Imperial Valley press., 1913-10-04


conservation project, affecting the en-
! tire watershed of the Colorado and
forever assuring the country on both
sides of the river, from the Grand
Canyon to its mouth, of an amplitude
of water for present and potential
reclamation projects, was urged yes
terday by Willis H. Booth. chairman
of the advisory board of the Arizona
and California river regulation COM
mission, as the one feasible solution
of a vexed question in which inter-
state and international issues bulk
big.
The occasion was the conference of
commission members and others with
Louis c. Hill, supervising engineer Of
the United States reclamation ser
vice, and personal representative of
Secretary of the Interior Lane, in the
directors room of the chamber of
commerce. This conference resulted
from an invitation extended Lane by
the board some weeks ago to visit
this city while in the west and hear
the southwest's arguments against
four .upper-Colorado diversion
schemes of water the stream is to be
robbed of water in excess of t he
present minimum wastage. As i'll
ness prevented Lane from accepting
this invitation, he, at the solicitation
of the board, delegated Hill as his
personal representative.
Public policy and welfare cry out
against diversion schemes not based
on an accurate photographic survey
of the Colorado and its tributaries,
said Booth, summing up the case Of
the great southwest. Let them be
made as a preface to definite plans
for storage basins which will conserve
the watershed of 225,000 square miles.
With this done the future of the 500,-
900 acres now under irrigation from
this river and of the additional 1885,
600 acres possible of irrigation in
California, Arizona and Mexico will
be assured forever. So will supply
for the contiguous irrigation districts
of Colorado
Not only has the Colorado delta
country of Arizona. California and
Mexico an area capable of irrigation
three times greater than that now ir
rigated but the present maximum flow
of the stream, scientifically impound-
possible demand by 25 per cent was
the gist of a brief submitted by for
mer Assistant Chief Engineer Hippin-
colt of the aqueduct. THIS brief was
filed as one of the boards exhibits for
submission to Lane.
Lippincott mentioned the possibil-
tiles of endless litigation, both OF in
terstate and international aspect,
latent in the controversy.
ut promises, unless something IS
done, to end in The Hague tribunal,
to our Disadvantage said T. (. Glib
bon, a member of the reclamation
ways and means COM
mittee. Lane, when | was in the
east, admitted to me that it was {,
vexing question, impossible of easy
solution. He said that he did not see
how the waters of an interstate and
river could be bottled up
bv the state of Colorado on the
grounds that it's constitution provided
for absolute state supervision of all
waters originating within its boun-
iaries.
"He said that the two senators
from Colorado had attempted to push
the Colorado river matter to a legal
issue, but the government was not
yet to enter an argument
like that which resulted in Colorado
monopolizing, through court action,
the entire excess now Oh lHe AihdIl5ttH
river
"Then there is the international
issue, one that we must consider, the
country must consider, from every
angle, for | confidently believe thut
if the matter is percipitated into the
Hague tribunal a decision may be-
forthcoming which may force
restoration of such of the water Of
the Colorado as will make it in effect,
not technically, navigable stream.
As we have recognized it as such by
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
calamity might result from an appeal
to the Hague | mention this as
possible contingency and as plea for
a comprehensive solution Of the ques-
ton"
GAS an American representative on
the Colorado river commission" il