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

page 22

22 THE ATTi-AATTntTCA'N' CANAL. a stable location. Throughout some 20 miles of the river's course where it forms the boundary and now for some 40 miles or more farther downstream, where the river is entirely on Mexican territory, the river, as already stated, has been and now is a menace to large areas of lands and large property interests in the United States and Mexico. If allowed to do what human operations in Mexico have predisposed it to do, it would discharge inland into the Sal ton Sea and it would be only a- question of time before this sea would expand to the full limit of the SaiLon Basin., with a surface area of some 1,250,000 acres, extending from above Indio in California to about 20 miles south of the international boundary. Due to the unfortunate location of the boundary line the United States has no jurisdiction over the territon in which the flood menace to Imperial Yalley lies. Mexico seems impotent to cope with the situation, or at any rate appears to take no note of the urgency and seriousness of the situation as we are endeavoring to sketch it. In such circumstances the Imperial Yalley. or more particularly the Imperial Irrigation District, representing the largest organized interests in the valley, has been constrained to construct and maintain at large cost extensive protective works on foreign territory. These facts are recited because the usefulness of an all-American or any other canal for the irrigation of lands in the Imperial Valley would soon be in large measure destroyed if adequate protection is not had against the danger from the south which threatens the area already under irrigation. This danger, moreover, will continue to grow so long as the Colorado River is allowed to run wild in the Volcano Lake region. It is evident that the problem of irrigation in the Imperial Valley is interwoven with the other problem of protection against the river at its high stages. If the United States and Mexico were cooperating on lower Colorado River problems this board would not now find itself embarrassed by being denied the opportunity to survey and propose other possible high-line canal routes than such as are wholly on United States territory. To the westward of Pilot Knob the mesa slopes to the southward and southwest ward. It breaks off in a comparatively steep slope a few miles to the southward of the international boundary. It is known that a canal without material sacrifice in water-surface elevation could be -placed on lower ground than north of boundary by swinging the canal line across the boundary. It is not known definitely what the material advantage of such a location would be, though old surveys and a partial reconnoissance indicate that a reduction in excavation to the extent of about 10,000,000 cubic yards might be expected.