THE IKKIGATION AGE. 



87 



MR. REED S REPORT. 



The report of Mr. W. M. Eeed, resident engineer 

 of the Service, is of particular interest by reason of 

 the fact that it is probable the Government will begin 

 at an early date the construction of an irrigation work 

 at one of the sites recommended by him. Apparently 

 the most feasible project discovered by Mr. Reed is on 

 the Hondo at a point nearly on the dividing line of the 

 watersheds of Hondo River and the Black Water Ar- 

 royo. The reservoir site lies in a large natural depres- 

 sion, commonly called a dry lake, and has an area of 

 1,072 acres, and with no embankment would hold 11,- 



gates are placed on the canal, each in solid rock, with 

 their grade two feet below the grade of the canal at that 

 point. These spillways are provided with gates, not 

 automatic, for these gates are to be used only when the 

 reservoir is full, or when it is desired to flush the 

 silting basins. The top of the gates will be below 

 the embankment grade, and will act as safety spillways 

 in the case of unexpected and unusual floods. 



The canal will have a seventy-foot roadbed and an 

 embankment will be placed at the lower side. The canal 

 will enter the reservoir from a rock cut, thus preventing 

 any erosion. The outlet canal will connect the lowest 

 point in the reservoir site with the original bed of the 



PUMPING PLANT INSTALLED BY A. T. AMES IN ORCHARD OF JOHN BALLINGER, SAN JOSE, CAL., PUMPING 25,000 GALLONS AN 



HOUR AT 150-FOOT LIFT FROM A 12-INCH BORED WELL. 



486 acre feet. The bottom of the lake is a heavy alluvial 

 deposit and borings were satisfactory as to its water- 

 holding properties. The perimeter is nearly all lime- 

 stone, and has the appearance of being as solid and free 

 from cavities as any limestone formation, except at the 

 places where fills are required. The sides are much 

 higher than the proposed water line and have rock on 

 or near the surface. 



Mr. Reed's plan for diverting the water is to make 

 two canals of sufficient size to carry all the flow of the 

 river and to provide a spillway on the canal at a rock 

 point 4,000 feet from the river. The river at the point 

 of diversion is in earth, and to provide for a spillway 

 here would be expensive and would be always a source of 

 annoyance, if not danger. Two spillways or flushing 



river. The elevation at these points being the same, the 

 canal is level. 



The bed of the Hondo will be used for carrying .the 

 irrigating water for a distance of about one mile. At 

 this point it will be turned by a small concrete diversion 

 dam into distributing canals on one side of the river. 

 This point of diversion is not the most suitable from an 

 engineering standpoint, but up to the present time one 

 of the owners of the flood water rights having a ditcli 

 just below it has refused to make any satisfactory prop- 

 osition toward a settlement with the Government in 

 case the reservoir should be constructed, and it was 

 deemed best to locate the canal's from the above point 

 to determine what lands would come under irrigation, 

 and to ascertain the cost of the works. Diversion from 



