AZ vs. CA:24 California Exhibits, Vol. XXIV; Miscellaneous

page 19

PROBLEMS OF IMPERIAL VALLEY AND VICINITY, 19 are valid arguments, so far as they go, Dut such' a reservoir would not answer present purposes for several reasons. Between the Glen Canyon and Boulder Canyon sites about 50,000 square miles of drainage flows into the Colorado, including the Little Colorado, the Virgin, the Paria, the Kanab, and many smaller tributaries. This region furnishes about 8 per cent of the water supply passing Boulder Canyon, and most of it is subject to torrential summer rains and to floods at other times, and the Glen Canyon site would not, therefore, give satisfactory control of the floods, which is the most urgent of the problems presented. A satisfactory solution of this problem could not be accomplished at any point above Boulder Canyon. Any large reservoir on the Colorado must depend for its financial feasibility upon the availability of an adequate market for not less than half a million horsepower of electric energy within economical transmission distance. The principal available markets are-^- 1. The Pacific slope of California, including the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, ftiverside, etc. 2. Irrigation pumping in all directions. •3. The mining regions of the mountains of Arizona, extending in a broad way from the northwestern to the southeastern corner of that State and including the cities of Prescott, Phoenix, and Tucson. 4. The electrification of the Southern Pacific, the Santa Fe, and the Salt Lake railways and their branches. 5. The cities of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, and the mining regions adjacent to them.. All of the more important markets above listed are more convenient to Boulder Canyon than to Glen Canyon. This is especially true oi the most important market, the, cities and irrigation districts of southern California. To reach these the mpst feasible routes for transmission lines, considering the importance of transportation in their construction and maintenance, is approximately along the railroad routes. These compare about as follows, taking Los Angeles as typical and deducting 20 per cent as the distance that might be saved by cut-offs: Transmission distance; Boulder Canyon to Los Angeles. Miles. Los Angeles to Las Vegas, by rail............................................ 334 Las Vegas to Boulder Canyon, by rail........................................ 40 Total...................................................„.............374 Less 20 per cent.......................................,.........*.......... 75- Net transmission distance.............................................. 299- Transmission distance, Glen Canyon to Los Angeles. Miles. LoS Angeles to Flagstaff, by rail..........................f.................... 544 Flagstaff to Junction, by rail.................................................. 30 Junction to Glen Canyon, by rail............................................. 130 Total................................................................. 704 Less 20 per .cent.........................................'..................- - 141 Net transmission distance.............................................. 563 Transmission distance, Boulder Canyon to Los Angeles........................ 299 Difference in favor of Boulder Canyon................................., 264