SELECT COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION, Saturday, March 1, 1890.
The committee met pursuant to adjournment, Mr. Vandever in the chair.
STATEMENT OF MAJ. J. W. POWELL continued.
Maj. J. W. POWELL, Director of the Geological Survey, addressed the committee as follows:
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I place before you to day a map of the Rio Grande, including all the area drained by that stream north of the Texas line. There are some important facts relating to the utilization of the arid lands which can be well elucidated by considering that region of country, and I present the map again for that region. In talking to you at the last meeting about the irrigation problems presented in the valley of the Arkansas I called your attention to the fact that that valley could be divided into districts, each one an independent unit. The whole arid region may be divided in like manner into natural districts or drainage basins, each one of which has its problems so interwoven that the entire district must be considered in planning its system of irrigation works, but which is practically independent of all other districts. These hydrographic basins, as I call them, are of three classes, viz, headwater districts, river trunk districts, and lost stream districts.
The headwater districts commence in the mountains and extend down the streams far enough to include catchment areas and farming areas. They are found not only on the main streams, but on all perennial laterals or tributaries. Usually each lateral or tributary forms a natural district by itself. But the great rivers flow on across the plains and down the great valleys, and their trunks must be divided into districts, each one of which presents an independent system of weeks. These I call river trunk districts. Then in the arid lands there are many streams which do not flow into great rivers and ultimately to the sea, their waters being lost in the sands or emptying into salt lakes. These I call lost stream districts. All three classes of districts are illustrated in the Arkansas basin, as I presented the subject to you at the last meeting and all of these classes are represented in the Rio Grande region, the map of which is before you.
In considering this subject and planning the work of the irrigation survey it has been found that a natural district or hydrographic basin must be considered as a unit in which all the problems are interrelated. In order to report upon a district and recommend a plan of works we must know for such district how much water will be supplied for irrigation, where the diverting damn sites, reservoir sites, and canal sites are situated, and where the lands to be irrigated lie. And it has been found, after a careful examination and from the best data we have on hand, that there will be about one hundred and fifty such districts in the arid region, and that if the survey is carried out it will need a separate report on each.
I have therefore found it necessary, for the administration of the Survey, to consider these hydrographic basins, and have been studying them for some time, in fact for years before the survey was organized, for I early recognized that ultimately these natural features would present conditions which would control the engineering problems of irrigation and which would ultimately control the institutional or legal problems. The study which I have made in this direction can not of course be considered final. An actual survey on the ground is necessary to define the limits of each basin, and a very careful survey is especially necessary to define the limits of the trunk districts. The headwater districts, or those of the first class, and the lost stream districts, or those of the third class, are quite easily discovered; but the districts of the second class require very careful study for their determination. The meaning of this will more fully appear from the illustrations which I am able to present to you to day in considering the Rio Grande Valley.
First, we have the Saguache River, a river with tributaries—a number of beautiful creeks. The river flows into a sink, and the drainage is lost in the sands. Now, the utilization of that water affects that valley only. It is independent of all the other regions of the country.
The CHAIRMAN. Do you not think there is a possibility of its finding an outlet into the channel of the Rio Grande below at some distant point?
Maj. POWELL. Not to any amount. The region of country at the sink is one of sand and the water sinks in these sands and is evaporated. It is only on very rare occasions—many years apart—that there will he a great flood which will cause it to overflow and open a channel to the Rio Grande. In ordinary years all the water which is used must be in the valley here [indicating], hence it is an independent basin. This is what I call a district of the third class—a lost river district. It will be noticed that in this district the people who engage in agriculture here can not possibly have any conflict about water rights with the people of any other district. They may use all of this element which they can catch and spread it upon their lands, and nothing will be cut off from any other district; nor can they obtain water from any other district to put upon their lands. And they are interested not only in the water, they are interested in the forests about the fountains whence their waters come, and they are the people who should be interested in the grasses which grow in the valleys and on the hills and mountain slopes.
The Saguache district, therefore, is clearly defined in nature. Its boundary is marked everywhere by the parting of the waters.
Passing over to the Rio Grande proper we have the San Luis district, which is also a headwater district. The San Luis Park is a beautiful tract of land, and high mountains stand around it and gather great quantities of water. This is a region lately redeemed for agriculture, but already all the flow of critical years with extreme dry seasons is used in agriculture, and the companies that are specially interested in these water rights are preparing to store and use all its waters which flow throughout the season. It may be possible that they can use all, and that the area of good land to be cultivated will be sufficient. We do not yet know the amount of water that flows in the streams, nor do we know the amount of good available land. Be this as it may, we are able to state that this great district is a unit, and that it must be considered as such in planning the proper system of irrigation works, and that its people as a body will be interested in the management of its waters, its forests, and its pastures. And they are the only people to be interested, except to this extent, that if the waters are not used here they will flow into trunk districts below to be used there. If the people of the districts below, in New Mexico, could lay an embargo upon irrigation in the San Luis Valley, larger areas in New Mexico could be cultivated, but time loss of water on the way would be such that they would not equal in area of lands that could he irrigated in Colorado. It is therefore manifestly to the advantage of the agricultural interests of the country that the people of Colorado who live in the San Luis Valley should be permitted to develop their agriculture to the utmost and use all the waters that they can put upon good agricultural lands.
The Rio Grande, in crossing the line between Colorado and New Mexico, enters a canyon and flows for about 50 miles through the gorge, and its waters can not be taken out along this stretch. This canyon ends where Taos River, coming from the east, joins the Rio Grande. The Taos is a beautiful stream, and all of its waters can be used in its own valley—all that run during the season of irrigation, and all that can be stored, so that the waters of the Taos may ultimately be cut off from the Rio Grande.
