Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-12-29
STORAGE OF
BOISE RIVER


lamation service in an address at a
luncheon meeting held today in the
rooms Of the Boise Commercial club
gave assurance that the efforts will
be concentrated toward. securing
large portion of the s20,000,000 APP
Precipitation by congress for reclaim
alton projects in course of construc-
ton, for completion of the Boise
Payette project, which he asserted \
has more settlers actually residing |
thereon and waiting for water than
any other government project in /
course of construction. The CONNER
cial club also had Frank E. Morri- ]
son, secretary and one of the prin-
cipal owners of the Success Maya /
zine, as its guest at the luncheon
and he discussed community adver-
Using. Governor James II. Brady
presided at the luncheon. which was
attended by upwards of 100 business
men and members of the club.
In his opening remarks, following
introduction by Governor Brady,
Chief Davis of the reclamation ser
vice called attention to the fact that
the reclamation law has been on the
statute books for about eight AMI
one-half years and during that time
upwards of S6O,OOO,O0O has been
expended by the government. He
pointed out that there are II states
in which the government has under
taken reclamation projects and stat
ed that attempt has been made to eX-
pend the major portion in the state
where the best returns were re-
ceived from the reclamation projects.
He stated that Washington and Ida
no had benefited about equally
large portion of the fund being
spent in these two states.
Mr. Davis emphasized the fact
that it is the policy of the reclama-
ton service to spend money where
the returns will be made the quick
est and best. saying: There is not
another project that has the num-
Der of settlers on the land the Boise
proiect has. | would venture to say
that there are nearly as many settlers
waiting for water on this project
as on all o4her projects taken to-
gether"
Whether or not much of the rec
lamation fund will be spent on the
Boise project may be inferred from
the action of congress, stated the
chief of the service, who pointed out
that determination to spend large
norton of the fund in any one place
dld not rest with him nor with any
other Official Of the reclamation ser
vice. but with the board of army en-
gineers provided by the bond bill
{ enacted by congress. rhe board he
stated. has visited and inspected the
projects. and the report is in the
hands of the president.
! Touching upon conditions as HI
. has observed them, he asserted tina
there is no exaggeration over tn
productiveness of this valley and tn
means are here by which the water
of the Snake river may be used en-
tirely for irrigation. He spoke of tn
c large acreage. high development an
production in quantity and qualit
pissible in the project. also the pre-
ductive soil. favorable climate an
i conditions generally favorable TO
Il the project.
e The principal obstacle to be Over
t. come. according to the chief of tn
n reclamation service, is to find fe'
}. sible storage reservoir. He state
" frankly that the Boise basin does nc
e offer many storage reservoir site
le and that so far as diversion is col
"a cerned, it is developed to the fulle
or extent possible without storage. +
stated that engineers of the servi'
he have been making careful investig
n ton of the sites available, but as y
IN there is no topography which affor'
In good site.- He stated that son
at plans have been made for storai
or dam in the Boise valley.
I'd Touching briefly on the plans co
IL sidered, he stated by way of col
If parison that the dam consider
would be eight times the size of {
Ii reclamation dam at North Plat
no Neb., and would store only 5000
as acre feet, while the North Plat
re, dam stores 100000 acre feet. A
al other comparison advanced to she
the magnitude of the problem viii
of the department confronts was ii
Id the Boise river storage dam wor
it, be about the size of the New 70
et- Citv dam which is the largest M