Arizona republican., 1919-06-04
UNDERGROUND WATER
 STORAGE NAY SOLVE 1. B|G FLQDD PROBLEM

It has for years been the dream of the builders of Arizona that ways and means might be found for saving for
 beneficial use every drop of flood wat CT that now goes to waste in the state
 often leaving devastation in it's wake
 The building of the Roosevelt reservoir was great stride in that direction, but not another such a reservoir site exists in Arizona, and for many years it seemed as though this dream of the
 builders might never be fulfilled.
 Within the last few years, however.
 great strides have been made in the science of husbanding water, and it has
 been found by actual experience that ! in many respects underground storage
 may be even more economical and eff 1 fective than surface storage. In south
 ern California, where no large surface
 storage reservoirs exist, underground i storage has been developed in many To-
 calities and it's benefits thoroughly
 proven.
 Not long ago George Otis Smith. the director of the United States geological
 survey, made the remark: We used
 to think we had to find a basin in the
 mountains in which we could store the water on the surface in a reservoir lIldl we can make a storage reservoir of the
 mountain itself. in many cases, and thereby vastly increase the possibili- ties of water conservation"
 l In many European countries these methods of water storage in the can
 yons by building retardation works to
 slow up the run off, have been thor
 oughly tried out and proved successful,
 stopping floods at the same time. The Olmstead report on flood control on the
 Gila river adopts this modern idea and
 ever since early in the year the work of
 organization in behalf of the adoption
 of that report and the construction of
 the retardation works it recommends
 has been steadily going forward from
 one success to another George H. Maxwell returned to Phoenix yesterday after month spent in the Gila and San Simon valleys and
 Clifton organizing those localities for cooperation with the entire state oi Arizona and with the nation to bring about the adoption in 8 large way of
 this entire plan for underground water storage in Arizona, coupling flood pre- vention and protection with water con- servation for the irrigation of arid lands. MT. Maxwell is even more en- thusiastic and confident than when he left Phoenix, that we are on the threshold of an immense enlargement of the reclamation resources of Ari : zona, through the adoption of the Olm- , sted and Newlands plans for conserv- ing stupendous volume of flood water that will otherwise continue forever ts go to waste.
 ''There is no given area In the world ! ] lf.-In fe, waste of resources as in Arizona l where enough flood water runs t, ] waste to irrigate more than 2,000,0Ol : acres of land now entirely unproduc , tive. Suppose the average annual pro duct of this land were only s100 al \ acre, gross. it would turn s200, ,000, 900 year into the channels of trade in thi state, and from thence it would fint it's way into the national channels. Tn these days when reconstruction is in the air this huge resource mus not be neglected. and it will not be Il the people of Arizona will take advan g tage of the opportunity and bring tn ! proposition to the attention of the pec
 pie of the United States as effectivel as the idea of national irrigation wa brought to their attention 20 years az by the national reclamation associ ation."
 When interviewed on this subiec | yesterday MT. Maxwell made tni statement and added:
 "The Gila river is the worst floo river in the world. Its control will nc only enormously benefit Arizona bu will build q model as to how to contrC floods on any flood stream in the coun try, and the value of this model, thi absolute demonstration, will be wort to the nation vastly more than the en tire s6,e00,0O0 it will cost on the tsl