FEATURES AND WATER RIGHTS OF YUBA RIVER. 



127 



On the South Fork, above Lake Spaulding, there is a watershed of 120 square 

 miles which has heretofore been described as comparativeh' bare of timber, and the 

 timbered areas which once existed have been cut off. The run off of this area is 

 practically nothing for one hundred and twenty days each year, due to this absence 

 of forests and brush. If this area were afforested and gav^e a minimum run off of 

 0.8 cubic foot per second per square mile, the discharge would be 100 cubic feet per 

 second, or equivalent to 1,036,800,000 cubic feet effective storage capacitj^ a 

 discharge more than equivalent to one-half the storage capacities of all the 

 reservoirs above Lake Spaulding Dam. These aggregate 1,375,000,000 cubic feet, 

 and the low-water discharge of 100 cubic feet per second for one hundred and twenty 

 days is equivalent to a storage capacity of 1,036,000,000 cubic feet. As the basis of 

 the above estimate is the extreme low-water discharge, it is safe to assume that by 

 afforesting the watershed this costly and extensive system of reservoirs might be 

 safety drawn upon for double their pi-esent capacity. When this reasoning is applied 

 to the entire 1,3.57 square miles, instead of to small fi^actious thereof, the force of the 

 argument becomes more apparent. 



It would appear from the foregoing that the solution of the problem of storage 

 of flood waters is not in the retention of a small percentage of the stomi waters 

 behind dams, but in applying storage over the entire watershed by the systematic 

 protection and extension of forest and brush covered areas. 



DEVELOPMENT OF POWER ON" "YTTBA BIVEB,. 



Nearh' all the ditches and reservoirs in the basin of Yuba River were constructed 

 to furnish water for mining purposes. Upon the rendering of the judgments in the 



Fig. 3.— Diagram showing successive use of the water of Yuba River. 



cases of Woodruff v. the North Bloomfield Mining Compan\^ (18 Fed., 753) and the 

 United States v. North Bloomfield Mining Company, circuit court of appeals 

 (81 Fed., 2-13), hydraulic mining was suspended. It has been partially resumed under 

 the "Camanetti act," passed March 1, 1893, which prescribes that where approved 

 storage of detritus can be secured the operations may proceed under a permit gi-anted 

 by a conmiission composed of ofiicei's of the Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., and 

 revocable b}^ said commission should the resti^aining works prove inefficient. 



These restrictions have left a large surplus of water for which use has been 



