538 Bulletin 95 



estimated that in fifteen years all possible hydro-electric development 

 in that State will have been accomplished, and California interests are 

 looking much farther ahead than that. 



Nearly all of the power requirements of the mining industry in 

 Arizona are now supplied from petroleum fuel oil. The best opinions 

 regarding the future supply of fuel oil point to a diminution of the 

 supply and rapidly rising prices. It is essential that hydro-electric 

 power be developed to replace the failing oil supply. 



PROPOSAL OF THB UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE 



Engineers of the United States Reclamation Service have been 

 studymg the problem of the Colorado tor eight years, and have decided 

 quite definitely on what they believe should be the first project. The 

 Service has recommended to Congress that it should be a project of the 

 Federal Government, and the Secretary of the Interior stated publicly 

 at the Riverside and San Diego conventions in December, 1921, that, 

 because of the international and interstate character of the river, 

 the Federal Government is the only competent agency to construct the 

 great dam that must be built, and to control and operate its gates. He 

 is right, and Arizona should back to the limit federal ownership and 

 operation of the main river control project. 



The Reclamation Service recommends that the dam be located in 

 Boulder Canyon on the boundary line between Arizona and Nevada. 

 On account of the peculiar situation, the west end of the dam would 

 rest on the Arizona side. A transmission line from that point to 

 Phoenix would be about 250 miles long, and a line to Los Angeles 277 

 miles in length. The proposed 600-foot dam provides for storage for 

 irrigation and for storage of silt for sixty years, and for 5,000,000 

 acre-feet capacity at the top to be used only for detention of high flood 

 crests, such as those of 1907, 1909, 1914, and 1920. 



Last July, when Congress was committed to retrenchment, and it 

 seemed impossible to interest the East in this most necessary under- 

 taking, plans were made to contract the power privileges in advance to 

 municipalities and states or to other purchasers, and the purchasers 

 were to obtain the necessary funds through sale of bond issues. The 

 city of Los Angeles was ready to take all or as much of the power as 

 would be allowed to that city. Now, it is believed that there is a good 

 fighting chance to obtain the money through federal appropriation. 



