The San Francisco call., 1910-12-27
engineers PLAN
FOR IRRIGATION
WORK APPROVED
Taft Indorses Report for the
Expenditure of Fund of
$2O,OOO,OOO
Sum Will Be Spent in Next Five
Years on Reclamation of
Desert Lands

WASHINGTON, Dec 26.-Phesident
Taft has approved the report of the
special board of army engineers. rec
ommending the apportionment of the
new s2O,OOo.Ooo fund provided by con-
gress among the following reclamation
projects in the west:
Salt river. Arizona. S495.000
Yuma, Arizona and California; 81 100000
Uncompahgre. Colorado. 81. 500. 900.
Payette. Boise. Idaho. s2.00O.OO0.
MILKY river. Montana, 81 900, 600.
North Platte, Wyoming and Nebraska, $1,000
Trunckee-C Carson. Nevada s11ssooO
Rio Grande. New Mexico. Texas and Mexico,
$4,000, 900.
Umatilla. Oregon, ss25ooo
klamath, Oregon and California. $500, 900.
Strawberry valley. Utah, 81. 272, 900
Sunnyside and Tieton, Yakima. Washington.
81. 2a0.ooo and $685., coo. respectively.
The $2o,oO0,o0O is to be spent within
the next FIVE years and the interest
on the loan is to be charged against
the projects
The following projects. completed or
nearing completion, carry a recon-
mendation for the funds from the gen.
eral reclamation act sufficient only for
maintenance and operation:
OrIand, Cal; Carlsbad. N NJ; Hondo.
N. NJ; Garden City. Kan; Kittitas. Wa
pata and Penton, units of the Yakima,
Wash, project.
For the following existing reclama-
tion projects the board Of engineers,
in the report approved by the president.
recommends allotments from the gem
eral reclamation fund:
Missouri pumping. N D.; Bell
fourche S. D.: Shoshone, Wyo.; Mini
doka, Ida; Huntley. Mont; Sunriver,
Mont: lower Yellowstone, Montana
Okanogan. Wash.
TAFT APPROVES
In his letter to the secretary of the
interior. approving the report of the
engineers, President Taft says:
Il hereby approve the report of the
board of engineers in respect of the
reclamation projects. TO which they
have made allotments from the s2O.0OO,-
900 loan; but this approval, so far as
the amounts of the allotments are con-
cerned, is not final and absolute. but
1T is intended TO be subject TO change
by adjustment and modification of the
amounts as may be necessary for the
intelligent and proper prosecution. of
the work, and TO the advantage of the
service.
You are authorized to call on the
y
certificates of Indebtedness needed to
furnish the funds in accordance with
the allotment recommended by the
board and approved by me as the same
shall be needed from time to time in
pursuance of the terms of the act"
The engineers board in its report
says:
The engineering structures Of the
various. projects are as a whole well
designed and well built Some of
them, as the Pathfinder dam, the
Shoshone dam, the Roosevelt dam and
the Gunnison tunnel are monuments
rejecting great credit on both de-
signer and builder.
The most uncertain feature Of
nearly all the projects is the water
supply. This is under .state control.
and in the prosecution of its work the
reclamation service bears the same
relation to the state as to private in
dividual or corporation. When the
water rights have been adjudicated
the rights of the United States are
well defined, but elsewhere they are
uncertain and may prove to be mate
rally different from that assumed.
ADJUDICATION URGED
TT is recommended that, wherever
possible, steps be taken to secure an
early adjudication of water rights on
all projects where such adjudications
have not yet been made and that, pend
ing such action, expenditures be kept
within the probable rights of the
United States.
The actual cost of completed work
has almost invariably exceeded the
original estimates and in the case of
some structures has been two or three
times as large. This increase in cost
has been the cause of much of the dis
content among the settlers"
Under existing regulations, the re-
port sets forth, the construction
charges must be returned to the recla
nation fund in 10 equal annual, pay
ments. This. it is said. is regarded as
a hardship by the settlers on some
projects, who express a desire for a
series of graduated construction pay
ments increasing from 1 per cent or 2
per cent the first year to IA per cent
or 15 per cent the tenth year Should
this suggestion be generally adopted.
it is pointed out, it would mean delay
of several years in the return of the
first half of the investment and a cor.
responding delay in the completion of
other work.