The Arizona copper camp., 1920-01-03
IAN Interview With Vernon l. Sulli-

van, M. Am. Soc. c. e.
In this article Mr.. Sullivan de-
scribes the construction of the Leon
| Valley irrigation project, of which
he had charge, as typical of the land
development being brought about in
the southwest by reclamation:
What irrigation is doing for the
development of the southwest is
more fully appreciated upon indi-
vidual investigation of various prof.
ects. The Leon Valley irrigation
project, located a short distance Of
Fort Stockton. Texas, gives an am
pie demonstration. The first years
total income that was received by
the farmers from crops off the prof.
ect was sufficient to pay the total
costs of construction
Vernon L. Sullivan Of Ell Paso,
Texas, who was the construction en-
gineer for the Leon Valley irrigation
project, recently gave the following
interesting facts regarding the con-
struction work, and the subsequent
land development of the region:
up to short time ago, the Leon
Valley Springs were known to only a
few men, and then under the name
of the Leon Water Holes. These wa
ter holes were located at the head of
a marshy area, varying from one
fourth to one-half mile wide, and some
two and one-half miles long. At the
lower end of this area there was
flow of water, varying from about five
second feet in the extreme summer
to approximately eleven second feet
this area was large surface-drainage
region, extending west into the foot
hills of the Glass mountains, and often
considerable torrential waters passed
through this valley.
"The first systematic development
undertaken on this project was the
construction of drainage ditch up
through the marshy area. The ditch
not only served to drain the area, but
taped the Leon Water Holes, lower
ing the head some ten or twelve feet.
Contract for this piece of work was
given to Contractor L. B. Westerman,
who did the work with the drag-line
outfit This not only conserved the
water from the marshy area, but also
increased the discharge of the spring
considerably. Then, later, wells were
drilled around these water holes. The
wells flowed but little water at the
surface, but when the head was low
cred by ditching into the drainage
ditch, the discharge was increased
several times over, so that now there
are a number of large artesian wells
emptying into the ditch, thus increas-
ing the discharge to over twenty Sec
ond feet of water the year around.
"In order to conserve the winter
flow of this water supply and the tor
rental waters, it was necessary to
construct large storage reservoir.
The construction of this reservoir
necessitated the building of large
earthen dam, 1880 feet long, to the
meximum height OF, twenty-three feet,
with necessary spillways and outlets.
The construction of the main dam
was let to Contractor w. E. Hamilton,
of Pecos, Texas. A puddle ditch was
excavated along the axis of the dam
down to a clay subsoil which was af
forwards refilled with puddle clay to
form a cutoff wall to prevent seep-
age underneath the dam. The earth
was placed in the dam in three-foot
layers, and each layer was thoroughly
irrigated, water being allowed to
stand on the dam until the moisture
above united with the moisture in
the layer below, thus making quick
and complete settlement of the earth.
can outlet was provided by means
of two concrete conduits which were
passed through the dam, concrete cut
Off 10 o1o lott