July 21, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



63 



affected and of the Congress of the United 

 States, which has provided for a commission 

 to consider the equitable division of the waters 

 of the Coloi'ado River. On this commission 

 the United States is represented by its chair- 

 man, Honorable Herbert Hoover, secretary 

 of commerce, whose ability and fidelity to 

 public duty ai'e recognized in every household 

 of the land. It is hoped that under his leader- 

 snip an agreement can be reached among the 

 states which can be ratified by the United 

 States and which will provide for tlie full use 

 of the waters of the Colorado River without 

 imposing unbearable burdens on any part of 

 the basin nor destroy any of its resources. 



In order to make a large storage reservoii' 

 in the lower basin financially feasible, it will 

 be necessary to charge the major portion of 

 the cost of the storage dam to power. The 

 development of power and irrigation are 

 closely related in that the amount of power 

 which it is practicable to develop depends 

 largely upon the extent of the development of 

 the irrigable lands in the entire drainage basin. 

 The extremely ai'id and semi-tropic character 

 of the lands in t''" lower Colorado Basin makes 

 it necessary to irrigate throughout the year 

 and irrigation requirements therefore conform 

 moi'e nearly to the requirements for power 

 than do those in northern latitudes. The 

 capacity of the reservoir provided for power 

 purposes will depend wholly on the relation of 

 its cost to the value of additional power ol)- 

 tainable therewith. 



As the point of complete utilization of tlie 

 streams is approached, the excess water will 

 occur in such widely separated periods as to 

 require a disproportionate amount of storage 

 for its utilization. It has been assumed that 

 all the water must primarily be conserved for 

 irrigation use. By utilizing the minimum head 

 on the turbines as deteimined by silt storage 

 in the entire Colorado River Basin, 600,000 

 firm horsepower of electric energy can be 

 developed at Boulder Canyon and 700,000 

 horsepower is feasible with the same reservoii' 

 in connection with the full development of the 

 irrigable lands in the upper basin and about 

 1,500,000 acres in the lower basin which it is 

 practicable to develop in the near future. In 



either case there will be a large amount of 

 secondary power which will be of considerable 

 value. Installation of a power plant to 

 develop a large amount of power may be de- 

 sirable for the reason that although the devel- 

 opment of the upper basin will doubtless pro- 

 ceed steadily it will be a long time before the 

 full development is reached. The immense 

 amount of power to be generated and the 

 variable head under which the turbines will 

 be required to work will make the Boulder 

 Canyon plant one of the most remarkable 

 ever built. Under present plans the power 

 house would be located on the downstream toe 

 of the dam in the event a gravity dam is built, 

 or along the canyon wall below the dam if an 

 arch dam is constructed. 



Among the more important reservoir sites 

 in the upper basin which have been carefully 

 investigated by the Reclamation Service are 

 the following: the Flaming Gorge on the 

 Green River, where a dam 327 feet high would 

 create a reservoir with storage capacity of 

 4,000,000 acre feet; the Juniper on the Yampa 

 River, where a dam 268 feet high would 

 create a reservoir of 1,500,000 acre feet ca- 

 pacity; the Dewey located on the Grand River 

 with a dam 275 feet high, which would create 

 a reservoir of 2,270,000 acre feet capacity. 

 The foundations of these sites liave been tested 

 with diamond drill and the foundations are 

 known to be satisfactoi'y. 



The choice of a reservoir site on tlie lower 

 Colorado River depends upon numerous fac- 

 tors of Avhich a few may here be enumerated: 

 First, for flood control the reservoir should 

 be as near the area to be protected as possible. 

 Second, for irrigation with ultimate supply 

 but little in excess of demands, control, must 

 be. had as near the ultimate diversion as pos- 

 sible for the prevention of waste due to in- 

 ability to coordinate demand and supph'. 



Third, the generation of power, incidental 

 to irrigation operations, should be carried on 

 as near as i^ossible to its market. 



Fourth, the site should be as close to estab- 

 lished railroads as possible to cut down con- 

 struction costs. 



Fifth, with due allowance for costs the 

 reservoir should be as deep as possible in 



