Imperial Valley press., 1927-05-04
D0WD ISSUES
STATEMENT ON
RIVER LEVE'
(Continued from Page Onp)

Continued from Page One)
paricneed engineers. The rapiditv
with which the currents Of the river
change their courses, threatening
eur levees at points never before at
tackled. makes II utterly oGt of the
question II undertake any heavy re
enforcement of cur lcyecs at certain
points to the exclusion of work on
others which may At the time seem
unimpOrt ant.
"It therefore follows that in
mapping out our protective works
Ilans we mast understand the gen
cral delta elevations, the degree OF
slope IN the bed Of the stream and
the elevations of the country lying
back of our lcvrcs. We must then
be certain that our railroad tracks
along the leNee are III first class
condition and that onr equipment
at Andrade is entirely ready f9I
| emergency service Of the heaN lest
sort.
ITO that end we now have over
| 20 dump ears, many of winch ar"
loaded with rock and ready for mn
mediate service on the icVeeS. We
are this week dynamiting a large
! s,ctio OF the Pilot Knob, some
thing over 80 600 cubic yards, so
that plenty Of roch viii BE- ready
for loading at It moment 5 notice.
We have for weeks past lcea rock
rryetting the entire length Of river
front lcVccs 50 far ~ - praeicahle,
remembering always t!iat ii Is not
wise to attempt the dumping OF
rock along the dry river hrd on the
east side of the l,NcvS since the
first high water viii cat under thes"
rocks, rolling them out INTO the cen,
ter Of the stream where they are IL
no value whatever tp our protective
works.
LAS a second consideration 1t
must be remembered that the tmp"-
rial Irrigation District is obligated
only to protect those lands which
are under the present lcVee system.
We cannot assume the added ohllga-
tiou of protecting lands IN NeNlro
which have been rushed into cult.
walton recently below the end OF
our lcvees, particularly when III our
Judgment such protective works
would in no way add to the safety
of the American lands, which pro-
vide the funds for our leNee work
Points Out Danger
Along that line the district has
made as thorough surveys az pos,
sible in the lower delta region to
ascertain what the general eleVa-
tons are surrounding the river 1T,
5, If. Those surveys have suppor'
ed entirely the position of our en-,
gmeering department and OF pr' I'll
wood Mead, United States R2elama-
tion Service commissioner, IN the
stand that to add now TO the lower
end of the river front leNees simply I
confines the flood water of the Colo T,
RADIO river 50 that added pressure +
will be brought against our leVees
closer to the international bound :
AIRY line and hence viii but increase
The danger to our own lands IN
America. Our real danger, as we
see it, is not in the lower cXtremi-
ties of the levee system, but farther
upstream where the only defense we
have is the present heavily rock
rcvctted levec. McXican lands i'll
the Volcano Lake region may be in
danger and may require new 'leveeS
to ward off the backed-up waters
of the river, but that particular
problem is not ours to solve and it
would be unwise for us to take our
and money off the 80
niles of river front levee in the face
Of the heavy flood waters that are
sure to come this spring.
$50 much newspaper propaganda
has been published recently about
he flood menace in Imperial Valley
hat few people know exactly what
he true situation is, We cannot
low say, and we have not ever said