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Show -11- "6. Investigations of possible reservoir sites above 35° 36', notably at the Las Vegas Wash and at Virgin River. "It would be advisable to investigate reservoir possibilities on Colorado River in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, above the point where streams carrying high quantities of silt enter, so that we may have knowledge of such storage possibilities as exist where provisions do not have to be made for silting." Of the six projects mentioned above, the one of importance to the work under discussion is the Yuma Dam-site, which lies about 22 miles upstream from Yuma, Ariz., at a point where the Colorado passes through the first rocky gorge above the Gulf, the walls at this point being some 1,500 feet apart. Topographic maps showed that the construction of a diversion dam 70 feet high at this point would render feasible the reclamation of large areas in Arizona and in California and also a possibility of extending the California canal to cover lands in the Salton Sink. Further examinations of this proposition disclosed the fact that there was no bedrock upon which to found a high diversion dam and this project was abandoned in favor of constructing a diversion weir of small height. Investigations also led to changing the position of the weir to a point known as Laguna on the Arizona side and Potholes on the California side, this being some fifteen miles by river above Yuma. It was here proposed to construct a dam or weir about one mile in length of the Indian type, diverting water through canals on either side of the river. This dam was so situated as to furnish a gravity supply for irrigating the Indian Reservation in California, containing about 16,000 acres, the bottom lands below Yuma containing about 55,000 acres, and 20,000 acres in the Gila Valley immediately above Yuma,-a total of about 91,000 acres of bottom land. It |
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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] : California exhibits. |