Arizona sentinel., 1917-06-07
MILLIONS OF ACRE FEET OF COLORADO WATER
 GO TO WASTE EVERY YEAR

For the past two or three weeks the Colorado has given
 practical illustration of the annual amount of water it into the Gulf of Lower California; water that if con- served would spread itself seventeen million acres o land one foot deep for that the annual average of carried into the gulf, or absolutely wasted.
 Since May 2O the date the river begun to show mark ed signs of an impending overflow the Colorado has dis charged 750OOO feet of water equivalent covering upwards of 5OOOO of land foot deep each day during the last twelve days of the mont drop o which put to any except the comparatively small amount that was diverted into Imperial Valley
 When remembered that year in and year out there is shortage of water in Imperial Valley it would that is only question of very few years when the government will begin these flood waters them the upper branches of the Colorado they be put beneficial when they most need ed The Reclamation Service has been working this idea for the past years for the government officials have long since realized that it little short of criminal per init this immense of rrigabe water go waste It only goes but often havoc by
 flowing of the best lands in the United States which would always be avoided storage dams provided for the Colorado and its tributaries.
 have heard it stated by of the government eng- who have made close study of the storage problem that by expendng something like 100000 all the flood waters of the Colorado be controlled which that
 flow of be down the every day in the year, and no less If this is brought about that the channel from Yuma to the gulf will be strengthened and line of steamboats maintained from Yuma the outside world for there question but that enough water goes waste to float the biggest freighter that sails the
 From economical standpoint that is in the matter of dollars and cents it would almost compulsory on the part of the government construct these storage dams the earliest date possible At the present time and this must always continue at overflow periods the government is spending upwards of 5000 per day keep the present food-Waters within the channel the river All this would be saved if the storage system operation for with steady flow of any given number of feet of there would never be any danger of erodng banks and quent overflow.
 1 am greatly indebted to Chief of Construction Wey- mouth for copy of Water Supply Paper 3e5 dealing clusvey with the Colorado River and Its Utzaon by E. C. La Rue under whose personal direction of the data obtained The document printed in Washing ton last year and probably the complete and there fore the most valuable document of its kind issued gives complete history of the discovery of the Colorado and all its tributores, dating back 531 486 years when vague rumors current of large river the mouth of which closed by cable stretched across from side to side It eight years after this July 56 that Francisco de Uloa sailed from Acapulco and eventually reached the mouth of the Colorado From that day until this the mighty Colorado has been diSchargng countless millions of feet of water into the gulf Uncle Sam however has his eyes open to the great possibilities of serving the waters now going to waste and all probability at distant day storage dams will be constructed on the Upper tributaries.
 YUMA FREE MEN Marshal Albert Behan was