Arizona republican., 1921-09-07
CAVE CREEK DAM URGED TO END
 FLOOD MENACE

V. V. VI O1oSLA. OAPS' VI
 Water Users, Advises An
 Earth Filled Dam To
 Farmers Of Washington
 District
 That it is the idea of the Salt River Valley Water Users association with regard to the control of the Cave creek menace that the creek should be controlled in the hills by suitable dam economically built, without re- gard to the adoption of particular plans until the state, county, city and the association have agreed upon definite scheme. was the declaration of c. C. Cragin, general manager and chief engineer of the association. in a speech delivered last evening at the Washington school at the invitation of the farmers of the Washington district. which lies directly in the path of the flood waters of the Cave creek watershed.
 Cragin declared further that the proposal to obviate the menace of Cave creek by diverting the water after it has left the hills to Skunk creek and finally to the Agua Fria river had been discarded by all those who had examined it. His address was a clear and concise examination of the Cave creek menace and of the plans which had been made by the association to control the flood waters.
 "The association does not care what plan is accepted" he said. "al- though it has made careful study of the problem and believes it has a feasible and economical answer for the problem. What the association wants is a dana dam built with regard to the financial condition of the valley as well as to the results which are to be attained"
 The gist of his address follows:
 Menace to Whole Valley
 Cave creek is a menace to Glen dale, Peoria, Phoenix, and, in fact, the entire Salt River valley. That menace has existed for years, but despite the fact that 1t has always been source of continual danger, no real plan of controlling it has been evolved until the present time. The Water Users association Is | not infallible, but it has done more | in the way of preparing a definite 1 plan for the control of the creek than | have any others. The flood menace | from the creek is increasing every | year, and the time has come when | it must be done away with. Some methods of control will do the busi- ness. others will not, and it is up to | the interested parties-the state, the county, the city and the association ito adopt a feasible mode of opera | tions with regard to that menace. Let me say that the rumor Or as- sertion that the floods of three weeks | ago were caused by desert water and not by Cave creek are totally un- founded. We have examined the desert delta through which Cave creek flows and we have traced every flow that struck the Arizona canal 1 Without exception, we found that these flows come directly from | breaks in the banks of Cave creek | either near to or far away from the | canal. The menace lies in Cave creek, and assertions to the contrary are made without any knowledge oi
 the facts. On the east side alone Cave creek broke its banks in five different places, all of which breaks were found by tracing channels which, to the casual observer, seemed to be the channels of desert water.
 No one can tell where Cave creek will go. especially on its desert delta
 The Water Users association doe. not say the creek cannot be diverted
 but it does say that it cannot b.
 diverted economically and with an, certainty of continued success. II
 short, the association cannot suppor
 any plan for the diversion of thu
 flood waters after they have left tn hills.''
 Urges Earth Dam
 At this point Cragin stopped t answer a number of questions abou
 the feasibility of diversion plans, ant then took up a discussion of the pro
 posed dam method of control. ''The plan," he said, 'is to build dam at the junction of Apache am Cave creeks which will hold two o the largest Cave creek floods of whicI we have any record. and to with stand the attack of flood five time
 as large. The association believe
 that the dam should be of the earth : filled type because such a dam wi be as good as any other type an may be built for S350.000. the sur , already in view for the dam, whil any other type will cost from S400, 900 to S1,000.000.
 Now, there is a good deal of prej udice against the earth-filled typ : of dam on the part of those who ar not acquainted with the facts. En
 gineers know that the earth-fille dam is as good as any other kinC and when properly designed and bull is as good as any that the ingenuit 5 of man has devised. Earth file 2 dams have stood in the Nile valle | in Egypt since before the time ( ] Christ, and they are scattered froT
 one end to the other of sthe Unite
 States.
 q know that there is poprlar prej
 udice against them, but I also knov
 as does every engineer, that thi
 prejudice has no foundation in fac I have known engineers to bull , masonry dams in response to popu
 lar demand when earth filled dam Q would have been as good or bette and I have built masonry dams my . self for the same reason.
 Il Tells of Other Earth Dams n san Francisco has an earth file
 dam in the heart of the city, an l, several others along it's water sys i, tenn. Los Angeles has several. TT
 reservoir of the Boston water systel | is held by an earth filled dam. The 5 exist by the hundreds, and they al II doing their work as good and z |. |. safely as any other type. If. in tn
 case, we had money enough to bull
 a masonry dam, and the people
 the Salt River valley wanted such
 dam, I would be in favor of 1t, bl
 conditions are not such that any us( r less expenditure should be made. 5 'In conclusion. the association hi r made a careful stud of the cree 5 and it believes that it has evolved
 simple, feasible and economical pla n for its control in times of flood. L. is perfectly willing to accept ar ;e other plan with the same feature . or to leave the matter to the decisic s of disinterested parties. But u it various little difficulties in the ws o of the proposal are being cleart