The Winslow mail., 1922-11-03

GeScTVlDS the T@SU III IOT power anu
diversion dams on the Colorado river
below the Green river to the federal
government, cogent reasons for the
selection of Lees Ferry as a damsite,
rather than Boulder Canyon, and an
appeal for the people of the state to
protect their own interests, were
principal features of an address made
before the Globe Luncheon club
at the Dominion Hotel by A. G. Nc
Gregor, consulting engineer, of Bis
bee.
dam by the State Of Arizona was sug-
gested by Mr.. McGregor as final
solution of the problem.
Ultimately five million horsepower
will be developed in the canyon, Mr..
McGregor said. Eighty per cent of
this will be ntirely in Arizona, and
the other 20 per cent will be half in
Arizona and half in Nevada Four
hundred million dollars will eventu
ally be spent in the development of
the canyon in Arizona for power.
which will beus ed mainly in Califor-
mia. At the exceedingly low price of
F4V pCl Aol SCpONGI pci Jcdl, tIl0
power developed will be worth ninety
million dollars annually. Why should
not Arizona receive a tax benefit from
her great resource, the same as other
states receive tax benefit from the
water power and other rsources with
in their confines? II the Swing
johnson bill passes in it's present
form, this great power resource will
be nationalized and Arizona will re-
ceive no tax benefit from it."
Political reasons why Arizona
should favor the Lees Ferry site as
the mower point of Glen Canyon rath-
er than the Boulder canyon site were
summarized by 'the speaker as fol-
lows:
Lees Ferry is entirely within Ari-
zona, whereas Boulder Canyon is on
the boundary line between Arizona
and Nevada. So far the citizens of
Nevada have ben much more success
ful in dil Getting attention and getting
political support for the location in
which they are most interestcd Ne
vada hopes to be benefited by having
the railroad to the dam, the townsite,
and the power plant all located on the
Nevada side of the river. Arizona will
naturally be more benefited by the
construction of dam and power
plant built entirely within her con-
fines than by one built upon her
boundary.
with the dam at Lees Ferry and
the river under control at the head
of the canyon, subsequent dams en-
tirely in Arizona will be built more
easily, thus fastening the full devel-
opment of the river and the benefits
to which Arizonasis entitled"
Engineering and economic reasons
why the first dam in the canyon of
the Colorado should be constructed at
Lees Ferry or Glen canyon, instead
of at Boulder canyon, were also given
by Mr.. McGregor.
1.-THE bedrock at Boulder canyon is
at least lat fet below the low water
level of the river, which is unprece-
dented, and will be a. very great OBJ
stacle and cause of expense in the
construction of concrete dam as
proposed by the reclamation engi-
neers
"The formation at Boulder canyon
is granite. which is decomposed on
tured and disintegrates readily Geol-
ogists have every reason to suspect
disintegration, cracks, fissures, etc,
at depths, SO that it will be difficult
to tell when a safe foundation is Sc
cured.
AT Lees Ferry the foundation is a
hard red sandstone and, by engineers
familiar with the river, bedrock under
the river is thought to be much closer
than at Boulder Canyon Also the
windings of the river and the deep,
narrow gorge at Lees ferry are such
as to make this site particularly we'll
adapted to the construction of a rock
fill dam, which can be put in with less
risk than the concrete dam proposed
at Boulder canyon A number of en-
gineers have proposed a rock-fil1 dam
for the Colorado, including the late
Epes Randolph and K. G. LaRue, hy-
draulic engineer of the United States
geological survey, who has made pl;lns
for a rockfill dam at Lees Ferry.
Such a dam at Lees Ferry can be
built in One-third of the time and at
about One-third of the cost of 1
proposed Boulder Canyon constr1lc-
ton, with consequent reduction in
the selling price of power to the users
in all the states interested The trans
mission line to California will be
longer from Lees Ferry than from
Boulder canyon, but this ezra cost
will be small compared with the sav-
ing IL the cost o. tile dam
Lees Ferry, with q dam Of the
Eeight proposed for Boulder c. +nyoD,
VIII have more reservoir capacity
than Boulder Canyon, and will afford
all the storage necessary for flood
control, irrigation nd power
Ne ther Lees Ferry nor B1uideT
canyon will intercept floods OF the
Gila l;ver, as the Cia flows intp the
Colorado river OYER 50 miles below
Boulder Canyon. TlIs United States,
geological data show that there is less
than { per cent difference IN the
amount of water flowing by Boulder