The region of country on either side of the canyon of which I have made mention—Embudo Canyon—has lava fields and is not agricultural; but some fair timber grows there and much water comes down into the canyon, so that when the river emerges into the valley at the foot of Embudo Canyon it is a fine stream, and must always be so whatever water is taken out in Colorado above. Some 40 or 50 miles below the river enters another canyon. Between these two canyons lies the valley of San Ildefonso, into which come some small creeks from the east, and the water of the Rio Grande can be taken out at the foot of Embudo Canyon and spread over the San Ildefonso Valley and make here a river trunk district of the second class. This is a district also well defined in nature. Its catchment area is lava fields above and mountains on every hand, and its irrigable or farming area is the low valley stretching hack from the Rio Grande on either side.
Near the foot of San Ildefonso the Chama enters from the west. The Chama is a large river for that country, and its tributaries drain great mountains, and there are many beautiful valleys scattered about through the region. The lower portion of the Chama runs through a sand plain, and these sands are volcanic ashes which drift and blow into the river and fill it with sediment. The Rio Grande above time mouth of the Chama is a clear, beautiful river, but at time mouth of the Chama it is transformed by the mud of the Chama itself. It then becomes a river of mud and continues such to the Gulf, as it takes up sands along its way. The Chama basin is another natural basin, having timber lands, pasturage lands, and agricultural lands.
At the foot of San Ildefonso Valley the Rio Grande enters White Rock Canyon and continues its course through a deep gorge for 40 or 50 miles. Along this course its waters can not be used for irrigation. The canyon walls are hundreds of feet, and in some places more than a thousand feet, above the waters. But the high volcanic plateau on the east furnishes a notable amount of water to this stream, and on the west there is a group of great volcanoes from which many beautiful streams flow, so that if all the water should be cut off at the head of White Rock Canyon there would still come into the Rio Grande, through the course of this gorge, a large body of water to be used below—water which can not be used elsewhere, as none of the streams above on either side of the canyon have agricultural lands along their courses. But they have great forests. Here some of the finest forests of New Mexico are found. This is the great catchment area for the valley below White Rock Canyon.
Some flood waters will always come down the Rio Grande from San Ildefonso Valley, however thoroughly the country may be utilized, and additional water will be caught in the canyon itself, and so the valley below will have a good supply. White Rock Canyon empties below into a valley which I shall call the Albuquerque Valley. In it lies Bernalillo, Albuquerque, Los Lunas, Socorro, and other towns. Now, all the water that comes out of White Rock Canyon can be used in the Albuquerque Valley, as it may be diverted below the White Rock Canyon and carried out and stored on the flanks of the valley. There is now much agriculture in this valley, and some of it is very ancient. Including the catchment area about White Rock Canyon and the hills and mountains on either side, and the valley where agriculture can be carried on, we have another natural district or hydrographic basin a district of the second class, or stream trunk district. Now, it will be seen that all the water to be used in this great valley comes from the mouth of White Rock Canyon. Whoever has control of that point—owns that dam site and has the right to take the water out of its natural channel and carry it into canals—has command of all the agriculture of that great district.
I wish to explain further that the people who have settled here have taken out the waters of the Rio Grande and utilized them during the season of irrigation, but they have not yet resorted to storage, and the waters which they use are used to very poor advantage. The flood plain, or strip of country next to the river, which is sometimes overflowed, is broad and sandy; the river itself is shallow and is a river of mud, and it is very wide, so it flows into these sands and is evaporated to a very large extent and thus lost to agriculture. Then the people have constructed low line ditches near to the Rio Grande, and take out the water by a system which is exceedingly wasteful and which is destroyed more or less with every flood. Ultimately they will find it to their advantage to take the water higher up, near the mouth of White Rock Canyon, and carry it out by high line canals, and store the surplus in the lateral valleys. By this means the area of agriculture in the valley can be increased five or ten fold.
Mr. LANHAM. Suppose this dam is constructed that you speak of here-
Director POWELL. At the mouth of White Rock Canyon?
Mr. LANHAM. Yes, sir. What effect would that have upon the supply of water below, that point of the stream?
Director POWELL. They could take out all the water for canals below by constructing a dam at White Rock Canyon. It is possible to take all the water of the Rio Grande there during the season of irrigation. It is also possible to take out all the water there during the non irrigating season. If the water for the non irrigating season is to be stored, you are compelled to take it out there. You can not take it out by the present ditches, for they do not lie on high enough ground; but if a canal is constructed from the mouth of White Rock Canyon, and a diverting dam built there, and lakes made—there are good places—all the water can be used in the valley. So, not only is it necessary to take the water out at that one point and utilize the entire flow during the season of irrigation, but it is also necessary to take it out at that point in order to store the water which now runs to waste. So that if the water is taken out at this one point, all together, the area of irrigation will be multiplied ten times. But that can not be done without considering the rights of the people who now use some of the water by improvident and obstructive dams:
Mr. LANHAM. If you store the water above here by means of this dam you speak of, what is going to be the effect upon the flow of the stream say 100 or 150 miles below?
Director POWELL. I suppose that if the water was wholly taken out here at this point, the water which could be utilized at El Paso would be very small, provided no water is stored and only the water running during the irrigating season is used. If all the water should he taken out here and stored, it would cut off more than two-thirds of the flow at El Paso; but in doing that you would irrigate a million or two acres of land above here, and if you allowed it to flow down there it would irrigate 40.000 or 60.000 acres of land only, as it is wasted on the way down by evaporation in the sands.
