climate,
arid atmosphere, abundant water supply
and the possibility of fertiiZing the fields.
every year without expense. it is believed
I hat such regions can be farIned the year
round, and several crops taken Off annually,
an acreage production being thus attained