540 Bulletin 95 



thirty-three dams on the Ohio River, that is, to secure river regulation 

 and control, to make the stream manageable and utilizable. Navigation 

 is no more vital to the economic and social welfare of the group of 

 six states bordering the Ohio than is the taming and harnessing of the 

 Colorado to the welfare of the seven states along its course. In due 

 time, the Government might be reimbursed for the investment, for, 

 after the construction of large storage reservoirs in Arizona, the Utah 

 reservoirs would be of great value for power production. 



The Diamond Creek project is capable of comparatively rapid 

 construction, and is quite likely to go ahead of the Boulder dam in 

 point of time. It would be a strictly Arizona enterprise, and free from 

 the entangling jurisdictions that are inevitable in the larger projects. 

 It does not in any way lessen the necessity for the Boulder dam or 

 some other dam which can provide storage and flood control. 



Another proposal is to make the Lee's Ferry reservoir the first 

 major undertaking. On account of the type of dam planned, the ex- 

 tent of flooding in the river during construction would be immaterial. 

 This reservoir as planned would store 30 percent more water than 

 the Boulder Canyon reservoir, the production of power would be much 

 greater, and the cost would be less. However, on account of the 

 radical design and proposed methods of construction, the project should 

 be submitted to the best engineering talent in the world before it can 

 be right or wise to adopt it. 



WATER RIGHTS 



The Supreme Court of the United States has decided that in the 

 case of interstate streams in the arid region, neither the riparian 

 theory of water rights nor the priority of appropriation theory can 

 obtain, but that each State is entitled to benefits from the river, — to 

 substantial benefits. Presumably, the distribution of benefits must be 

 made by the federal court. But in the case of the Colorado River, 

 where there is water enough for all, there seems to be no necessity for 

 any litigation. 



The states of the upper basin seem to fear that the construction 

 of large reservoirs will serve automatically to appropriate the waters 

 of the river for use in the lower basin, and that additional development 

 of irrigation in the upper states will be prevented. Oft-repeated asser- 

 tions of the United States Geological Survey and the United States 



