Arizona republican., 1906-11-10

hold off for just a few months now.
 the construction will be at a point
 where they may come without danger
 of interfering with the work In fact
 the only harm a flood will do after the
 upper wall gets fifteen feet higher. will
 be to delay matters by filling up the
 excavation, which would have to be
 emptied again and thoroughly cleaned.
 IL is hoped that will not occur. both on
 account of the delay it might occasion.
 and the expense it would add to the
 work of the contractor. There is an
 ample supply of electric power and in
 the event of a break down there is still
 the steam power plant to rely on and
 it will only be a few weeks until the second unit of the electric plant will be
 ready to alternate with the initial
 unit.
 He said it was a source of gratifica-
 ton to him to see the construction
 work moving along so rapidly and has
 tening the day when the invitation to
 new settlers could be safely given,
 with the promise of an ample water
 supply. Asked for a prediction of the
 date of completion of the diversion dam
 he said he did not care to give a defi-
 mite date, but he thought it would be well within a year. Though this dam
 has nothing to do with storage it. will
 assure the diversion and use of what
 water is in the river normally, which
 is a great improvement over conditions
 of the past year when there has been ample water, but continual interfer- ence with it's diversion.
 Speaking of Engineer Hill, who by
 the way, was not present at the in
 terview, he said MT. HII was doing
 fine work, had made a special study of economy in his operations and seemed to have excellent foremen to carry
 out his ideas.
 Incidentally the subject of the change to be made i9 the office of secretary Of the interior, was spoken of. MT. New ell said that Secretary Hitchcock had proved a good friend of Arizona and during his service of eight years, which l is longer than any other man has filled the office. he has taken a great deal | of interest in the matter of water stor- age. and tried to do all he could to further the interests of the people of the sections proposed to be irrigated. He said, though, that he had no doubt MT. Garfield. who will succeed Secre- tary Hitchcock. will be equally as de- voted to his work. Speaking of the good progress the Salt river project has made, MT. Newell said it was due ! in large part to the fact that good men had been sent to Washington from here, to present the needs of the val ! lay and that they had been untiring in | keeping the matters before the depart ment until they were acted upon. MT. NewelTs last visit here was in 1 February, but he says he hopes to i come more frequently now that con struction is well under way. He likes ! to keep in touch with the field work though it is impossible to see it all. It would take him a year to visit all the and inspect them in detail. He has ] been out three months on this trip and has only seen a few of them. He left last night for Fl Paso, ana from there
 will go to the site of the proposed dam
 on the Rio Grande near Las Cruces, for the construction of which a contract was recently let to J. P. Nelson. This is a diversion dam similar to the Gran it's Reef enterprise. It will store no water, but will force the river to keep within rock abutments where its diver sion can be systematically and de- pendably controlled. The cost of this dam will be approximately s20O, 900. Some distance further up the river,
 near Engle, N. M, is what is known as the Elephant Butte project. This will cost S7,OO0, 600 to construct, and it is de- signed to impound all the flood waters
 of the Rio Grande. However. it is one of the future projects and not pres ent enterprise for there is no money available now for it's construction.