526 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, Ko. Ii34 



the water eould be withdrawn from the river 

 for use within the United States. This will 

 nevei' happen, but negotiations in relation to 

 this matter of giving definiteness to what Mexi- 

 co may expect have already been too long de- 

 ferred. 



jSTot only is this the situation with reference 

 to the irrigation use of water but immediate 

 .action in the matter of flood control is of para- 

 mount importance. On this phase of the prob- 

 lem only a word more need be said. Ever since 

 the river changed its course in 1909 it has 

 been depositing its load of silt, about 112,000 

 acre feet per year, in the Volcano Lake re- 

 gion. Drift and silt have filled depressions 

 and choked old drainage channels. The first 

 effect of the river's change in alignment was 

 to depress the river's flood plane at the head of 

 the Bee River six or seven feet and thence up- 

 stream by decreasing amounts to and above 

 Yuma. But as the j'ears rolled by and the 

 warping up of the Volcano Lake regions has 

 ■continued, the flood plane has been at a mean 

 rate of about one foot per annum. Where no 

 levee was required loefore 1908, to the north of 

 the site of the lake (the lake itself has already 

 been filled up with silt and obliterated) there 

 is now a levee 14 feet high, with a railroad on 

 top and with its Avater slope well faced with 

 rock. And j'et last j'ear, 1921, the water at 

 some points rose to the top of this levee. At- 

 tempt is now being made to coax the river into 

 a more southerly course, 'but, even if this should 

 succeed, the outfall of the flood waters will 

 then he on a broad flat area which will quickly 

 be filled to delta crest elevation and the same 

 problem as the one of to-day Avill remain to 

 be solved. Tlie solution of this problem as 

 already stated is comparatively simple when 

 physical elements alone are considered. It is 

 the international aspect which renders it com- 

 plex. Action, at once, I repeat, by the United 

 States is imperative. 



It may 'be noted in Ihis connection that about 

 70,000 peojjle live in the area which is to be 

 protected. Property values of $100,000,000 to 

 $200,000,000 are involved. There are several 

 hundred miles of railroads within the area that 

 must be protected against the floods of the 

 Colorado River. 



In the matter of developing and putting to 

 beneficial use the water resources of the Colo- 

 rado River, it seems self-evident that the great- 

 est ultimate good should be the main considera- 

 tion. State lines cut 'but little figure in this 

 matter. Opportunity by any state to divert and 

 deprive earlier down-stream users of their water 

 can carry no right to do so unless this be 

 plainly in the public interest and unless it ibe 

 done with due compensation for property 

 values that are thereby destroyed. 



It is Avise, therefore, that steps have been 

 taken for discussion of the river's problem as 

 it affects the seven states within which the 

 waters of the river originate. The Colorado 

 River Commission is the medium for bringing 

 these states into conference. What the outcome 

 of this conference will be remains to 'be sees. 

 Fortunately the production of water in the 

 watershed of the river is so great that, despite 

 all that can be done on its headwaters, to 

 hold back and use the water locally, there will 

 still enough water get by to make the storage on 

 the lower river and the .extension of irrigation 

 in Arizona, California and Mexico desirable 

 and economically feasible. 



The development on the lower river is an 

 interstate and international matter. It should 

 'be undei'taken ib3r the United States. The con- 

 trol of such a reservoir as that which is pro- 

 posed for the Boulder Canyon site, for ex- 

 ample, should never 'be relinquished to private 

 interests whatever the agency 'by which the 

 project is carried out. Boulder Canyon dam- 

 site is located on Colorado River just above the 

 point where the river makes its abrupt turn 

 from a westerly to a southerly course. It is 

 some 60 miles in an air line above the point 

 where California's east 'boundar3- line strikes 

 the river and is but, a few miles below the 

 mouth of Virgin River. The Colorado River 

 at this point forms the boundary between 

 Nevada on the north and Arizona on the south. 

 The canyon is narrow, being generally report- 

 ed as about 250 feet in width for a distance of 

 one half mile. The sides of the gorge are steep. 

 The rock is granite. The project for storage 

 at this site as now favored by the United States 

 Reclamation Service involves the construction 

 of a dam that would rise to a height of a'bout 



