The Coconino sun., 1922-04-07
BOULDER DAM PLAN IS PLAYED
 BY ENGINEER

In dlSuSSlng Cne IedIuItS III ucIali of the proposed Colorado River de- yelopment before engineers of the Bisbee district, A. G. McGregor, engineer, took important issue with the Reclamation engineers in their recommendations as to the location and design of the first dam in the river.
 Probably no other engineer in this country today has had more experi- ence than McGregor in balancing the advantages against the disadvantages and in giving proper weight to the many factors governing the location and plans for large engineering works. He took part in the early hydro-elec- tric developments in Montana and now has an international reputation as a designer of mining and metallurgical plants.
 He said, "there are only two sites for dams in the Canyon which will afford storage of consequence. One is at Boulder Canyon in the lower end of the main canyon, the other is at Lees Ferry at the upper end of the canyon. There are a number of good sites for power dams, having little storage back of them, between Lees Ferry and Boulder Canyon. There is no site for high power dam below Boulder Canyon.
 Boulder Canyon is on the bound- ary between Nevada and Arizona. II the program of the reclamation en, gineers is carried out, the railroad to the dam and the town would pc m Nevada and the power plant they propose would be constructed ana op, erated by private capital and would be in Nevada, adding greatly to Ne vada's taxable wealth. The Lees Fer " dam and power plant would be en- tirely in Arizona. This situation alone demands the attention of Ari- zona's taxpayers. There are, how ever, economic and engineering con- alterations far more vital to all.
 "A dam for either of the proposed storage reservoirs would have no val | ue as diversion dam for irrigation, as the cost of canal in the canyon from either dam would be entirely out of proportion to the prospective value of the land that could be irrigated by it.
 Owing to the wide variation in the flow of the river from year to year, no storage reservoir can have too great storage capacity either for flood control, for irrigation, or for power the more storage the | better for all these needs.
 "The Lees Ferry site for flood con- trol has decided advantages over the Boulder Canyon site. While it will | not intercept the flood of several small | streams below that would be inter- cepted by a dam at Boulder Canyon, l it has feasible storage capacity | three times greater for controlling | the extraordinary floods of the main river, making it safer and more de- pendable for this purpose. It is the possibility of an extraordinary flood | of the main river that constitutes the | real menace to the Imperial Valley, not the floods of the several small streams flowing between Lees Ferry and Boulder Canyon. On account of | the wide variations in the total flow of the river year to year, the Lees Ferry reservoir site, with it's capa- city to store three years flow, or more, will best serve the needs for irrigation and power.
 "As the interest charge for capi- tai will constitute nearly the whole cost of power from river development, power delivered from Lees Ferry will cost less, with the dam I advocate, than it will cost from Boulder Can yon with dam as recommended by | the Reclamation engineers. The long CT transmission distance to California will be of small consesuence in com parison. When the second power dam is built, and from then on, Lees Fer ry will have a still further advantage as regards cost of power. A power dam in the canyon will cost less to construct and will have four times the capacity if the river control and stor- age are above it.
 Mature has been extremely kind in locating by far the largest reservoir | site on the river just at the head of | the canyon at Lees Ferry where it 1 can be utilized to the greatest possible | advantage. Nature has also been kind in another way; the windings of the l river in the narrow canyon just above | Lees Ferry, the vertical walls 1,400 feet high, and the flat at Lees Ferry are all so related as to minimize thej cost of building dam and power plant there. I advocate blasting off | the cliffs above Lees Ferry and mak- ing rock fill dam, just as was sug- gested number of years ago by the late eminent engineer, Epes Randolph. A wide, properly constructed and safe guarded rock fill dam with flattened slopes, similar to the Gatun dam at the Panama Canal, which is 1 F miles long and 115 feet high, will be the safest that can be devised and will withstand the changes of time with the least possible danger of disaster.
 T believe the feasibility of building the concrete dam at Boulder Canyon, with foundations 150 feet below the water level, as proposed by the Recla- nation engineers, is only questionable from an engineering standpoint under the adverse conditions obtaining, but