Mr. HERBERT. If all the water was stored at that point you have indicated above here, and if utilized, would it be sufficient to irrigate all the lands that could be rendered arable along the Albuquerque Valley?
Director POWELL. No, sir.
Mr. HERBERT. Then there is no water supply here that can he used to irrigate the whole valley?
Director POWELL. No, sir; there is not enough water here, and I doubt if half the land can be irrigated.
Mr. HERBERT. This is a valley extending from Bernalillo down to or below Socorro?
Director POWELL. From White Rock Canyon past Albuquerque.
Mr. HERBERT. Then it would take all the water that would otherwise have been stored by this dam at El Paso?
Director POWELL. Not all the water, because there are some feeders down below.
Mr. HERBERT. If the water along all these feeders of the Rio Grande was used as soon as it could be utilized to advantage at points, it would really dry up the Rio Grande down to El Paso?
Director POWELL. For all practical purposes for irrigation. It is possible to cut off all of the water of the Rio Grande above El Paso which can be utilized for irrigation. It is possible to cut it all off at one place or another.
Mr. HERBERT. And use all to advantage above?
Director POWELL. And use all to advantage above.
The CHAIRMAN, Storm water and all?
Director POWELL. No, sir; only the stream flow of the Rio Grande.
Mr. LANHAM. What do you say about the torrential flow there?
Director POWELL. Let me explain that. Irrigation has a peculiar limit that must be always understood. The amount of water falling in the valley of the Rio Grande annually from year to year varies. One year it will be from 8 to 10 inches, taking the whole country, mountains and all. Another year in the valley of the Rio Grande it may amount to 20 inches. Years of smallest rainfall limit the amount of agriculture, unless the water be stored from one year to another, for if you develop irrigation beyond the minimum year and do not store for the critical year, you will have some years when the agriculture will be disastrous, while other years it will be successful. When the disaster comes it is absolute; the fields dry up. When the disasters are absolute, or when the people can not irrigate their lands for one or two entire seasons, that agricultural community is destroyed. They not only lose all of the crops of that year, but they lose all of their vines and all of their fruit trees. One or two dry seasons coming together in this manner are so disastrous that the people can not live on their lands; they are compelled to go away. Hence the irrigation is limited by the dry seasons. If, then, all the water is used in one region above to its utmost capacity of the dry season, that destroys the region below, for in the dry season there is no storm water below.
Off to the east, here as you see on the map, is the Santa Fe creek, on which the city of Santa Fe is situated. It also constitutes a distinct basin with irrigable lands, timber lands, and pasturage lands, and all its waters can be caught and used in the Santa Fe Valley, so that no considerable amount will ultimately flow from the Santa Fe Creek into the Rio Grande.
On the west we have the Jemez River, where another natural district of the first class is found. The Jemez River drains the Tewan Mountains and plateau. The catchment area is well wooded. Fine forests are found and great mountain meadows are seen, but the land above is cold and is not valuable for agriculture, except for pasturage, and perhaps a little hay may be cut with advantage. The many streams which head in the Tewan Mountains and plateau find their way into deep canyons. On leaving the mountains, near Jemez Pueblo, the whole body of the stream can be taken out and put on the mesa above Albuquerque or west of Albuquerque and Bernalillo. It is another natural hydrographic basin of the first class.
Below Albuquerque we have the Rio Puerco. All of its waters can be used in the upper portion of its valley, and there is much more land than the water will serve.
Very little water ever runs into the Rio Grande from the Puerco, and that comes only at flood time. It is a hydrographic district of the third class, with irrigable. timber, and pasturage lands and with many fine sites for reservoirs.
Where the Albuquerque district should end and the next district, embracing the Mesilla Valley and the El Paso Valley, should begin, I am not able to state, but from such information as I have been able to collect I believe that below Socorro a new natural division can be made.
Mr. HERBERT. Could I interrupt you to ask how much of that territory is private property—say from the source of the Rio Grande to its mouth?
Director POWELL. It is impossible for me to give an answer.
Mr. HERBERT. Well, above El Paso?
Director POWELL. The circumstances are peculiar in New Mexico. There are old Spanish claims of millions of acres. The claims that have been actually confirmed are few in number. The unconfirmed claims are very great in the aggregate. The amount which has been taken up by homestead and preemption act and other laws for disposing of the public domain is not very great.
Mr. HERBERT. Are there any railroad grants crossing the Rio Grande?
Director POWELL. There are grants along the Atlantic and Pacific, but I believe they have not been confirmed.
Mr. HERBERT. Has the Texas Pacific any grants crossing there?
Mr. LANHAM. That is lower down.
Mr. HERBERT. Has the Denver and Rio Grande any?
Director POWELL. I believe not. In the main the most of the land grants in all the southern half of the United States include but small amounts of irrigable land. The conditions for running the best railroad lines controlled them, and they kept out of regions of country which are more broken and furnish water in abundance. That is true of the Texas and Pacific or Southern Pacific and the Atlantic and Pacific and of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific. They had little idea at the time that these irrigable lands would be valuable, and they left them to one side; but they embrace irrigable lands sometimes. I have the grants platted on a map at my office, and could bring the map to the committee if so desired.
Mr. HERBERT. We would he glad to have you append it to your testimony.
Director POWELL. Very well.
