Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-17
COLORADO RIVER
ALARMS EXPERTS
WELL KNOWN WRITER TELLS
OF ANTICS
STREAM REACHES THE HIGHEST
POINT IN ITS HISTORY
Allen Kelly Describes Strange Freaks
of Erratc Body of Water That
Cuts Itself New Course
at viii

Antics of the Colorado river, known
far and wide, especially among en-
gineers and irrigation experts, as the
"erratic Colorado" are of so great i'm
portance to the two greatest irriga-
ton projects of Southern California
those of the Imperial valley and of the
newer Yuma reservation-that the fol-
lowing interview with an authority is
of first interest.
Very few men have studied the river
with greater thoroughness from source
to mouth than has Allen Kelly, editor
of the Imperial Valley Press, and one
of the best known newspapermen in
the southwest. Captain Kelly made a
trip to the head works of the I'm
perial valley irrigation system last
week and on his return gave the fol-
lowing remarkable story Of the latest
twists of this peculiar river. He said:
'"The Colorado river has been doing
some strange stunts this year and has
kept the engineers guessing at what
it's next freak may be. During the
June flood season the discharge of
the river was the greatest on record,
reaching a maximum of 145,OOO cubic
second feet, or 7,250,000 miners inches,
but the surface of the flood did not
rise to the highest mark on the gauge
at Yuma. The river secured out its
bed to make room at the bottom for
the flood, and at one time the bed was
fftv feet below it's normal plane ar
Yuma.
"The concrete piers of the railroad
bridge were left resting upon piles
many feet above the bed of the river,
but the piles are sixty feet long and
we'll driven and no damage was done TO
the bridge. The men who built the
piers of that bridge certainly made a
good job of it.
Cuts Channel Deeper
It was believed by all river men and
bv the engineers in charge or pro-
tective and irrigation works that the
Rio Abejos, one of the drainage chan
nels In the overflowed land below the
Mexican border, had cut back its chan
mel to junction with the CoIoraao.
There is an abrupt fall of twenty-five
feet from the Colorado to the AbeJos,
and recession of the channel of the
latter to the big river would cause
deepening of the Colorado from the
junction up stream, possibly clear TO
Laguna dam, and also result in a
change of the course of the river from
the point of junction to the gulf.
"But the Rio AbejoS, or Bee river
gineers Of the California Development
company have been down into the
overf1owed region to see what has hap
pened, and they report that the cut is
not within two miles of the channel OF
the Colorado, which is on a ridge above
the general level of the delta lands.
Therefore the securing of the Colorado's
bed is to be accounted for otherwise.
Moreover the river bed has silted
up again with subsidence of the flood
a month ago the bottom opposite the
California Development company's in
take was twenty-five feet below the
sills of the cement headgate; now it Is
a foot higher. At the last observation
fine average depth of water in the chan
mel opposite the gate was nine feet;
the average depth in the intake was six
feet and the depth at the gate was
eleven feet. There is an incline of one
foot in the surface of the water in the
intake. and as the deepest water in the
channel was eleven feet, the bottom
there is a foot higher than the bottom
of the gate.
"This condition dispels any fear that
water will not run from the river to
the gate at the lowest stage. A little