OCR Text |
Show -12- California, several thousand acres of which are now actually under irrigated cultivation, and over 100,000 acres of which can be irrigated by the canals and ditches thus far constructed. The point where the water is diverted from the Colorado is on the California side of the River about six miles below Yuma, and about one mile North of the International Boundary Line between the United States and Mexico. The temporary heading, or head-gate, of the canal, by which the flow of water is controlled, is but a few yards North of the International Boundary Line, but it is intended to construct a permanent heading some distance further North. I visited the temporary heading and found the canal to be forty-five or fifty feet wide at this point and to carry eight to ten feet of water confined between perpendicular, or almost perpendicular, banks. My visit was at the time of year when the River was very low. From the point of diversion, the water is carried by the Company's artificially constructed canal for a distance of twelve miles, eleven miles of which is in Mexico. From this latter point, use is made of the old bed of the so-called Salton River. This is really not a river, though it may have been in the far distant past. On the map, it is indicated as a river which seems to flow into the Colorado. It is, however, apparently a course worn by the over-flow of the Colorado at high water, the water backing up to the northwest and finally empty-ing into the Salton Sink. This natural way, then, is used by the Company to convey its waters from the point twelve miles below the place of diversion to a point some thirty or thirty-five miles West of the River in Mexico, from which latter |
Source |
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. |