Let us go on to consider the region of the Rio Grande below, from Socorro to a point on the river 30 or 40 miles below El Paso. Here there are two valleys, Mesilla Valley above El Paso and the valley below, a part of which is in the Republic of Mexico and a part in Texas. Now, it is possible to cut off from these two valleys all of the waters which flow during the season of irrigation in critical years and destroy all the agriculture therein unless the waters of the nonirrigation seasons are stored. During the nonirrigating season large bodies of water come into the Rio Grande from the mountains on either side. There are high mountains to the west and high mountains to the east, but there are few perennial streams and they are only small creeks. The principal body of the water comes in as storm water. But the area is pretty large and its waters can be stored immediately above El Paso and at the head and along the flanks of the Mesilla Valley. At the Point of Rocks, at the head of Mesilla Valley, all of the waters of the Rio Grande can be captured again and be taken out into the Mesilla Valley and used once more. The waters of the nonirrigating season can be stored on the flanks of the valley, and there is more land than all the waters will serve. Still there is a mountain catchment area on either side of the Mesilla Valley the waters of which will flow through the valley at El Paso at flood times, and these waters can be stored to be used in the valley below in Texas and Old Mexico. But I do not think there is enough of these waters to support all the agriculture now developed if the waters of the Rio Grande are all taken out at the Point of Rocks.
To maintain the irrigation now developed in the El Paso and Mesilla Valleys some division of the waters must be here made. The catch from Socorro down, coming from the mountains on either side, and the surplus which may come down in great floods from the Rio Grande above, must be divided between the Mesilla Valley and the El Paso Valley to maintain the agriculture already established and to give some development to the same. Just how this can be done to advantage is not known; the topographic survey has not proceeded far enough. We know where time waters can be stored for the El Paso Valley, and I have already explained that to the committee some days ago. We can create a great reservoir with reasonable economy immediately above El Paso; we can also create a reservoir or series of reservoirs in the Mesilla Valley; but how much water can be caught and held in these reservoirs we do not know, and can not know until the topographic survey is completed, for on that we depend to determine the water supply. It is safe to say, however, that the reservoir at El Paso may be constructed, and I incline to think that the rights to the present irrigation in the Mesilla Valley may be maintained, and the rights in the El Paso Valley maintained, and that irrigation in both districts may be increased, but to what extent and to what size these reservoirs should be constructed is yet unknown. It will require another year’s survey to determine these facts. This, however, is certain, that there can be no development of irrigation in these valleys through the use of the waters of the irrigating season only; in fact the present agriculture can not be maintained unless the waters are stored.
The irrigation already developed in Colorado and the upper valleys of New Mexico is destroying the agriculture here. Two more years of development will cut it all off when dry seasons come. The only hope for these valleys is through storage, and how the entire problem is to be solved by storage is not yet known. Nor can it be done without some interference on the part of the United States. If the General Government does not step in and by definite legislation assign specific waters to El Paso and the Mesilla, the El Paso Valley will surely be destroyed, and the Mesilla Valley can be almost ruined by the people of the Albuquerque Valley. What is needed is the construction of storage reservoirs and their protection by the assignment of specific catchment areas to those reservoirs. The Government must say that a certain catchment area can be used for the Mesilla Valley and that the remaining catchment area must be used for the Albuquerque Valley. A State, a Territory, and a foreign country are involved, and they can not settle the problem for themselves. There is only one way to protect thus ancient irrigation in the El Paso and Mesilla Valleys and their right to use time water of the irrigating season and to proceed as they have heretofore done without storage, and that is to destroy all irrigation in Colorado and all of the lately developed irrigation in the valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico above, and to prohibit forever the use of the waters there: and this would mean that to maintain 75,000 to 100,000 acres of agriculture several million acres of development must be stopped. Of course, this can not be done: they must resort to storage, and somehow storage rights must be fixed and maintained.
Mr. LANHAM. What is your solution of the question? It seems to me a man who lives at the source of a river may be in good condition, although a comparatively new country, and the man who lives below hum, although his ancestors may have lived there for a hundred years, is deprived of irrigation. What is the solution of that question?
Maj. POWELL. Senator Reagan has introduced a bill which I think, is a solution of it.
Mr. LANHAM. Will you allow me to draw your attention for a moment to the lower Rio Grande? Here in the El Paso Valley are Mexicans and Americans. We have Mexican citizens on the American side of the river also. These people have been practicing agriculture for about two centuries.
Maj. POWELL. Yes, sir.
Mr. LANHAM. These communities above are comparatively recent. Now, what is your idea, to allow the communities above to cut off and destroy all the supply of water to the exclusion of the people below?
Maj. POWELL. I think their rights must be maintained. There are two considerations of primary importance in the matter. The first is to protect the rights of the people who have the vested rights; second, to prevent new vested rights from becoming practically an impediment in the development of the country.
The CHAIRMAN. Let me suggest here that your system of damming and retaining waters at different points on these streams is not unlike the system adopted to improve navigation on the principle of slack water navigation. It economizes water where it can be easily utilized.
Maj. POWELL. There is this difference in it, which is a radical difference. When water is taken out for the purpose of slack water navigation or for powers, the water is returned to the channel, but in the case of irrigation it is largely used.
The CHAIRMAN. That is the same rule in regard to irrigation. They take it out and devote it to irrigation purposes and return it, so it is left in the channel.
Maj. POWELL. But the greater part is never returned.
The CHAIRMAN. It is evaporated.
Maj. POWELL. It is evaporated to the heavens. It would be manifestly bad policy if by some process, in order to protect 50.000 acres at Albuquerque, we had to stop the irrigation of several million acres of land above.
Mr. LANHAM. What right has anybody to take the entire water of a river and divert it from the people below? Suppose I live 10 miles above my neighbor on a river, would it be right to take the whole body of that stream from my neighbor?
Maj. POWELL. No, I think not. I think if rights have been established in that valley they must be maintained.
Mr. LANHAM. Is it not a fact that the rights of the people in the Rio Grande Valley, from Santa Fe down to the mouth of it, are older than any rights above?
