The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-29

|
has decided to change the location of
the. power plant and dam on Snake rlv-
er. The change was to he expected, as
,a.er . a private engineer; reporting on the
for power development the natural fall
OF Snake river is very slight" so the
plant is supposedly moved from the CEN
| ter Of the tract to a point couple OF
| miles above the upper end. a distance OF
about twelve miles.
The segregation was made by the gov
ernment, at the request of the state, i'll
| TO be expected. the promoter requested
raise In price from SIS to $50 an acre
Tor the segregation, and from SIS to $i1
on granted 1t. The land board. in order
: 10 justify this action. instead OF turning
the matter over. to the state engineer
Tor an estimate Of cost, asked an estimate
from a private engineer.
They knew very well that the state
| engineer would not approve this raise
this more than doubling the price-unless
good reasons were given; reasons the pro-
moter did not have, SO the private engi-
i neer was requested to report Quoting
from this report one reads: The above
! report is based very largely upon infor-
| nation furnished by The company. but
supplemented by an Intimate personal
knowledge Of the locality and conditions
| and fairly obvious criticism would be
that 1t Is not the personal knowledge OF
the locality which decides the cost OF an
Irrigation project. but the survey data
| promoter, who had incorporated his
scheme as the Snake River Irrigation
company. It must be very nice for. an
| irrigation company to provide the data
| upon which directly the cost of its water
| rights depend
From the same private engineers re-
| port IL may be noted that three more dis
| tinct changes In method of irrigation have
| occurred. In tho first place the power
dam and canal are changed back to their
original location, where the natural fall
suspension bridge and hume are proposed
across Snake river, so that a partial
old direct plan OF pumping from Snake
river to be done away with in favor OF
q gravity and pumping. system from both
Snake and Rruneau rivers. The report
| view canal at point about two miles
from It's head and carry part of its
assistant state engineer In reporting 70
| his chief says that the Grand View Land
q irrigation company had leased TO the
promoter or company $50 cubic feet per
second of It's water permit on the Bru-
neau river. There are, however. before
inc board In this report Of the private
engineer. on which basis the contract and
show the right of the Grand View com
pany TO lease this water. and nothing to
the same. AS a matter Of fact, there was
a good reason for this. rs about the
time these matters were before the board
Grand view company, and the promoter,
left out in the cold. was forced to file
on the BTuneau river himself. notwith-
standing the fact that that stream has
been several times over-approprlated
This one condition in itself should have
i, prevented the board from granting a con-
passed on this source and could not have
passed favorably on t. as IL is absolutely
useless us es except perhaps for a short time
possible use OF the Bruneau river water
would he In the event of a reservoir be-
Ing located where 1t could be stored.
engineers report. Whether this Is pos
sible or not is something that should
nave been looked into Immediately. but,
! state land board does not concern itself
with trifles. so on the 2nd day OF Febru-
AIRY mi,,, 1910. 80 they entered into a contract
company he had incorporated giving him
the privilege to sell water rights for prl-
Eate and Carey act lands at $50 per acre
| Instead Of s25 per acre, as originally pro
posed and $40 per acre for State lands.
instead OF $50, as originally proposed
PRESENT STATUS.
The present status of the scheme Is as
On the project as outlined. using the
nompany conn ms own own data the private engi-
Guiding the cost OF reservoir Since
then the company has changed plans
again from suspension bridge and
iireme ipa. s%rt 20 a ofidsG built on piers carry
more expensive. The dam on the
Rruneau river. which was to divert the
water for this syphon. is leaking so bad
ly as to be absolutely useless. and a new
one will be required The power plant
and dam have been changed again, this
time a couple of miles down stream, in
n vain search for decent foundations and
natural head that Is a little more than
rifle In the river, and II is now pro-
posed to pump from Snake river when
requiring extra pumping plants and more
power In the generating station, all OF
which looks TO be more expensive and
makes an entirely new system on which
no engineer has made an estimate which
Is on record with the state land board
The finances Of the company are nil.
| The promoter. at the time Of incorporat-
ing the. company got an old country
banker from Vermillion. S. D., to invest
a little money. and has this gentleman
company, When II comes to recording a
financia2 statement, the promoter does
not refer to the assets of the company
which are throughout the entire history
conspicuous by their absence, but he
shows what private or personal capital
those nlcn are supposed to have-the
eastern states-but as is TO be expected,
! does no. show that those gentlemen are
| bound 10 back up the company with any
money whatsoever,
The amount OF money that has been
spent to date is clearly shown in late
report Of the assistant state, engineer,
"I should Judge from being on the
ground and seeing the amount of work
which has been done that at the outside
! $40 900 would cover the expenditures on
/ the canal construction up to the present
time / have been informed. however.
that the engineer has issued orders to
the contractor for minimum yardage
OF As 900 cubic yards per month. II this
J Is attained the present working force
! WIN have To be somewhat increased The
force account at present Is follows:
Thirty-two men. twenty-one Ctwo-horse)
| teams.
The state land board, IN spite OF all
| these glaring deficiencies. is authorlZ-
! ing an opening Of the Snake River Ir
rigation companys segregation on July
%, 1910. and it is to be presumed that
! the poor unfortunates who take this
miserable proposition in good faith VIII
! commence their long walt for water on
! that date. No work has been done on
anything outside OF the canals. and that
seems TO the untutored at any rate, the
least important part Of pumping sys-
\ ixsr Aa. Nit1sp