THE IRRIGATION AGE 



737 



President Taft Approves Engineers' Report 



Allotment of $20,000,000 Raised By Certificates Is Announced- 



Distributes Reclamation Fund 



-Board Tentatively 



President Taft has approved and submitted to Con- made allotments from the $20,000,000 loan ; but this ap- 

 gress the report of the special board of army engineers proval, as far as the amounts of the allotments are con- 

 appointed by him last June to examine the various earned, is not final and absolute, but is intended to be 

 reclamation projects started by the Government, and to subject to change by adjustment and modification of the 

 recommend which of them should be given a share in the amounts as may be necessary for the intelligent and 

 $20,000,000 of certificates of indebtedness authorized by proper prosecution of the work and to the advantage of 

 the same act. the service. 



In its report the board recommends the allotment of "You are authorized to call upon the Secretary of 



the money among the following projects: the Treasury to issue the certificates of indebtedness 



Salt River, Arizona $ 495 000 needed to furnish the funds in accordance with the allot- 



Yuma, Arizona and California 1, 200^000 mellt recommended by the board and approved by me 



Grand Valley, Colorado. 1 000 000 as l ^ e same shall be needed from time to time in pursuance 



Uncompahgre, Colorado l^SOo'.OOO of the terms of the act - 



Payette-Boise, Idaho 2,000,000 " The remainder of the report of the engineers, which 



Milk River, Montana 1 000 000 was not res Pnsive to the direction of the law but was 



North Platte, Wyoming and Nebraska 2^000^000 drawn at "*? rec l uest and for m y information, I hereby 



Truckee-Carson, Nev 1.193,000 approve; and when congress reconvenes in January I 



Rio Grande, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.... 4^500^000 fha " submit a message to the two houses, transmitting 



Umatilla, Oregon 325^000 tlle re P rt announcing my approval of the same and urg- 



Klamath. Oregon and California 600^000 {n S the adoption of enabling legislative measures recom- 



Strawberry Valley, Utah 2,272^000 mend ed by the board." 



Stmnyside, Yakima, Wash 1,250,000 Board Praises Engineers. 



Tieton. Washington.. 665,000 In its comprehensive report on the reclamation work 



The board also made a tentative allotment among in general, the engineers' board says in part: 



various projects of the general reclamation funds for the "The engineering structures of the various projects 



years 1911 to 1914, inclusive. This is to supplement the are, as a whole, well designed and well built. Some of 



$20,000,000 loan and to carry on projects which do not them, as the Pathfinder dam, the Shoshone dam, the 



participate in the distribution of the loan. The projects Roosevelt dam and the Gunnison tunnel, are monuments 



to share in this money are as follows: reflecting great credit on both designer and builder. 



Yuma . . $2 380,462 "Modern irrigation being a relatively new art in this 



<}rand Valley 500,000 country, much freedom was allowed local engineers in the 



Uncompahgre 2,045,000 design of minor structures. While this was a wise policy 



Minidoka 528,000 in the early stages of the work, it has resulted in some 



Payette-Boi-e 4,585,435 complicated and unnecessarily expensive structures. With 



Huntley 110,000 the present knowledge of the comparative merits of the 



Milk River 2,950,000 different types, it is believed that standard designs of the 



'Sun River 3,278,000 simplest, satisfactory type should be adopted for all minor 



Lower Yellowstone 578,000 structures. 



North Platte 2,185,000 "The most uncertain feature of nearly all the projects 



Truckee-Carson 1,594,000 is, the water supply. This is under state control, and in 



Rio Grande 1,855,000 th? prosecution of its work the reclamation service bears 



Missouri, pumping 270,000 the same relation to the state as a private individual or 



Belle Fourche 480,000 corporation. Where the water rights have been adjudi- 



Okanogan 13,000 cated, the rights of the United States are well defined, 



Shoshone 2,000,000 but elsewhere they are uncertain and may prove to be 



Of these, the amounts allotted to Grand Valley, lower materially different from that assumed. 



Yellowstone and Missouri pumping are conditional. The "It is recommended that, wherever possible, steps be 



total amount of this fund will be $25,351,897* take " to secure an earlv a djudicat.on of water rights on 



No allotments either from -the loan or from the al! P r J ects where such adjudications have not yet been 

 general reclamation fund were recommended for the fol- made - and that - Pending such action, expenditure be kept 

 lowing projects, except for necessary maintenance and wi ' hi " tlle Probable rights of the United States, 

 operation: Orland, Cal.; Garden City, Kan.; Kittitas, , Cost Exceeds Estimates. 

 Wapato and Benton, Yakima project, Washington; Carls- "The actual cost of completed work has almost in- 

 bad, New Mexico, and Hondo, New Mexico. variably exceeded the original estimates, and in the case 



In his letter to the Secretary of the Interior approving o f some structures has been two or three times as large. 



the report of the engineers President Taft says in part: This increase in cost has been the cause of much of the 



Approval Is Not Final. discontent among the settlers. It was partly due to a 



"I hereby approve the report of the board of engineers general increase in the cost of labor and materials, partly 



in respect of the reclamation projects to which they have to underestimates and an insufficient allowance for con- 