Maj. POWELL. Altogether. But the new rights are in other States, and they have no remedy at present. If the people below are to be destroyed they ought to be bought out. But provision can be made for those below to secure the surplus of water which is not used now during the season of irrigation. It would be possible to secure the rights to 50,000 acres in El Paso Valley and destroy 4,000,000 acres above. All that can be avoided by the use of the water stored, the surplus of the storm waters.
The CHAIRMAN. Your idea is, then, that the Government of the United States can fairly and legally provide for catching the water from the water sheds and making use of it—putting it in a way in which it can be economically used?
Maj. POWELL. I would like to go over the Rio Grande, because I believe I could make it clearer than to go all over the United States. I suppose I had better go over that after it is written out by the stenographer.
Mr. LANHAM. I wish you would go over, in your revision, this problem in reference to the people of the Rio Grande. I feel a very deep and profound interest in it. That valley would all be ruined under the conditions you name.
Maj. POWELL. Suppose, Mr. Chairman, not to weary you with an extended talk, that I be allowed to insert eight or ten pages about the water of the Rio Grande and how it can be used and all rights protected.
The CHAIRMAN. I wish you would do that.
Maj. POWELL. I can do that without an interminable talk to you, gentlemen. I am afraid that I have wearied you already.
Mr. HERBERT. You are not wearying me, for I feel a very great interest in it.
The MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE. And we are deeply interested in it.
Maj. POWELL. The area drained by the Rio Grande above El Paso is a little more than 23,500,000 acres, or about 37,000 square miles. But much of the region is mountainous. Even if there was water enough it would not be possible to irrigate one half of the land. Of the arable lands only a portion is irrigable, from the fact that there is not water to supply them all. It maybe that when all the waters of the Rio Grande are used in Colorado and New Mexico, and in the valley of El Paso, in Texas and the Republic of Mexico, from three to four million acres can be cultivated: but this can he done only by using all of the waters and storing all those that now run to waste. And then the irrigable lands must be properly selected, so that the waters can be used to the best advantage. That none may be wasted they must be stored where there is the least evaporation, and the lands must be selected near where they are stored, and the waters must not be permitted to run through sand valleys, where they are evaporated. They must be taken out from the streams and stored to the best advantage and used without waste. Then it may be possible to irrigate from three to four million acres. Of course the estimate is rough, because the surveys have not been perfected,— and it may be too great; I do not think it is too small. Now, the problem which you ask me to solve is this: How can these waters be used to the best advantage? How can they be divided among the best lands, and how can the rights of the present irrigators be maintained? I shall try to answer these questions and certain collateral problems that are involved, and to do so shall go over the ground again district by district.
Commencing, then, at the head of the Rio Grande Valley, we first meet with the Saguache. This river sinks in the sands; except in very great floods it discharges no water into the Rio Grande. Its valley, therefore, is an independent district: one of the third class. All that can be done in the Saguache district is to select the best irrigable lands and provide that the waters shall not be used where they will be largely wasted.
Then we have a district drained by the headwaters of the Rio Grande—a district of the first class. All or nearly all of its waters can be used within the district on good lands, but the lands must be selected or the waters will he wasted. The district lies wholly within the State of Colorado.
The next district below on the river is the San Ildefonso. This is a trunk district, and thus belongs to the second class. For 60 miles down below the Colorado line the river can not be taken out, as it runs in a canyon. The lands on either side are of little value and should be used only for pasturage and forest purposes. This upper portion of the San Ildefonso Valley is naturally the catchment area for the waters to be used in the valley below the mouth of Embudo Canyon. There are some creeks that come into this valley from the mountains on the east. This district, therefore, has a great catchment area which will supply a large quantity of water which should be dedicated to the use of the farmers of the valley below. But they should understand that they can not maintain rights to use water coming from the San Luis district; that they should develop their agriculture wholly from the supply of their own catchment area. The best lands lie on either side of the river in the valley below Embudo Canyon and along sections of the eastern tributaries. These lands should be selected in sufficient amount to use all the waters of the district, and all other lands should be deprived of the right to use water for irrigation; then there could be no controversy about water rights in the district. Settlers could not go upon the nonirrigable lands and illegally take the water, farming could be developed in the valley to the greatest extent and on the best lands. and the farmers would be secure from depredations by other farmers going above them and “pirating” the water, to use a term common in the western country.
Midway in this district and at the head of the irrigable lands the Taos joins the Rio Grande. It is a fine stream, and its drainage basin constitutes a district of the first class. All the waters of the Taos can be used in its own valley, and it should he established that the people of that district have a right to use all of those waters, and that the people in the San Ildefonso Valley below can never maintain the right to have those waters flow down to their valley; that the Taos Valley is not a part of the catchment area of the San Ildefonso Valley.
In the lower part of the San Ildefonso Valley the Chama joins the Rio Grande. The basin drained by this river constitutes a district of the first class. All its waters can be used at home, and it should be established that the people have the right to use them there, and that no right can be maintained to the use of its waters outside the district.
At the foot of the San Ildefonso Valley the Rio Grande again traverses a deep canyon for a distance of 50 miles. Along this course it receives many important tributaries that drain high mountains, and on these irrigation can not be practiced to any advantage. It is a pasturage and timber region, and is a catchment area for a district below. The canyon is known as White Rock Canyon. At its mouth the waters can be taken out again and spread over a large valley. In this valley there are already a number of considerable towns. Albuquerque is the principal city, and we will call it the Albuquerque Valley, and the district including the valley and the catchment area above, the Albuquerque district. It is of course a trunk district, and hence belongs to the second class. Now, it should be established that the people of the Albuquerque district can not maintain rights to use water not caught within their district; that all of the volume of the Rio Grande in the San Ildefonso above belongs to the people of that valley ; that the only waters which the Albuquerque farmers can use and permanently maintain rights to are those falling from the heavens over their district.
