Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-06-05
POWER SITES ARE
To Be WITHDRAWN
Secretary Of the Interior Issues
Bulletin Explaining
Purpose.
AS AID TO LEGISLATION.
Utah. Colorado. Wyoming. Idaho and
Oregon Arc Affected by the Order,
Which is Temporary.
tsreeIal 10 The "News.,D


Washington, june 5-The geologi-
cal survey today promulgated the fol-
lowing bulletins
Acting upon the specific instructions
|of the secretary OF the interior, the
United States geological survey has
begun the investigation of water
power sites on the public lands Sur
vcy has recommended IL temporary
Withdrawals in aid OF proposed leg
slation affecting the disposal of the
water-power sites on the public do
main" These power-site Withdrawals.
aggregating 1896 acres of public
lands in the states of Utah, Colorado,
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Ore
gcn have been approved by Secretary
Z Ballinger The present policy is to
protect the public interests on the one
hand by promptly withdrawing from
entry all public lands containing
possible power-sites, and on the other
hand by excluding from such with
drawals as far as Information at
hand warrants all areas of no value
for power purposes but property dis
possible Under the agricultural and
other public land laws,
PROTECTION IS AMPLE.
The director or the geological ~
Vey has assured the secretary riat
the temporary Withdrawals Of water
power sites already made from dala
in the possession of the survey, to-
Eether with such as Will hereafter be
made prior To the converting of Con-
gress, will be ample to protect all
the more important Water-power sites
undisposed OF on the public domain
and enable Congress to lnteliigentiy
legislate for their disposition, fieid
plans provide for special nvestiga-
ton of Withdrawals already made and
'foI, surveys along certain western
rivers where further information or
more exact data are desirable In ad-
dition to the continuation OF the re-
gular river flow observations, for all
of which work the current appropria-
tons provide.
COMPRISE SMALLER ACREAGE
Five of the II withdrawals already
made include all the power-sitcs
available in the areas that were with
drawn by. Secretary Garfield and re-
stored to entry by Secretary Ballihgers
last month. The present Withdrawals
however, comprise much smaller
acreage, one-siXth or less OF the
areas Of the corresponding carrier
withdrawals This reduction has been
made possible i'll part by omission
of lands patented or reserved prior
to the original Withdrawals, but more
largely by the exclusion of land III np
wise essential or useful to power de-
yelopment The vacated WithdraWais
included large areas OF public land of
possible agricultural or mineral value
at such distances from the rivers as
to have absolutely no connection Win
The future development Of the water
resources. on the other hand the re-
ri.:ed Withdrawals in the same re-
gions in some instances cover power
sites missed by the earlier action.
Thus in the case of the Salmon River
in Idaho. where the original with
drawals totaled 322,560 acres, that
based upon the recent recommcnda-
lion of fthc geological survey includes
IS 700 acres. a similar reduction holds
for the Owhee River in oregon ana
in even greater measure for the t'iat-
head and the Missouri and tributaries
in Montana.
BASED ON OFFICIAL DATA.
All the recommendations by the
geological survey have been based up
on official data already on file. The
strcam-fiow records collected by the
water resources of the survey and by
the reclamation service constitute
practically all the photographic IN
formation available for the public
land states. stations on all the impor-
tant streams in these states having
been mentioned for series of years
for the purpose of determining the
water available for irrigation The
surveys which have been
by the geological survey
for 80 years also furnish means of
selecting without delay the sections of
the rivers important for power pur-