The Color/\do River and Its Deveeopment 545 



for irrigation over $150 per acre. 



There is one possibility for which plans and estimates should per- 

 haps be prepared. This is the possibility of pumping from the river 

 at or near Cocopah Point, near the head of Laguna Lake, on a lift of 

 about 350 feet, to a canal which would then run easterly on the north 

 side of the Lower Gila Valley, crossing the river near Sentinel, and 

 running thence on grade toward the southwest, covering about 250,000 

 acres of land. Power could be generated at Cocopah Point by means 

 of a low rock-fill dam, after river regulation has been secured farther 

 upstream. This project may be practicable twenty years hence. 



THE GIEA RIVER SYSTEM 



It seems to have been forgotten that the Gila tributary is a vital 

 element of the Colorado River, and that the study of Colorado River 

 problems must take cognizance of the necessity for river regulation 

 on the Gila. Be it remembered that it was the Gila River floods, five 

 of them, in the winter and spring of 1905, which were responsible 

 for the great disaster of that year, when in August the whole of the 

 river was diverted into Imperial Valley. Had it not been for the 

 continuous high water and repeated floods in the Gila, the narrow cut 

 from the temporary heading of the Imperial Canal could have been 

 closed easily. The Gila flood of January 22, 1916, was greater than 

 the highest recorded flood of the Colorado itself. River regulation 

 of the Gila River is absolutely necessary for the security of Yuma 

 and Imperial valleys. 



About seven years ago when the Federal Government began a 

 comprehensive study of Colorado River problems, the Gila River 

 was included in the studies. The plans prepared by the United States 

 Reclamation Service at that time provided for regulation of the Gila 

 by means of a dam 225 feet high near Sentinel, Arizona. The reser- 

 voir was to be operated for stream regulation only, and would have 

 been of little service in reclaiming desert lands between Sentinel and 

 Yuma. In 1918 borings were made at the dam site by the Reclama- 

 tion Service, and it was ascertained that suitable foundations for a 

 storage dam do not exist; hence the Sentinel project was abandoned. 



In 1920, the Reclamation Service made an extensive study of the 

 Gila River from source to mouth, examining all possible storage sites. 

 It was concluded that the best solution of water problems of the Gila 

 River is the construction of the San Carlos dam. The report of the 



