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Show 24 BOULDER CANYON" PROJECT With Mexico on the upper end of the canal that serves Imperial Valley, Mexican development will proceed. There will thus be created, at the expense of lands in the United States, a great community in Mexico, served with water originating in the United States and competing with American farmers. PRESENT DIVERSION The present headworks of the Imperial system consist of a delivery gate some 750 feet in length in the west bank of the Colorado River 6,000 feet above the international boundary line. On account of theiow-lying banks of silt material, it/ has been found impossible to construct and maintain a permanent diversion weir or dam without flooding the Yuma Valley, now highly productive, under the Yuma reclamation project of the United States. About 1915 it was found, by reason-of changes in river channel, that water could not be diverted into the Imperial system without some artificial works in the river. The people of the Yuma Valley obtained an injunction against the construction of such works. The necessity of the case was such, however, that since that time temporary works have been put in the river annually by the Imperial irrigation district under a contract with the Yuma County Water Users' Association by the terms of which the Imperial irrigation district assumes full responsibility for any damages which may result to the Yuma County Water Users' Association, or anyone else on the Yuma project, by reason of such construction, and to guarantee payment the district is required to have executed annually and maintain a surety bond in the amount of $500,000. In addition to this the district agrees to, with all possible dispatch, change its point of diversion to the Laguna Dam, and is required to make bimonthly reports to the War Department as to progress being made. COACHELLA VALLEY Special mention should be made of the conditions of the Coachella Valley, lying at the northern end of Imperial Valley. This valley, like Imperial Valley proper, is below the channel of the river and is subject to the river's flood menace. It is not served by the present Imperial system nor can it be served by this system being above the level of the main canal. It secures its water supply from wells fed by waters from the mountains lying to the west and north. The drainage area being small, water levels are constantly going down and people of that section see facing them, in the very near future, the necessity of letting their highly productive ranches go back to desert. There are in this valley at least 72,000 acres of fine, irrigable lands, 13,000 of which are now under cultivation and are producing crops of the same general character as in the Imperial Valley proper, but reaching the markets usually from one to two weeks earlier. This fine land could be irrigated from the ail-American canal, in the construction of which lies the only hope of this section. PART IV. DOMESTIC WATER The construction of the high dam at Boulder or Black Canyon, besides- accomplishing the purposes of flood control and irrigation, and besides making possible the development of a large amount of |
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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. |