The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1906-11-09
THE SPREAD OF
THE SAL1ON SEA
OVERFLOW WATER FROM COLO
RADIO PROVES A PROBLEM FOR
ENGINEERS AND DIPLOMATS.


ENGINEERS AND DIPLOMATS.
WASHINGTON, October 9.-who is
responsible 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 cannot
Dee devised?
This question is perplexing Mexican
and American diplomatists, but for the
time being diplomatic representations
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 CAL
iforuia Development Company to irri-
gate lands in Northern Mexico and in
Southern California.
Interesting complications Of an in
tornational 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 tap
ped the river below Yuma, A. T., and
carried water from Arizona through a
canal into Northern Mexico, and back
into a great valley in Southern Cali
fornia. In 1904 it was found that this
canal was inadequate to supply water
required for the irrigation project, and
Mexican corporation, controlled by the
California Development Company was
authorized by Mexico to take water
from the Colorado in Mexico, a short
distance south of Yuma. The irrigat-
ing canal was only one-fourth of a mile
from the river, at the point in Mexico
where ditch was cut through the
sandy bank of the river connecting
with the great irrigation canal. No
gates were provided, and when the Colo
RADIO was diverted from it's channel it
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
the old channel, but with out success.
Again and again the Southern Pa
citic Railway has been compelled to
move its tracks which ran through the
Salton sink, and have been forced to
move it's tracks which ran through the
Salton sink, and have been forced to
the foothills surrounding the great
basin, which is being converted into a
sea. Several small towns are now
beneath the waters which the Colorado
has poured into the basin, and in many
no Of
indicate where the roadbed formerly
was. In the lowest part of the sink
the failure Of engineers to check the
1t has been entimated that granting
the feilure of engineers to check the
river, in forty years all the basin To-
Gated below the level of the main
course of the Colorado will be COW
cred with water "A part of the basin
is in Mexico and a failure to contro
the river would give. this country and
Mexico a lake comparable to the
Great Lakes separating the United
States and Canada. At present the
lake is greater than any body of water
wholly within the United States except
Salt Lake and Lake Michigan
The Mexican company to which per-
mission was granted to take water out
of the Colorado in Mexico was merely
created in Mexico to assist the Califor-
nit Development Company in making
a success of an irrigation project
which was a partial failure when water
wah taken from the Colorado in Ari-
IONA. Most of the land to be irrigated
was in the United States, and the Mex
lean Government had comparatively
little to gain from the concession grant
ed to the irrigration company.
International complications have fol-
lowed, growing out of the fact that
existing treaties provide that the Col
Grade shall be maintained as a navi-
gable stream which is not now the
case, because it has been completely
diverted from the Gulf of California
into the great sink. Expert engineers
are struggling to control the flow of
water, and the Southern Pacific Rail-
way, whose property is suffering great
ly is cooperating with the Mexican
and American Government engineers
in an effort to construct another chan
mel with fioodgates into which the
Colorado can be diverted long enough
to repair the Salton break.
The Mexican government commission
is headed by Brigadier-G General Angel
Garcia Pena and the American Gov
eminent force by the reclamation seer
vice engineers.
HAWAIPS BOSTON COLONY.