Bisbee daily review., 1908-02-23
'LEASDURG DAM IS
OF GREAT BENEFIT
Ell PaSo ncouraged By Compile
ton of First Of Great
Series of Dams.

Ell PASO, Feb. 22.-There has been
general feeling of buoyancy in this
city recently on account OF the pro
gress which has been made by the
government in the great irrigation
work undertaken on the Rio Grande
river above this city.
Leasburg diversion dam, at Selden,
n NJ, sixty miles north Of Ell Paso,
the initial unit of the sS,200,000 Rio
Grande reclamation project of the
United States government, was for
mally opened by turning water into
Messila valley of New Mexico.
About one thousand people witness
ed the ceremony. including $50 from
Ell Paso and way stations, more than
| 100 from Mesilla Park. nearly 500
from Los Cruces and about 100 from
Donna Anna.
Arriving at the damslte. the crowd
spent some time walking over the
ground, and examining the work.
Then luncheon was had and ar 2
o'clock the exercises began.
H. B. Holt. chairman of the board of
governors of the Messila Valley Wa
ter Users Association. presided, and
marizing the long negotiations lead
ing up TO the Inauguration of the
Rio Grands project and the compile
ton of this initial unit. He paid a
tribute to Is. NJ. Hall, for a number of
years the supervising engineer for
the project. to whose careful planning
and untiring zeal the success of the
vast undertaking is largely due; and
] oil Fn hn faF oil IL.
carrying the work along through its
various stages. He showed how i'm
portant it was to get the government
committed to the whole project by
the actual construction of some unit,
and desrcibed the benefits that would
come Immediately from assuring a
safe water supply to 10000 acres of
land, much Of it already under active
cultivation.
The Leasburg diversion dam con-
sists of a rubble concrete, steel rein
forced weir, resting on eight inch
piles 25 feet long driven into the bed
of a trench 40 feet wide, to a depth
so that their tops were ten feet be-
low the bed of the river. On these
piles the dam or weir of rubble and
reinforced concrete was is built. The
depth from the bottom of the piles to
the top of the dam is 81 feet and the
river will, at high water, flow over
the weir at a depth of three feet. The
weir or dam proper is 500 feet long
but at the west end an earth embank-
ment so feet wide at the bottom and
so feet at the top, extends fer a third
OF a mile Or about 100 feet. Where
the concrete weir joins the earth en-
bankment, there is a solid concrete
abutment with all necessary protec-
ton against a washing of the earth
bank by washing or seeps.
A sluiceway or spillway has hoo"
put through the Penasco rock, which
forms the east abutment of the dam,
and a massive canal intake with five
openings occupies a space where the
solid rock has ben cut to afford ac-
cess to the canal.
The part Of the main canal included
in the Leasburg unit is six miles in
length, 600 feet of which is "a feet
wide on the bottom and the remainder
80 feet wide on the bottom. The canal
has a carrying capacity Of of about
500 cubic feet per second. At its
lower end it opens into the Two dis
tributing bitches, the Donna Ana and
the Mssilla.
a sand sluiceway to remove the
heavy sediment is provided. Two ar
royos are carried over the main canal
in timber conduits,' The drop in the
main canal is 80 feet in the six miles,
SO that it was necessary to provide two
drops, one of six feet and one of
four These will furnish water power
in considerable quantity.
The river channel for a distance of
one mile had to be changed to ac-
comcdate the new canal.
Bids were called for August 81, 1906.
The work has taken over a year and
the cost will reach 100000
Now that the Horn has been prop