AZ vs. CA:04 California Exhibits, Vol. IV; Nos. 151-192

page 30

30 THE ALL-AMERICAN CANAL. diminishing natural flow should be supplied with water from storage. There is no reason why, in such circumstances, imder a suitable agreement between the United States and Mexico, this should not apply beyond the United States boundary, so that Mexico, too, may benefit by the use of stored waters whenever an adequate amount of water shall have been provided by the construction of large storage reservoirs in the United States. There is all the more reason for such an arrangement, due to the effect which storage on a large scale would have in reducing the peak of the flood discharge on the lower river. Any reduction of the flood menace thus secured will be of direct benefit to Mexico as well as to the United States. The levee system which prevents the floods of the Colorado River from taking a northerly course and upon which Imperial Valley is dependent for protection against the menace of destruction, as above stated, is briefly described as follows: 1. The California Development Co. levee, the so-called C. D. levee, was built in 1906 and 1907 by the California Development Co. It extends from Hanlon's just north of the international boundary, southerly along the right bank of the Colorado River a distance of 7 miles and thence southwesterly bearing away from the river an additional distance of some 8 miles, being thence continued under the name of the Saiz levee to a point tome 7 or 8 miles northeasterly from the area originally occupied by Volcano Lake. 2. The Volcano Lake levee, on which the first work was done in 1908, and which has been raised from time to time and strengthened and extended. This levee extends from the base of Cerro Prieto easterly for 6 or 7 miles, across the bad lands at the north of Volcano Lake, and thence northeasterly to a connection with the embankment of the Inter-California Railroad. Its total length is about 16 miles. 3. The Ockerson levee, constructed in 1911 for the primary purpose of returning the flow of the Colorado River back into its original course to the Gulf of California. The river had in 1909 abandoned its channel about 2 miles below the Arizona boundary line and taken a westerly course into the Volcano Lake region along the general route of the Abejas high-water channel which it enlarged to river dimensions. This levee was breached at the head of the Abejas and also at several other places soon after its construction. It has not been repaired. The river still flows into the Volcano Lake region as elsewhere explained. In 1906 and 1907 the Colorado River was twice turned from an inland course at points about 4 miles south of Pilot Knob by the construction of rock-fill barriers, which now appear as parts of the C. D. or river levee.