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Show LETTER OF SUBMITTAL. Department of the Interior, United States Reclamation Service, Washington, D. C, February 4, 1922. The Secretary of the Interior. ) Sir: Transmitted herewith is report on the problems of the Lower Colorado Basin, required by the act of Congress approved May 18, 1920, entitled "An act to provide for an examination and report on the condition and possible irrigation development of the Imperial Valley in California." (41 Stat., 600.) This report supersedes the preliminary report transmitted to you on November 27, 1920, in which it was stated that further report would be made. > The study of the Colorado River Basin from the standpoint of its use in irrigation and otherwise may be said to have begun by the establishment of stations for the measurement of stream discharge in various parts of the basin in 1894 and 1895 by the United States Geological Survey. One of these stations was established at Yuma, Ariz., to intercept and measure the discharge of the entire stream, there being no tributaries below this point. It was found that gage-height readings had been kept for a considerable period by the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. at Yuma, and these were utilized so far as possible, but the shifting nature of the channel made their use of doubtful value and also to a considerable extent vitiated the records kept at Yuma by the Geological Survey for the first few years. After the passage of the reclamation act in 1902 the Reclamation Service took up the systematic study of the lower river, provided for more frequent and systematic gagings at Yuma and other points, and made a topographic survey of the lower valleys of the Colorado River from Bulls Head to the Mexican boundary. The investigations were continued particularly as regards stream measurements and the survey of reservoir sites and borings at the necessary dams. In the stream-measurement work substantial cooperation was extended by the Geological Survey and the results were assembled in the publications of that bureau from time to time, particularly in Water Suppty Paper No. 395, by E. C. La Rue. A more intensive study of the entire basin was inaugurated in 1914 by a special allotment of $50,000 for this purpose, supplemented by annual allotments in subsequent years, and this work was finally assembled in three large volumes of manuscript by Mr. John T. Whistler. It included a reconnaissance of practically all of the proposed reservoir sites and irrigation projects in the basin above the Arizona line and the compilation of all existing data including the water filings and water rights throughout the basin. The study did not stop with the rendition of Mr. Whistler's report, but was |
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Original book: [State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California, defendants, United States of America, State of Nevada, State of New Mexico, State of Utah, interveners] : |