The irrigable lands of the Albuquerque district are in excess of the water supply. The nearer to the mouth of the White Rock Canyon they can be used, the greater is the area that can be irrigated. Perhaps this district should terminate at Socorro. Perhaps it should go down to San Marcial. A careful topographic and hydrographic survey is necessary to determine this boundary. The district would at any rate be more than 150 miles in length, and it is a long sand basin. If the irrigable land should be selected in the southern end of the district much of the water would be lost on its way; if selected in the northern end of the district this water could be saved. The Rio Grande will irrigate two acres in the northern end of the valley for every acre that call be irrigated in the southern end of the valley. But there are lands already irrigated in the southern end of the valley, and their rights should be maintained—at least, until they are justly extinguished. Doubtless this will ultimately be done. It is of prime importance that no more rights be established in the southern region of the district.
To the east of the White Rock Canyon lies Santa Fe Creek. It is a beautiful stream of water, and the region which it drains forms a district of the first class. Here the city of Santa Fe is situate, and the waters of the great creek are all used in irrigation during the summer months. An attempt has been made to store water, but it has proved a failure. The site of the reservoir was among hills that had been denuded of their forests and grasses, and the reservoir was destroyed by the enormous and rapid accumulation of debris. Other and better reservoir sites can be found where the forests are not yet destroyed. The farmers of the district should have control of these forests, or they can not greatly increase the area of irrigation in the district. The lands to be irrigated lie on a plateau in the neighborhood of the city, and are already of great value. The principal catchment area is in high mountains where there are extensive forest lands, and where there should be pasturage lands, but these are largely destroyed by overfeeding. The pasturage and timber lands greatly need protection in the interests of agriculture below.
Just above Bernalillo the Jemez joins the Rio Grande, and here we have another district of the first class. The Jemez now discharges a part of its waters into, the sand, for there is a long stretch of dunes extending from Zia down to the Rio Grande. Still. the river has a volume sufficient to carry part of its waters over these sands and discharge them into the Rio Grande. The catchment area is the Tewan Mountains and the Tewan Plateau, a lofty region covered with beautiful forests and rich grass lands yet uninjured by fire or overfeeding. The mountain meadows are abundant and beautiful, and the forests are among the best in New Mexico. The lands to be cultivated by this river lie on the mesa west of Bernalillo and Albuquerque. The waters can be stored in the mountain meadows and elsewhere very cheaply, but it will be expensive to take the water across the sand dunes onto the irrigable lands of the mesa. The mesa itself and the catchment area both should constitute one district. The waters of the mountains should be attached to the lands of the mesa, and the right to use the waters should permanently inhere there. The settlers in the valley of the Rio Grande should not be able to acquire rights to the waters, for in so doing they would be chiefly wasted. The catchment area is a volcanic district, and volcanic cinders and ashes abound; and these conditions make it necessary to carefully protect the lands, otherwise they will silt the streams and fill the reservoirs. The forest area is, therefore, chiefly valuable as a catchment area, and should never be denuded of its trees.
The next stream is the Puerco, which comes in below from the west. It heads in the Nacimiento Mountains, the western slope of the Tewan group. Along this range of mountains there are several beautiful streams that flow into a distant valley into the dry channel of the Puerco, for it here flows through sands, and passes only in extreme floods into the Rio Grande. Practically, it is a district of the third class. Its waters have been used in irrigation in the settlements near the mountains, which are to some extent well situated for such purposes. But farming is chiefly carried on in the valley of the Puerco, and in that region can not be permanently maintained to advantage. The rights to irrigate so far from time mountains must be permanently extinguished if the Puerco is to be used to the best advantage. The catchment area is the slope of a great mountain range covered with fine forests, and there are many good reservoir sites. The pasturage is also extensive, but the pasturage and time forests must be protected to save the agriculture. The irrigable lands of the Puerco should be carefully selected, and no other lands should be cultivated. The reservoirs must be selected in the valleys and on the slopes of the mountains, where they will not be subject to destruction by silting if the forests and grasses are not carefully preserved.
From Socorro southward to El Paso is a distance of about 200 miles by the river. There is already irrigation in the Mesilla Valley above El Paso, and there is also much farming below El Paso in Texas and the Republic of Mexico. Through much of the way from Socorro to the head of the Mesilla Valley the river canyons again, and there is a natural catchment area for the country below. This upper region should be declared the catchment area for the Mesilla Valley. At the mouth of this canyon there is a place called Point of Rocks, near Fort Selden. Now, it is possible to take out all the waters of the Rio Grande derived from the catchment area just described at this point, and there is land enough in the Mesilla Valley to use it. But this would cut off all the water from the El Paso Valley below. There is a short pass or gorge just above El Paso through which the Rio Grande runs. This divides El Paso Valley from Mesilla Valley. To maintain the rights of present irrigators in Mesilla Valley and El Paso Valley alike, it becomes necessary to unite these two valleys into one district and to divide the waters between them. There is water enough coming from the catchment area below Socorro to maintain all the agriculture yet developed and to increase it somewhat—how much we do not know, as the survey is unfinished. Nor do we know how to divide the waters. The El Paso Valley is partly in Texas and partly in the Republic of Mexico. The Mesilla Valley is in New Mexico. It is thus that the waters of the Rio Grande in this district must be divided between three peoples, and unless some authority steps in and makes this division the irrigators of the Mesilla Valley can take all the waters from Texas and old Mexico and destroy all the farming below. The survey has developed the fact that we can store water with reasonable economy and in sufficient amount immediately above El Paso, at the gorge of which I have spoken, to supply the wants of all the farming in the valley below in both countries, and from the same reservoir an additional area can be served, but there is no wisdom in constructing this reservoir unless steps are taken to provide a catchment area for it and to protect that catchment area from spoliation.
