Arizona republican., 1910-08-05
STILL WAITING BUT
 HOPE STRENGTHENS
Reservoir Watershed Still Dry-Ex pIanation of the Meaning of
 Normal Fiow."

The Salt river valley is still wait ing anxiously for news of rain ion the watershed" that drains into the reason to hope such a report would come yesterday, but it did not The rain reported in progress Tuesday evening at Roosevelt proved to be only a fifteen-minute shower that dropped nothing in the big pond The report from there about o'clock last evening by telephone. was that it was clear and sunshiny and no sign of rain in the mountains to the north. There have doubtless been little showers here and there, but no rain that has started the streams
 During Tuesday and Wednesday S63 acre feet were added to the reservoir supply through the closing of the gate in the tunnel at the dam while the valley was being watcred by the normal flow and the little floods in the Verde. It was found necessary to again open the gate q foot at noon Wednesday in order to have d certain supply for the canals.
 There was another little raise from the Verde Tuesday night, but it did not last long. The reported normal flow of the river Wednesday was large again. being over 35,000 inches at Granite Reef. 2,540 at the joint head and 1,S00 at Tempe. Nevertheless, only little over 31 LOGO inches of water were served to the canals of the valley. That situation is rather anomalous to those who are not tech nically posted in water matters and affords an opportunity of illustrating to the reader what is meant by nor mai flow and why the daily report of the normal flow is of no special in terest to anybody but the water ex- pcrts and those living under the Tempe canal and a part of the Utah ditch which is similarly situated, in that neither has reservoir rights
 The reclamation service in con formity with court decrees has no right to impOund water in storage except when the normal flow in the river here is above a certain fixed amount which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,0O0 inches, unless the canals served by the reservoir do not want their proportion of the nor
 
 canals outside of the reservoir are entitled to their proportion and any pinching that is done must be on the water that belongs to the reservoir canals.
 On Wednesday when the normal flow report showed something like forty thousand inches, only little over 31,000 inches was available for the canals, and for this reason: There had been a little flood in the Verde which it was hoped wouldf 1 continue longer than it did and the gates at Roosevelt had been shut dwn holding in check that portion of l the normal flow which comes from l the upper Salt, storing it for the | benefit of the reservoir canals a lit | from the Verde would be ample for | all the canals in the meantime But the Verde shrunk rapidly, which was no fault of the canals outside the l reservoir and which canals were en- titled to their part of the whole nor | nal flow as it would have been in | the river had a part of it not been | restrained at Roosevelt. They were | served with the full amount of water [ due them and the reservoir canals | were pinched a little until the gates | at Roosevelt could be opened again long enough to resume the serving of stored water. In the meantime about | 500 acre feet was stored to their ad- 
 The normal flow means the amount in the river. or that would be in the river if the Roosevelt gates were dis charging daily as much as runs into the reservoir. But when the gates are closed for any reason during a 1ry period, the normal flow as re- ported may be considerable more water than the river is carrying