The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-09
Third Largest Body of Water in
United States.
II IS 20 FEET DEEP.
And Is Growing in Depth and
Extent Daily.
Several Small Towns Now Be-
meath the Water.

Washington, oct. s=who is re-
sponsible for the creation Of the
Salton sea In southern California,
which already covers an area Of 400
square miles and threatens to spread
over 1000 square miles if some means
of diverting the Colorado river can not
be devised.
This question is perpIexins Mexican
and American diplomats but for the
time being diplomatic discussions have
been suspended and both the United
States and Mexico are bending every
effort to check the river which has
been accidentally turned from its
course through the efforts of the Cali
fornia Development company to irri-
gate lands IN northern Mexico and
southern California.
Interesting complications Of an in
ternational nature are threatened when
the two governments attempt to settle
their differences and make good the
damage which has been wrought by
diverting the Colorado from its old
channel. The California Development
company originally tapped the river
below Yuma, Ariz., and carried water
from Arizona. through a canal in
northern Mexico and back into a great
valley in southern California In 1904
it was found that this canal was in
adequate to supply water required for
the irrigation project and q Mexican
corporation, controlled by the Cali
iornia Development company. was au-
thorized by Mexico to take water from
the Colorado in Mexico, a short dis
tance south of Yuma. The irrigation
canal was only one-fourth Of a mile
4 from river at the point IN Mexico
( where a ditch was cut through the
sandy bank of the river connecting
with the great irrigation canal. No
gates were provided and when the high
water OF 1905 came, the Colorado river
was diverted from its channel, cut
away its bank and went raging into the
lowlands in California far below sea
/ level. Repeated Attempts have been
made to turn the river back into its old
/ channel, but without success.
Again and again the Southern Pacihs
! railway has been compelled to move its
tracks which ran through the SaltOn
sink and have been forced on to the
I foothills surrounding the great basin
which is being converted into a sea
I Several small towns are now beneath
the waters which the Colorado has
/ poured into the basin and in many
places only the tops Of the railway tele-
! graph poles indicate where the roadbed
! formerly was. In the lowest part Of the
sink the water is now seventy feet
deep.
For time the water from the Colo
rado raised the sea at the rate Of six
! inches a day and it has been estimated
that granting the failure of the engi-
neers TO check the river in 40 years al.
1 the basin located beneath the main
1 course of the Colorado will be covered
with water. part of this basin is il
/ Mexico and the failure to control the
river would give this country and Mexi-
co a lake comparab bic to the great lakes
! separating the United States and Can
! ada. At present the lake Is greater than
any body of water wholly within the
4 United States except Salt lake and
Lake Michigan.
The Mexican companS. to which per-
mission was granted to take water out
of the Colorado in Mexico was merely
/ created in Mexico to assist the Cali
/ fornia Development company in making
a success of an irrigation project which
was a partial failure when water was
1 taken from the Colorado in Arizona
Most of the land to be irrigated was in
/ the United States and the Mexican gov
| ernment had compare lively little to
! gain from the concession granted 10 the
| irrigation company
International complications have
followed growing out Of the fact that
1 existing treaties provide that the
Colorado shall be maintained as
navigabIe stream which is not now the
case because It has been completely df-
verted from the gulf Of California into
the sink. Expert engineers are strug-
Cling to control the flow OF waters and
| the Southern Pacific railway whose
properties are suffering greatly is CO.
operating with the Mexican and Amer
lean government engineers IN an efrort
to construct another channel with
food gates into which the Colorado
can be diverted long enough to repair
the Salton break.
The Mexican governm ent commits
sion is headed by Brigadier General
4 Angel Garcia Pena and the American
government by the reclamation service
engineers.