Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1922-11-09
CURLING the Colorado.

incredibly high and strong, which i'm
pound and control river food waters
for use in irrigation or the produc-
ton Of power. II is now proposed 10
QUITO everything that has gone be
fore by putting a bit and curb into the
mouth of the Colorado, the second
largest of our rivers and the most re-
markable
From source to mouth the Colorado
has a fall of some ten thousand feet.
Its flow is extraordinarily irregular
At its lowest, in the fall, it amounts
to thirty-fve hundred cubic feet a sec
ond. At its maximum, when the noun
tain SHOWS are melting, it amounts to
two hundred thousand cubic feet
second. Its lower course is through
an arid region that needs only irri-
cation to be fruitful, and near the
| Gulf of California the land is so low
that il is subject to great damage from
foods. The engineers propose to dam
the great river somewhere in the won
derful canon country, where it flows
between walls hundreds and even
thousands of feet high, to regulate its
flow so that it shall amount to eigh-
teen thousand cubic feet a second the
year round, and to accomplish these
three desirable results: safety from
the threat of floods, sure and steady
supply of water for irrigation and
head Of water that can be used TO Gre
ate tremendous amount of electrical
power. 1t has been estimated that
the projects now projected would make
it possible to irrigate two and a quar-
ter million acres of desert soil, and to
produce more than four million cleo
trica horse power.
There are two great plans for con-
trolling the Colorado One is pro-
posed by the Southern California Edi-
son Company, which holds a prelimi-
nary permit from the Federal Power
Commission for a dam and power
station at Glen Canon near the Utah
Arizona border. The river gorge at
that point is eighteen hundred feet
deep. A dam five hundred feet high
would create reservoir about two
hundred miles long, big enough and
deep enough to hold all the water that
naturally runs off the Colorado water
shed in two years and a half. The |
Glen Canon dam would impound one
hundred times as much water as the !
great Ashokon Reservoir in the Cat
skills, from which the city of New
York draws its water supply. 1t
would control almost twelve times as
much water as the great barrages of
the Nile control. 1t would offer two
and half million horse power of
cheaply produced energy to a region
that would have to use ninety million
barrels of fuel oil to get the same
power.
The other plan is for similar dam
at Boulder Canon at the farther end
Of the so-called Grand Canon, where
the river flows between Nevada and
Arizona. That plan has the approval
OF the seven States-Colorado Utah
Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Ne
vada and Acknowledgement
of which met under the presidency of
Mr.. Hoover, the Secretary of Com
merce, and agreed upon scheme that
seems likely to satisfy the claims of
all the States on the waters of the great
river and its tributaries. If Congress
authorizes the undertaking, the Re-
clamation Service will build dam
eight hundred and twenty feet high
In Boulder Canon and a canal to carry
the water to the districts to be irri-
gated. The estimated cost of the work
is eighty million dollars.
A learned geologist, Prof Bailev
Willis, warns the dam builders that
their task at Boulder Canon will be
difficult for other reasons than its mag
nitude. He says the bed of the river
is composed of loose boulders TO a
depth of at least one hundred feet
ooulsars that the river in time Of
Hood has rolled down from the Grand
canon above. 1t will be exceeding
~ difficult to get through that thick
layer Of shifting stones to the solid
rock below. Moreover, the granite of
the plateau through which the Colo
RADIO flows is everywhere "iointed"
and likely to split and disinteprate
under strain. 1t will tax the inpenui--
ty of the engineers to get firm foun-
dation and dependable anchorapes for
me enormous dam But u.n ILL -...