THE YUMA PROJECT 



The Yuma project is the premier project of the United States 

 Reclamation Service. When completed it will carry the waters of the 

 Colorado River to 150,000 acres of desert land as rich in agricultural 

 possibilities as can be found in the world. In the construction of the 

 project many engineering difficulties have been met and overcome. 

 The chief engineering feature of the project is Laguna Dam, located 

 twelve miles above Yuma. This dam is a diversion dam and not a 

 storage dam. It is nearly a mile in length, and at either end are 

 located the head gates which controls the flow of the water into the 

 canals. The dam raises the river level above it twelve feet, and in the 

 basin above the dam 75 per cent of the silt carried in solution in the 

 waters of the Colorado are deposited, so that the water which is 

 drawn off into the canals is comparatively free from silt. 



INTAKE TO THE SIPHON UNDER THE COLORADO RIVER 



Here the water which has been brought through the main canal 

 fifteen miles is dropped into a concrete-lined well eighty feet deep, 

 and after passing through a concrete-lined tunnel fourteen feet in 

 diameter, pcurs out of another well on the Arizona side of the river, 

 and is conveyed in canals to the 60,000 acres of land in the Yuma 

 Valley. 



The main canal carries sufficient water to irrigate 150,000 acres 

 of land. Water is taken from the main canal before it reaches the 

 siphon at Yuma to irrigate the San Pascual Valley (about 8500 acres), 

 and the Yuma Indian Reservation (about 10,000). 



