Arizona republican., 1910-06-22
PHoENIX, ARIZONA. JUNE p, 1910.
The Menace to tn. Imperial Valley

The Menace to the Imperial valley.
 An Associated Press dispatch from Imperial, California, reports q threat ening condition of the Colorado river. The ranchers in the Imperial country recently appointed a commission of engineers to investigate the situation in the delta of the Colorado, and ac
 cording to the dispatch:
 The engineers reported conditions at work in the river below the inter- national boundary and gradually work ing upward, which would in a short time lower the bed of the stream at least twenty feet. This would cer- tainly destroy the government dam at Laguna, and prevent an irrigation system on either side of the river"
 A considerable degree of familiarity with the delta of the Colorado is nec- essary for a complete understanding of the foregoing dispatch. What is meant is, that the river has cut d new and shorter channel into the gulf the new route to the ocean taking it via the channel of the AbejOs river, in Mexico: that by this shorter course the river has a more abrupt fall to the level of the sea, and the swift current thereby created is cutting back or securing the bed of the stream and thus rapidly lowering the river bed; that if it continues it will lower the river bed some twenty feet at the intake of the Imperial irriga- ton system. and thus make it impos- sible to divert water into the canal. Whether the same system of cutting back would in time lower the river bed for a long distance up stream, to the extent of reaching the Laguna dam and undermining 1.-the dam is some fifteen, miles above Yuma-is question for engineers We should be inclined to think. however. that the Laguna dam is in no danger. and will not be for long time, at least.
 Meanwhile, menacing situation un- doubtedly confronts the Imperial val lev. How long it may take the river to SCOUT out it's channel of silt and drop below the head of the Imperial canal, is problematical. Our informa- ton is that the engineers do not care to go on record with a prediction. of ficially, but they privately express opinions that the catastrophe will oc- eur some time next winter if the er- ratio conduct of the river continues.
 Two protective courses are open for the Imperial ranchers. One is clo- sure of the break into the Abejos. by d dam of some sort, with levee many miles in length to confine the river to its old channel. A levee five or six miles in length would be re- quired at once. in connection with the dam across the channel that leads into the Abejos, and ultimately there would have to be a levee twenty-five miles in length. to hold the river to its former channel Such project would cost an immense sum of money. however. and is utterly beyond the means of the Imperial ranchers. They hope that the Southern Pacific com pany and the government will be able to join hands and furnish a consider able part of the money.
 The proposed work will call for not only great sum of money. but the highest engineering skill. As to the engineering difficulties, they probably could be easily surmounted. if under the direction of such an engineer as occasion saved the Imperial valley from destruction when the Colorado was rushing into the SaltOn sink and cutting back" in it's channel at such a fearful rate that if the break had not been stopped the bed of the stream would have been lowered to country would have been destroyed and Yuma would have been placed on the bank of a canyon, and the Laguna dam would have been impossible. By having at hlS command all the me chanical equipment of the Southern Pacific. Col. Randolph succeeded in closing the gap and turning the river into its old channel. not more than three days ahead of the time the cutting back would have worked into the old channel. after which it would have been impossible to cope with the river. It was one of the greatest feats of modern engineering and construction that the world ever saw. and MT. Hartman pronounced it 1 the most wonderful achievement he | had ever seen.
 The other remedy to which we have