Imperial Valley press., 1910-10-15

Engineer Sellew, in charge of the Yuma project of the Reclamation Ser vice, was in belligerent mood when a committee from Imperial Valley called upon him last week for the purpose of persuading him to moderate his opposition to maintenance of the weir dam at the intake, which alone makes it possible to get water into the Inn perial canals at low stage of the river.
 MT. Sellew complained that Receiver Holabird and Engineer Clarke, of the c. D. Co.,, had broken faith with him and disobeyed the orders of the gov ernment when they used rock in con- struction of the weir dam. He sup posed they would build brush dam in accordance with his views and plans, but they dumped rock instead and so "broke faith with him. He did not oppose the work until the dam attained what he deemed to be the necessary height, and then he sent an ''order" to stop work, which order Engineer Clarke had the audacity to ignore. He told the committee that no opposition would be raised to a brush dam being placed across the Colorado river at the intake, but that he would not countenance additions to a structure that he suspected of being placed there as permanent diversion dam, and which will, when the river is at it's flood, cause it to leave it's banks and break through the levees on the Arizona side.
 The Reclamation Service engineers are strong on fascines and brush mats, while Clarke, who was fighting rivers successfully before they were dry be- hind the ears, puts his faith ill rock. Rock dumped into the Colorado sinks rapidly in the silt, and the first lot placed in the weir did not remain at the necessary level but few hours. The overpour bored on the lower side of the weir, and unless the trestle should be reinforced, the pressure would tip the structure over and carry it away. The only way to save the trestle was to dump more rock. Brush mats placed against the upstream side of the structure would only en- sure and hasten it's destruction Therefore Clarke dumped more rock and saved the trestle without raising the height of the weir. He knows, and MT. Sellew ought to know, that the first considerable rise of the river would sweep away the trestle and cause the rock to sink out of sight and reach into the sands of the river bed. It is the purpose of the c. D. engineers to pull the piles and save the timbers of the trestle before the floods come, but Mr. Sellew suspects that they are tricking him and intend to construct a permanent dam, which would be the most foolish thing they could do, as dam that would stand | against the flood would divert the course of the river ana probably leave the intake hopelessly dry at low water.
 Possibly thdre is another expIa- nation of Mr. Sellews animoslty to the weir dam, The successful opera tion of Engineer Clarke's expedient to raise the water level and maintain the flow in the intake has attracted | the attention of the farmers of Yuma Valley, who have been waiting more than six years for water promised to them by the Reclamation Service when they gave up their canals to that bureau, Many Of those farmers have been forced to abandon their land, and they do not see any good prospect of being able to reclaim it under the Yuma project for years to come, A few of them get water for grass lands in the flood season through two breaks in the Reclama- ton Service levee so old that they are sodded-the same precious leyee that MT, Sellew professes to fear may be broken by diverted floods if the weir shall be maintained.
 Now it occurs to those Yuma Valley farmers that if a weir dam enables Imperial Valley to get water, weir dam might help them similarly and