Arizona republican., 1906-08-01
YESTERDAYS MEETING
 BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Conference With Government Engin
 eers in Local Irrigation Question.

The meeting of the board of govern ors of the Water Users association yesterday was very nearly an all day session, as it began early in the fore noon and lasted till 4 o'clock in the afternoon. with an intermission for luncheon. The time was spent to very good advantage for it was free and unrestricted conference between the members of the board and local attor- neys and the four engineers of the reclamation service. now in the city. namely A. P Davis, assistant chief en- gineer, w. H. Sanders, consulting en- gineer, Morris Bien, legal adviser and L. C. Hill, supervising engineer. The result of the meeting. however. was purely educational as there was no ac- ton taken in respect of any matter. not even a resolution or motion, eX- cept a motion to adjourn.
 The greater part of the day was de- voted to consideration of the subject of water priorities as made pertinent by the filing of the suit entitled Hur- ley versus Abbott ct al., for the for ward steps that are being taken to- ward bringing the litigation to an is- sue. As is we'll known there is very pronounced sentiment in some quar- ters against this sO-called friendly lawsuit. not against its purpose to settle the question, but stimulated by the belief that there might be some oher way to settle it. The situation from the viewpoint of the association was presented by Judge Kibbey and those opposing were represented in the speechmaking by Attorneys w. Fl. StiIlwell, J. NJ. Jamison and C. C. Woolf and by Ralph Murphy, C. s. Steward and Charles Peterson. Each of the last named deplored the neces- sity of the suit, though of course, all want the priorities settled. None of them had any practicable plan to pre- sent how the question might be ad- indicated except in the courts, hence there was nothing to act upon. Some thought the acceptance of the report of the committee of sixteen ought to be sufficient but that only provides for the placing of 6O.000 inches of water and there is sometimes a great deal more than that. Against that also is the fact that a million or more inches of water has been appropriated or at least. much more than the river car ries. so that even with the general ac- ceptance of that report. the court would still have to take action in pass ing upon the excess flow, and that. # appeared. could not be done until the individual rights were determined. The discussion therefore ended about where it began. All agree that if the farmers will accept the report of the committee of sixteen and cause it to be entered as a stipulation in the case it will facili- tate matters.
 The government engineers suggest ed that they could only act in an ad visory manner at this time and that they had no desire to press law suit if there wese any other way of solving the problem, but so far there seemed to them to be no other way.
 The next subject taken up was that of the building of the diversion dam which it was recently announced would be done by force account and as asked to give a short talk on the de- tails of this proposed construction. He referred the question to MT. Hill whose talk was a resume of those fea- lures that have hitherto been set forth in these columns in detail He said the dam would have an overflow length of approximately 1000 feet. though the canal head constructions on either side win take up 200 CT 300 feet more. These were described in some detail and it was set forth that the dam was designed to divert 12O,OOO inches of water to the north side of the river and 50,000 inches to the south side. Two-thirds of the dam will be on solid rock bed and the rest of it on a foundation equally as secure but not so simple in construction, the speaker proceeding to relate the meth ods of construction to be employed.
 Asked about how long it would take to build the dam, MT. Hill replied that it ought to be finished in a year if there were not too many floods, but it all depends upon how much the va garies of the river interfere with the work. Asked how soon operations would begin, he replied that they have already practically begun. A quan- tity of lumber designed to be used in preliminary work is now in Mesa City, and the hauling of it to the dam site will perhaps begin today.
 MT. Hill also in answer to questions. said the dam in the place where bed rock was not found, would be on sheet piling to great depth, so it is expected it will practically stop all seepage in the river at that point. Tn other words, any water. in the river below the com