Arizona republican., 1911-01-16
REPORT Of
ARMY BOARD
Its Findings on The Salt
River Project
DOCUMENT OF APPROVAL
No Fault Found With Plans
or Administration
Only as to Acreage That
May Be Watered- Details
of Plan for Payment.

Washington, Jan. 15.-The board of
army engineers which visited all the
reclamation projects of the United
States government last summer has
filed comprehensive report of the
condition OF the Arizona projects from
which is taken the following concern
ing the Salt river project:
The first twelve paragraphs Of the
report are purely historical reciting
conditions prevailing before The under
taking Of the project. private owner
ship of lands and the reservoir site, the
features of the project-which are the
storage dam, the diversion dam and
the canal system; the construction
features Of the dam-which contains
34l.2H cubic yards of masonry, the
freight roads to Mesa and Globe, the
construction of the power canal the
construction of the cement mill, etc
The first comment appears in para
graph 13
''13. The results seem TO justify the
A.OIlSlNeFdDIe
saving in the cost of cement IS report
ed to have been made and the electric
al power was almost wholly depended
upon during construction. When not
needed at the dam site this power will
be sold in the towns of Phoenix and
Mesa. thus diminishing the expense of
operation and maintenance after the
completion of the system
IA. Sand for mortar and concrete
was obtained by crushing the quartzite
and dolomitic country rock for which
sand crushers were installed.
rs. Work on the dam under the con-
tract was begun in 1905, and is now
nearly finished. It's cost has been
S3,OO9,99l.33. The capacity Of the res
ervoir is I,2S4.0O0 aCre-feet. Its area is
1920 acres. Water may be released
from the reservoir at three levels
first, through the sluicing tunnel i'm the
bottom of the dam. by which the reser-
voir may be emptied; second by the
steel penstock. 10 feet i'm diameter.
which is to supply water for the power
house; third. a tunnel on the right
bank at an elevation of rs feet to
which water is to be admitted through
three cast-iron pipes. ) feet in diane
ter
10. The water released from the
storage dam is diverted into the dis
tributiOn canals by the Granite Reef |
diversion dam. This dam is OF mass |
concrete and raises the water surface !
twenty feet. 1t is an overflow weir. |
1000 feet long. 26 feet high. and has |
an apron as feet wide and Is inches |
thick. At each end are canal head |
works provided with sluicing gates in |
the main dam to remove silt from the |
canal entrance
~. The canal system has practical |
~ all been purchased. The canals on |
the north side were bought by the rec
lamation service for s341.16O.99. includ- |
ing the Arizona. Grand, Maricopa. Salt |
River Valley, and Cross-Cut canals. or |
these, the Arizona and Grand canals are |
now being enlarged. on the south side
of the river new canal called the
South canal. was built for a length of |
about two miles. To connect with the
existing south side system. Near it's
lower end temporary bypass admits
water into the Consolidated canal. sup
plying private system, which was
purchased for $4,000. This CONSOLE
dated Canal supplies the Utah and
Mesa canals and part of the Tempe ca
nal, and is now being enlarged. The
East canal heads in the South canal.
near the bypass, and has been con-
structed by the reclamation service
This was started under the Certificate"
plan Of compensation. but this method |
of payment was stopped after S34.-
615.S7 had been expended. and the ca
nal was completed by the contractor at
his own expense. and then sold to the |
government for $S9.954.56. The minor
now being built in the dis
tributiOn system are usually of con- |
crete and are simple and effective In
general. the engineering works on this
project show careful design and con-
structiOn.
is. Water Supply-Water is obtained |
for this project from the Salt and Verde
rivers and from wells. The Salt river
has a drainage basin of $3.50 square
miles. and the Verde river of 5000 /
square miles the average rainfall being |
Is inches. The average annual run-off 1
OF the Salt river at Roosevelt dam |
is 100000 acre-feet, and of the Verde /
river at Mcdowell. $4,000 acre feet !
The run-off fluctuates widely through |
out the year. and the annual fluctua
tiOns are also large. From the Verde |
river only the unregulated flow is at |
present available on the Salt river |
as already stated, storage has been