BULLETIN OF [E 



i 



No. 126 



Contribution from Office of Experiment Stations, A. C. True, Director 

 October 31, 1914. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



CONCRETE LINING AS APPLIED TO IRRIGATION 



CANALS. 



By Samuel Fortier, Chief of Irrigation Investigations. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



An estimate based on the census of 1910 shows that approximately 

 74,400,000 acre-feet of water is diverted annually from streams, reser- 

 voirs, wells, and other sources of supply in the United States for use 

 in irrigation. If this volume were spread over an area the size of 

 the State of New York it would cover it to a depth of over 28 inches. 

 To convey this amount of water, often from distant sources, and 

 distribute it over cultivated lands require a large number of canals 

 with capacities varying from several thousand second-feet to a part 

 of a second-foot, or a few miner's inches. In the United States, irri- 

 gation canals are for the most part excavated in earth, and, except 

 in a few cases, a large percentage of the water, estimated at 40 per 

 cent of the amount taken in at the heads of the main canals, is lost 

 by absorption and percolation along the routes. But allowing for 

 water later recovered by lower conduits, the amount that is wholly 

 lost may be reduced to 25 per cent. 



The benefits resulting from work in recent years in the lining of 

 canals for preventing transmission losses have been marked. 



This publication presents in a summarized form some results of 

 seepage measurements and discusses the subject of lining canals 

 with concrete as one of the best known means of preventing seepage 

 losses. Most of the irrigation canals in this country that have been 

 lined with concrete have been examined and the good and bad fea- 

 tures of each noted. Construction methods have likewise been 

 studied. In brief the main object of the entire investigation has 

 been to show, first, the need of an impervious lining and, second, the 

 best practice to follow in construction work of this kind. 



Note. — This bulletin treats of the subject of concrete lining for irrigation canals from the standpoints 

 of economy, design, and construction. It is intended for the use of irrigation engineers and the managers 

 and superintendents of irrigation systems. 



48307— Bull. 126—14 1 



