Arizona republican., 1914-03-26
ORME SUMMARIZES PROJECT
 PROGRESS PAST FEW YEARS

with the people directly affected by the work of reclaiming the desert. You have recently come in close con tact with two members of this com mission, one an old friend of the valley, Engineer Davis, and the other a practical farmer of successful eX- perience, MT. l. D. O'Donnell. These and the other members of the com mission are doing everything in their power in every shape, manner and form to give the greatest latitude to the desires and requests of the wa ter users and to defer to their re- concentrations in the administration of the affairs of this project.
 One of the results of the May conference and of the urging of the official boards of the association is the passage, by the senate and the promised early passage by the house, of bill extending the time for pay ment of construction charges to twenty years instead of ten, as the present law provides. The rates of payment provided are less than or dinary interest, so that when the debt is paid there will have been paid no more than the interest on the princi- pal sum- In securing this action by congress, the valley has been forum ate in having as chairman of the committee on irrigation Senator Mark Smith, and as an active mem-
 Der of the house irrigation commit
 tee our own Carl Hayden.
 Instead of arbitrarily exercising his
 power and defining the limits of the project, Secretary Lane consulted with the association and constituted survey board for this responsible work with an association member and the power of review and ac- ceptance of the report of the board before it is promulgated as a final order. The preliminary work of the more than brief review. It was found that a total of 1S0,000 acres had been receiving water at one time or another during the past three irrigation seasons. At the same time it was found that the present de- veloped water supply from gravity sources and pumps could give an adequate supply through all seasons for only 10000 acres. However, there is a percentage of land which does not take full supply every year and figuring upon this basis it is be- lieved it will be safe to include 1SO,- 900 acres now in cultivation for q permanent water right NeVerthe- less there are means of increasing | the available supply of water by means of additional pumping plants placed along main laterals in favor able locations; by the building of a storage reservoir on the Verde, and by increased economies in the dis | tribution by means of cementing bad stretches of canals and laterals to prevent loss by seepage and by other means. So that ultimately 210,000 acres will be given an adequate wa ter supply, and this acreage will in clude all the irrigable land within the revised boundaries of the project as decided upon at the recent hearings. The first two means of increasing the water supply will be put to the vote of the members of the associa-
 tion at the election next week and l
 urge the fullest vote possible on
 these questions of policy. l favor i them both and shall do all in my
 power to get the fullest and freest 1 expression of the water users gen
 orally in their favor. Thousands Of acres of land have been subscribed i to the association in good faith with
 the expectation of ultimately enjoying | the benefits of water storage and
 there is no reason why we should
 stop with the present irrigated area.
 The business like policy to be fol-
 lowed is that adopted by the survey
 board with the concurrence of the association and the reclamation com
 mission and that is for the present