The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-01-13

regulating dam at the outlet, the level
of the lake could then be satisfactorily
controlled, drawn off in dry seasons
to level about four feet below it's
present low water mark, and the sur
plus water of the next wet season
stored in this four feet of depth be-
tween the new low-water mark and
the former customary level.
The fall of Red Lake river is very
slight for many miles from the lake:
it was therefore estimated from the
survey that the deepening OF the chan
mel to the required extent would ne
cessitate the excavation of about
5000 cubic yadrs of earth, which
with the construction of the dam with
locks and all other incidental expenses
it was estimated would result in
total expenditure of $270,000.
This project was reported for favor
able consideration by the division en-
gineer and by the board of engineers
for rivers and harbors, to the chief
engineer. But the chief of engineers
of the U. s. army, In his annual re-
port for 1904, overruled their recon-
mendations, and reported adversely,
and so of course the matter now rests.
verse report may be quoted.
THE commerce itself Ton
the Red and Red Lake rivers] does
not appear to me to warrant the ex-
penditure Of as large sum as that
named. The matter of pro-
tecting the Red river valley from
floods is not touched upon by the law
calling for these examinations and
surveys. the object OF the investiga-
ton ordered being simply the i'm
provement of navigation ordered being
simply the Improvement that even
were the works at Red lake carried
out as proposed, they would cut Off
so small a portion of the Red river
drainage basin as to have practically
no effect upon the food height"
1t is evident that this adverse re-
port is not entirely based, nor at all
based, upon the agricultural benefits
arising from the lowering by reser-
vofr on Red lake of the flood stages
of the Red river and consequent i'm
provement of drainage. If the ques-
ton is to be further considered from
that point of view, several facts are
pertinent.
First. The total flow from Red lake
in an ordinary year is enough to
amount to only about two feet depth
over the surface of the lake; four
foot storage depth would be sufficient
to hold the entire flow into the lake
for an entire twelve months of the
most rainy year even though none
were allowed to escape through the
dam the whole year. The prevention
of flood injuries would require the
holding back of only few months
flow, although this of course at the
time when the flow would otherwise
be the greatest. The assumed neces-
sity for a four-foot storage depth
arises in part from the requirements
of navigation, from the desire to hold
back sufficient surplus water to in
sure by it's release satisfactory nav
igableigable depth through all the rest
of the season, and perhaps of the next
Second. The expense of the project
is increased not only by the desire of
the navigation interests for the stor-
age of an abundant supply of water
to carry over from one year to an
other for the improvement of naviga-
ton, but also by the fact that locks
would be required in the reservoir
dam. This expense, however, would
be incurred in building reservoir
on any navigable stream.
Third. Red lake includes only one
twelfth of the drainage above Grand
Forks, but on account of the heavier
rainfall in that region than on the
Dakota prairies, and other reasons, it
furnishes more than one-fourth of the
water in ordinary years. In this con-
nection it must be remembered, on
the other hand, that its flow is COM
paratively constant in volume, the
total flow in a month of greatest flow