The Coconino sun., 1922-05-26
VAST SUPPLY OF WATER WASTING AS FLAGSTAFF
 FACES A WATER FAMINE
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 the level farther toward the top of the 90-foot wall of earth and rock surrounding.
 MT. Spencer turned the water into the lake four weeks ago, at the re- quest of the Santa Fe railroad engin- eers. All the engineers want to know is whether the lake will hold the water. They agree that there is plenty easy to gather for it to hold. Mir. Spencer says there is 50- foot layer of impervious clay lining the lake and that cementing it would not make it hold water any better,
 The Santa Fe railroad company has made an offer to city council to put up the money to buy the Crater Lake water system and build the pipe line to town on condition that the people operate the plant. Naturally, the Santa Fe is interested, because they would like to use twice as much wa ter annually as now.
 There are three of these natural reservoirs in the San Francisco noun tains. Crater Lake is one. Six miles away, north of the Peaks, is another. Thirty miles from Crater Lake, east of the Peaks, near the Claude Knight ranch and Navajo Copper company camp is another. MT. Spencer says their water supplies are absolutely in- dependent, that they will unfailingly furnish six and half million gallons of water a year; that Flagstaff, Williams and Winslow can each have one of the lake and its water shed and get it's water by gravity. "There's not another city in the Unit ed States that has as large a nat ural water supply with natural reser- voirs, as Flagstaff has," said Spen- cer.
 But to come back to Crater Lake. Years ago Spencer decided that al- most the whole surface of the land between it and the San Francisco Peaks was underlaid with water. The railroad engineers scoffed at the the ory. They Investigated" That is, they walked over it in the middle of summer. There was no water on top of the ground; they didn't get their feet muddy. So, in their wisdom, they decided there was no water there. Had they dug hole a couple of feet down they would have got water faster than three men could have baled it out" Spencer says. Spencer dug the holes. He dug them in numerous places. In each he got pure water within five feet, faster than three men could bale it out"
 Funny" said Spencer, "how long it took the engineers to revise their opinions. The average professional man will fight harder to cover a mis- take than he would for his wife"
 How to impound this water gather ed from the melting snows by the i'm pevious clay below the surface of the ground. Trenches" Spencer de- cided. Just a series of open trenches. Again the engineers said it couldn't be done. Brooks, Calhoun and others decided that Crater Lake was higher than the underground reservoirs to be drained into it. They could not be blamed for thinking so, if they took the undisputed evidence of their eyes. The peculiar contours there convinc- ed The Sun representative that Spen- cer'S trench ran uphill on a stiff grade, toward the lake. But glance over the bank into the rapids below proved that the grade is the other way, and stiff, at that. Spencer re- fused to take the engineers verdict. He ran hand level, staked out the trench, dug it, and there are miles of it, carrying water to Crater Lake and carrying it at several miles an hour
 Next problem, how to get the wa ter from the trench over the steep rim surrounding Crater Lake and into the lake. More high-priced engineers. Af- ter weeks; they drew plans for an in- verted siphon, to cost $36,000. Spen- cer scanned the plans, groaned at the cost, grinned as another idea struck him; then hired men and built a tun- nel through the rim. The tunnel is 460 feet long, 6x8 feet, costing $500 and carries water into the lake in many times greater volume than the inverted siphon" would. In fact, it is running into the lake faster right now than it would through a half dozen $36,00O inverted siphons."
 Directly across the lake, on the west side, is a stand pipe and a con- crete outlet tunnel, to carry the wa ter through the rim out to Garland Prairie. Directly ahead, 22 miles, is the town of Williams. This outlet has three gate-valve pipes, one 12 one and one 6-inch.
 There is enough water underlying the Hart Prairie section at the foot of the peaks three months in the year to fill that 6x8 foot inlet tun- nel plumb full, MT. Spencer asserts. Four miles of open trench have been built. Two miles more should be built to complete the gathering sys- tenn. In only one place will it en- croach on ranch, Spencer says, in that instance cutting an acre off one corner.
 The ground was thoroughly gone over Friday. Deep snow still stooo in open fields exposed to sunlight all day. The trench is from three to five feet deep, its bottom impervious clay. Water is seeping into it it's entir, length. "Filtered through several feeG of cinders," Spencer remarked, land