544 Bulletin 95 



Storage to regulate and equalize the water supply must be provided 

 by building the dam considerably higher than the canal level or by 

 means of another reservoir, preferably at Lee's Ferry. Probably there 

 would be two great dams required instead of one. 



The high-line canal would be built along the rough mountain 

 sides of Mohave County, but no water could be taken through the 

 Sacramento Valley Pass or through any other pass to lands behind 

 the mountain range that borders the river, in that county. 



Assuming an elevation of 1200 feet above sea level for the canal 

 at its head, the elevation in the vicinity of Bouse would be about 1050 

 feet, 120 feet lower than the proposed canal that is designed to irri- 

 gate the Bouse Valley from the Williams River. About 90,000 acres 

 in the Bouse Valley could be irrigated by pumping from the canal. 

 By boosting the water 350 feet by means of pumps, the water could 

 be led to Vicksburg, and then another boost of 500 feet would deliver 

 it into the Harrisburg Valley, or, perhaps it would be cheaper to 

 avoid the last-named lift by tunneling through the Little Harquahala 

 Mountains. It would be more feasible to leave the Little Harquahalas 

 and Coyote Mountain to the east of the canal, but even so, the pump- 

 ing lift would be impractical. The maximum area that could be 

 brought under such a high line system would be less than a million 

 acres, mostly in Yuma County. 



As an alternative proposal, the water for the high-line canal might 

 be dropped at the high dam, generating power, and this power could 

 be used to lift the water from the river near Parker into a high-line 

 canal starting at that point. The electrical transmission losses would 

 be no larger in percentage than the seepage and evaporation losses 

 of water from the 260 miles of canal; and the investment would be 

 less. About one kilowatt would be required per acre irrigated for 

 the main lift to elevation 1060 at Parker, requiring an investment 

 of about $100 per acre for power equipment, while the cost of the 

 canal from the high dam to Parker would be more than twice as 

 much. The value of the power used on this one lift, per irrigated 

 acre, at one-half cent per kilowatt-hour, would be about $30 per 

 year. Neither proposition is feasible, at least not during the present 

 generation. An investment of over $300 per acre would be required. 

 The best raw valley land in Arizona cannot stand a construction charge 