It is thus that the El Paso problem can not be solved by the construction of a dam at El Paso and the establishment of a reservoir to hold water for the valley below. A catchment area must also be provided, and in providing this the rights in the Mesilla Valley must be maintained. It is true that if the dam is constructed at El Paso now, flood waters in sufficient quantities will come down to serve present wants, but these flood waters can be caught above, and ultimately will be, and it will be wise to pay heed to the ultimate conditions. How many years ere this will be I do not know; it will depend upon the rate of development, an uncertain factor. But schemes have been projected and begun in the Rio Grande Valley within the last eighteen months to take one half of the ultimate supply of water. Most of these schemes have been projected without any proper consideration of the conditions to be met in order to utilize the greatest amount of land. If they are completed and rights finally established on the ground selected, then one half of the value of the Rio Grande Valley is forever destroyed. The rights and interests thus established will be so wasteful of water that the Rio Grande will sustain only one half of its possible population. This statement is very conservative. It may be and it is even probable that the water will he able to do only one third of its duty. And the Rio Grande is a fair illustration of the facts and conditions pertaining to every great river in the arid lands.
This, then, is needed in the Rio Grande Valley, that its agriculture may develop normally and that all rights established may be maintained: First, it should be divided into irrigation districts, as I have described. In each district the catchment area and the irrigable lands should be determined and defined. To define the irrigable lands, it is necessary to measure the waters, in order to discover how much land can be used. Then the irrigable lands should be declared such, and the law should prevent any other lands being irrigated. Then the catchment areas should be defined, and settlement on the catchment areas for agricultural purposes should be prohibited, and the people farming on the irrigable lands should have a right to control the catchment areas and to protect and use the forests and grasses. Then, in each district the storage basins should be segregated and reserved from sale and occupation, so that they may not fall into the hands of speculators whose rights would have to be purchased before the waters were stored; but the people who live in the district as a body politic and corporate should have a right to control these storage basins for the common use. The dam sites and the canal sites ought in like manner to be designated and preserved from sale to individuals and held for the common use of the people. By this plan the irrigable lands would be held to severalty by the people; the sites for reservoirs, canals, and dams, and the catchment areas would be held in common in each district. But in the El Paso district, in which the catchment area is in New Mexico, and a part of the irrigable lands in the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico and a part in the El Paso Valley of Texas and old Mexico, some means must be provided to divide the waters. It is an interstate and an international problem; but the rights of all the people now cultivating the soil should be maintained.
To define the districts a topographic survey is necessary: to define catchment areas, and irrigable areas, and to select the reservoir sites, canal sites and dam sites, a topographic survey is necessary; to divide the waters, a hydrographic survey is necessary, and a hydrographic survey is based upon and can be most economically made through the agency of a topographic survey. In selecting the lands in headwater districts, they should be taken in regions low enough to have a good agricultural climate. In the trunk districts the lands should be as near to the points where the waters are taken from the rivers by diverting dams as possible. that these lines maybe the shortest and that the least water may be wasted. The reservoir sites, other things being equal, should be selected on the highest lands, where the evaporation is least. As far as possible, reservoirs should be selected away from the channels of the principal streams, where they can be maintained at the least cost and where the danger of destruction is least. The principal lines of canal should all be designated in advance, in order that impedimentary and obstructive rights may not be established. These obstructive rights are of two classes: First, where a lateral, stream joins a main stream, the waters of the lateral should be taken to lands sufficiently high up its course to be out of the way of the development of irrigation on the principal stream. The principal stream, usually has a lower gradient, and its waters can not be taken to very high lands; and if the waters of the lateral stream occupy the low lands, the waters of the principal stream can not be used. This condition of affairs has arisen in many cases already in the development of irrigation in the West. The obstructions of the second class relate to low line canals taken out along the course of a stream which runs in a sand plain. If the canals are taken out here, the whole length of line is extravagantly great, and the loss of water is correspondingly great. All canal lines should be made as high as possible.
Such are the most important conditions which relate to the utilization of water for irrigation and to the development of agriculture in arid lands. They are all of great importance; no one can be neglected without doing serious injury to agricultural industries. If these things were done in advance of more dense settlement, and then the people permitted to control their affairs in their own way divide the waters among themselves in each district as they please, protect and utilize the forests in obedience to their own judgment corrected by experience as time goes on, use the pasturage for their flocks and herds and protect it from destruction that they may thus use it—the arid lands would furnish homes to prosperous, peaceful, and happy people.
At another time I shall have something to say about water rights.
Let us now pass westward, across the great Rocky Mountain divide, and we come to the Gila River, which flows westward into the Colorado. I place before you a map of the Gila River and its tributaries, together with a portion of the Colorado River and this small river known as Bill Williams’ Fork, which is a tributary to the Colorado. You will see that the Gila River heads in the Mogollon Range and the San Franciscan Mountains, and runs westward to the Colorado. Then it has a tributary on the north known as Salt River, and an important tributary of the Salt River is the Verde. The Gila, above the mouth of the Salt, constitutes a great hydrographic basin, with timber lands, pasturage lands, and irrigable lands, extending southward toward the Southern Pacific Railroad in this region [indicating on map]. southward and westward from Florence. There are good sites for storage reservoirs in the upper regions of the Gila and elsewhere throughout the catchment area. And upon this catchment area above, and the reservoirs which must be constructed there, and the canals which must head above and connect the river and the reservoirs with the irrigable lands, the farmers of the agricultural region must depend. They are also interested in the protection of the forests and their utilization, and have a common interest in the grass lands of the region drained by the Gila.
