The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1949-09-30
Inside
Washington
u. S. Has Billion and Half
Invested in Reclamation
Special to Central Press

Washington-When Congress
appropriated $4,000 on July
81, 1868, for the construction of
a three-mile irrigation canal on
the lower Colorado river to
serve Indians on an Arizona res
ervation, nobody guessed it
would start an irrigation move
ment that 81 years later would
mean billions of dollars to the
American West.
Uncle Sam today has $780,
100000 invested in reclamation,
and water for Bureau of Recla-
nation projects reaches more
than 5,000,0 900 of the 21,l20,000
acres of western land now under
irrigation.
Indications are that l6,840, 900
acres can be supplied with wa
ter, and that still more water
can be carried to irrigated lands
that now do not get enough.
Farms for thousands of FAM
lilies have been carved out of
deserts and lands that once
grew only sagebrush. Some S.
100000 persons today live on
farms and in towns and cities
served by water and hydroelec-
trio power from reclamation
projects. This is nearly rs per
cent of the population of II
western states.
Reclamation planners have
charted Is major river basins
and numerous sub-basins into
which western watersheds
drain. Water is n of the most
precious resources of the West.
1t is not only the converter of
deserts into farmlands, but it is
the producer of hydroelectric
power to light homes and oper-
ate industries.
Failing water is the one
source of generating electricity
without depicting some ex-
hausible resource, such as oil,
gas or COAL" according to Mich
ael W. Straus, commissioner of
reclamation. in terms of hydro
kilowatt hours, our western riv-
ers can be made to yield as
much electrical energy as we
could make by burning APP
proximately 600 million barrels
a year of our limited natural
petroleum"
Other reclamation lakes will
dot the West as new irrigation
and power projects continue to
harness the precious waters of
rivers flowing both east and
west from the Great Divide of
the Rocky mountains.
You probably can get the best
idea of enormous engineering
features of a big irrigation de-
velopment by considering the
proposed millionaire irrigation
project in the Columbia river
basin of the Northwest.
Construction of the irrigation
water distribution system will
require four earth filled dams
totaling six miles in length, four
tunnels totaling nearly seven
miles, as siphon projects with a
total length of % miles, ana
nine main canals totaling al
most 500 miles.
This construction will necessi-
tate the excavation of about SO
million cubic yards of earth and
rock, the use of 2,400, 900 cubic
yards of concrete, and large
quantities of timber and steel.
Three reclamation demonstra-
ton farms are being developed
in the Columbia basin. They
will show farmers results of
experiments with ditch layout,
erosion control, proper level
ing, new crops for that region,
fertilizers, and other tests. Con-
~struction goals call for 216.OOO
acres of irrigated land in the
Columbia basin by 1852.
We must see that the bene-
fits from irrigation and public
power are spread widely among
the people so that opportunities
for economic security and ad-
vancement will be made avail
able to the largest possible
number of people," President
Truman has told the National
Reclamation association.
In his last state of the union
message to Congress, Mr.. Tru-
man defined the task of con-
servation as mot to lock up our
resources, but to develop and
improve them" He urged the
development of rivers for DOW
er, irrigation, navigation, and
flood control. Benefits of these.
he emphasized, should be "di-
rectly available to the people"
Irrigation waters, he added.
should serve family farms and
not land SPECTATORS"
Reclamation bureau activities
today cover a wide range. It's
developments of irrigation and