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Show BOULDER CANYON PROJECT 5 whether or not he will be obliged to share his line, and because of this clarity he can not be injured. PLAi\ OF REPORT The plan of the report is as follows: Part I: Generally of the project, its development, and plan. Part II: Flood control arid river regulation. Part III: Ail-American canal and water supply. Part IV: Domestic water. Part V: Power. Part VI: Financial soundness of project. THE PROJECT GENERALLY Senate bill 728, reported favorably by the Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation, is the culmination of many years of technical and scientific research, study, and investigation, and of the efforts of the Federal Government and the various States affected to harness the waters of one of the great rivers of the world. The Colorado River is 1,750 miles in length. Its drainage area embraces 242,000 square miles in the United States. It rises in the States of Wyoming and Colorado and flows through those States, Utah, and Arizona, and forms part of the boundary between the States of Arizona and Nevada and Arizona and California, and finally discharges into the Gulf of California. The stream measurements taken over a period of 27 years show an average annual discharge of nearly 17,000,000 acre-feet (this after irrigation depletion above). The run-off varies greatly from year to year. In 1902 it was but 9,110,000 acre-feet. In 1909 it was 25,400,000 acre-feet. The seasonal variation of the river is also sharply marked, the flow ranging from more than 200,000 cubic feet per second when in flood to as low as 1,250 in low water. The rim of the upper drainage basin of the river is composed largely of high mountain ranges. The melting snows from these ranges and the rainfall increase its volume. The lower portion of the basin is composed of hot arid plains of low altitude broken by short mountain groups. The central portion consists of a high plateau, through which the river runs for hundreds of miles in a deep and narrow canyon. As the river flows rapidly into the canyon region, it picks up an enormous amount of silt. Its average discharge of silt yearly, at Yuma, is about 110,000 acre-feet, an amount equal in volume to the total excavations by the United States from"ttfe"Panama Canal. In its quieter moods the waters of the Colorado River are easily controlled and may be beneficially utilized in the fertile valleys it traverses; but as summer approaches, the melting snows often convert this stream into an indescribable raging torrent, which, through the ages, with irresistible force has torn into the high plateaus of Arizona and Nevada and carved out mighty chasms, sometimes even to a depth of 5,000 feet. The havoc that the river at its flood has wrought, its very destruction of the territory through which its torrents have swept all before it, have provided the means for its control and for the beneficial use of its waters now running to waste. Through great deposits of rock |
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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. |