The Coconino sun., 1926-10-22

/ electric road up the Jungfrau. It
would have been great advertising
medium for our state and source
of much revenue both in tourists
and taxes. We were amply financed
! yet our purpose was defeated
through the action of the then Sec
retary Of the Interior in refusing to
grant us license or permit to cross
the Coconino Forest Reserve. In this
connection it was significant fact
that our projected enterprise met
with opposition from the Santa Fe
railway.
These two adventures into the
realm of Colorado river engineering
awakened in me the possibility of
power development and for the next
few years ] spent much time in in
vestigating the entire Canyon Sec
ton. In 1913 I filed on several dam
sites covering some 120 miles Of the
river of which Diamond Greek was
central point. Diamond Greek was
located because here were the two
essentials so necessary in the deter
mination Of the location Of n dan.
site in the Grand Canyon of The
Colorado River, viz; Accessibility and
bed rock conditions. Later on, pub
lie attention was directed to the pcs
sibilities of the Colorado river in
the organization of the League of
the Southwest. The World War in
tervened to still this attention. When
the control of the League of the
Southwest passed from the master
minds who framed it and had prac-
tically gone on the rocks, these lni..ds
devised the formation of a Colorado
river commission with congression-
al authority to act. This was accom-
plished easily as President Harding
and Secretary Fall were in thorough
accord with the ideas of the trainers.
The bill was passed and the COM
mission created which began func-
tioning early in 1922. Although the
purpose of the commission was to
allocate the waters of the river,
among the several states, this was
found impossible to accomplish and
they devised a plan of alIocating the
waters between the Upper and Low
er Basins, realizing that through
provisions made and placed in the
compact, the allocating of waters as
between states could be arrived at in
a leisurely manner as and when re-
quired.
The Colorado River COmfscf
This document, while it failed to
exactly comply with the provisions
contained in the bill, comprised diff
ferences of opinion as between the
cantankerous states of Colorado and
Wyoming and the lower basin states
which was Far step in the direction
of avoiding future litigation, if such
thing is possible. At the time
there was much criticism directed at
the Arizona delegation agreeing to
the ALLEGATIONS meant little except
for the effect it might have on the
public's mind, because it attempted
to divide something which nature
had already divided. Those alloca-
tions could not change the physical
laws Of nature and the water would
continue to run down the river. 1t
is impossible for the upper basin
states to retain or divert these wa
ters as they have neither the I'M
pounding reservoir sites nor irrig-
able sites nor irrigable areas upon
which to place it. So | always have
felt that the ratification of the
compact could in no wise be harmful
to Arizona and if it did prevent aliti-
cation it would be most beneficial,
therefore, have been and still am,
in favor Of its ratification. AS | see
it. Arizona is the state most BEEN
fitted by the ratification of the COM
pact for if those in authority are
sincere in their promises and will
live up to them, it will mean the inn
mediate issuance Of the Diamond
Greek license the advantage of which
to the state viii be explained later
on.
Flood Control
Flood control for the Colorado riv-
er is both urgent and necessary. The
entire Imperial Valley is below sea
level and at one time the river
broke through and began to devas-
tate this wonderful valley and was
not controlled until great property
losses had been sustained and mill
ions Of dollars expended in the at
tempt to close the break. Likewise
the lands in Yuma Valley are sub
ject to flood innundation and should
be protected. Again say flood con-
troll is necessary but dam of such
gigantic proportions as is contem-
plated in the Boulder Canyon Dam
| is sheer nonsense, for an examination
of the data at hand will convince any
fair minded engineer that a dam
impounding three to five million acre
feet of water is ample to afford all
the protection required in both the
Imperial and Yuma valleys.
Reclamation
From available records of present
! irrigated lands now being watered
| from the Colorado river there are
two and one half million acres un-
der cultivation. At the present time
i there are more lands entitled tc
water than there is water for these
/ lands during the low water period
of the river flow. This shortage
/ would be more than provided for II
the flood control dam suggested
above. 1t is estimated that sons
twelve million acre feet of water i
/ annually wasted. the bulk of whicf