The Salt River and the Verde head in a great line of cliffs which extend across Arizona from the Colorado River to the San Francisco Mountains. The line of cliffs cut off the lowlands on the south and west from a great table land or plateau above, known as the Mogollon Mesa, or the Great Colorado plateau. On this plateau many high mountains or extinct volcanoes are found, and many small streams come down here to feed the Salt River and the Verde, and the two streams together constitute a great hydrographic basin, with timber lands, pasturage lands, and irrigable lands. The town of Phoenix is situated in the center of the irrigable district. The Upper Gila and the Salt River districts are of the first class, as they are headwater districts.
Below the junction of the two streams the Gila River gives rise to a trunk district. What water it has we do not yet know. A sufficient examination of the country has not yet been made to warrant predictions as to the possible extent of agriculture therein. On the north there are two streams which belong to the third class: The Agua Fria heads near Prescott and sinks before it reaches the Gila; but at flood tide a little water runs over. Then to the west we have the Hassayampa Creek, which also has a dry channel most of the year along its lower course. We have, for the present, thrown these streams into the Lower Gila, or trunk district, until we know more of their possibilities for agriculture.
North of this trunk district we have Bill Williams’ Fork and its tributaries. Little is yet known about the quantity of water which it will supply for irrigation. It is partly a mountainous region and partly a district of lowlands, and there are pasturage lands and timber lands.
The CHAIRMAN. You know the Indians, the Pimas and Maricopas, on their reservation to the south, and that they have a large area thoroughly ditched by their own labor?
Maj. POWELL. Yes; there is another irrigation district, and opportunities to store water. Southern Arizona does not appear on this map. We do not know how to divide it into districts, nor do we know how its waters are to be utilized. The streams are few and small. Artesian wells can be obtained in some places, but no great amount of agriculture can be developed thereby. The sand basins, from which waters must be pumped, are more extensive. In the main the people will have to depend upon the storage of storm waters.
Mr. LANHAM. I would like to bear you for a few moments on that proposition. I saw recently an account of a great destruction of life somewhere in Arizona.
Maj. POWELL. The construction of dams for all purposes, for power and for irrigation, is a very ancient art. If you go to the Book of Chronicles, you will find that they diverted rivers onto the lands. Dam construction is very old. In the provinces of India dams have been constructed by thousands and hundreds of thousands for irrigation purposes. Some have been destroyed and brought disaster, as at Johnstown in Pennsylvania last summer and at Hassayampa in Arizona a few days ago. In both these cases a glance at the map will show why these dams were destroyed. In the case of the Hassayampa dam it was the simplest thing imaginable. Now let me make that clear. The Hassayampa dam was planned for a dry wash. It was for the storage of storm waters. The area drained was 320,000 square miles. The Hassayampa is surrounded by three great mountains, rising a little more than 7.000 feet above the level of the sea. On one side is Mount Tritle, rising 71,500 feet. The mountains are not clad with forests. A few scattered trees grow, but in the main the mountains are naked, solid rock. Now, it is possible that one storm in these mountains may bring a fall of rain to the amount of 2 inches, or even more. If that stream receives 2 inches of rainfall, after a rain that has previously soaked the ground, almost the whole amount will he delivered into the wash below. I computed the matter a day or two ago, and I found that to protect that dam it was necessary to have a waste weir which would discharge 6 acre feet of water every second.
The CHAIRMAN. Equal to how many inches?
Maj. POWELL. I could not tell that without making a computation: but a great many inches. Now, a glance at the map reveals that condition. In constructing a dam for the storage of flood waters and storm waters, one of the fundamental propositions is that the degree of declivity must be known. That is to say, the dam must be related to the catchment area, and means must be provided by which all the water in the greatest possible storm can be controlled. Otherwise, when a great storm occurs, the works are liable to destruction. In the Hassayampa no provision was made for one of these great storms, and when it came it broke all before it.
Mr. HERBERT. But if it is stored—
Maj. POWELL. Now here is this dry wash, and an ignorant engineer believes the dam is safe from all the water that comes from a storm, for he has never seen it at flood time. It may be that once in ten or twenty years there comes a storm which becomes a vast flood, and then the damn goes. Of course, in planning these reservoirs we must provide for all conditions. It is idle to say that we can not plan against them; we have simply to collect the facts and provide against all contingencies. In looking over India, where this matter of damn construction has been going on for a long time, I find there are dams which have been used for more than a thousand years. There are some that have been breached and abandoned.
In planning reservoirs and all hydraulic works for irrigation, a hydrographic survey is necessary. It is a primary condition that we learn bow much water is to be controlled at any and all times. A hydrographic survey is based on a topographic survey, by which the catchment area is measured and the declivities determined. Then, the rainfall being known, in a general way that is, the mean annual rainfall, the maximum annual rainfall, and the maximum stormfall—we are able to determine how much water is to be controlled. In getting at this we also have to gauge the typical streams. But I propose to explain this matter more fully to the committee when I lay before it the operations of the survey for the past year. Of course, works can be constructed after guessing at the amount of water to be controlled; but this is dangerous to life and property. If the estimates of water are too great, works are made too expensive; if they are too small, the works will be destroyed. Sound work can not be done without a hydrographic survey, and this must he based on a topographic survey.
END
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