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

page 11

-11- request for report thereon. The bill is entitled as follows: "A bill to provide for an examination and report on the condition and possible irrigation development of the Imperial Valley in California." You state that the bill was introduced after a conclusion had been reached that neither the Kettner bill (H. R. 11553) nor anything like it could be passed at this session. The bill proposes to authorize an appropiration not to exceed $20,000 under which no expenditure shall be made or obligation incurred until provision has been made for the payment of one-half the cost of the examination, provided by the bill, by associations and agencies interested in the irrigation of lands in the Imperial Valley. On February 16, 1918, I made a contract with the Imperial Irrigation District providing for investigations, surveys, and cost estimates of an all-American canal from Laguna Dam, Arizona-California, into Imperial Valley which contemplated an expenditure of $45,000 of which the Imperial district furnished $30,000. This report has just been printed and I inclose herewith a copy for the committee. This report was devoted largely to the engineering features of the proposition. The bill in question will authorize a more general study of the character of the lands and their availability for irrigation, together with a number of other important details regarding the feasibility, necessity, and advisability of the undertaking. In view of the conditions regarding the possibility of passing an appropriation for construction of the works as presented by the committee, it seems to me that the best thing which can be done at the present time to advance the interests of this proposition, which I regard as meri-