Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913

Senate Doc. No. 846, 62d Cong., 2d sess.

Message from the President of the United States, transmitting a letter of the Secretary of the Interior submitting an appeal of the Board of Supervisors of Imperial County, California, for further appropriations and works for protection against the flood waters of the Colorado River.

[Referred to the Committee on Appropriations.]

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Interior inclosing an appeal from the board of supervisors of Imperial County, California, for further appropriations of money and further works for the protection of lands and property in the United States against the flood waters of the Colorado River.

In my message dated February 2, 1912, transmitting data of the work of the Interior Department, published as House Document No. 504, Sixty-second Congress, second session, there is contained a report of the engineer in charge of the work of protection done under the act of June 25, 1910, appropriating $1,000,000 for this purpose, and also a report of a special board convened by my direction to review this report and advise what further work should be done along the lower Colorado River for the protection of the interests of the United States. In this report of the special board, dated June 7, 1911, there will be found a recommendation that certain additional work should be at once executed, and an estimate of $1,000,000 as necessary for this work.

In my message I stated that I did not at that time make a definite recommendation, for the reason that the plan to be adopted for the betterment of conditions near the mouth of the Colorado River proves to be so dependent on a free and full agreement between the Government of Mexico and the Government of the United States as to joint expenditure and joint use that it is unwise to move until we can obtain some agreement with that Government which will enable us to submit to Congress a larger plan, better adapted to the exigencies presented than the one adopted. As stated in this message, the matter was being pressed upon the attention of the Mexican Government and favorable progress has been made in the negotiations. However, it is not probable that the negotiations with Mexico can be consummated before the adjournment of Congress, and it is therefore desirable to provide against a possible emergency which may arise after Congress has adjourned.

Since the report of the special board above referred to a part of the work proposed has been executed, and it is believed that the work will prove adequate for the protection of the lands in Imperial Valley against serious overflow during the present flood, which materially exceeds the average flood in volume, but as shown in the letter of the Secretary of the Interior the Colorado River since the date of the report of the special advisory board began and has continued to cave its banks, until the protecting levee on the Mexican side about 7 miles below the intake of the Imperial Canal is threatened, and apprehensions are aroused that the Colorado will again cut a deep channel into the Imperial Canal and flow again into Salton Sink with disastrous results to American lives and property.

I request that the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior be followed and that an appropriation of $1,250,000 be made to meet any emergencies that may arise for the construction of levees and revetments along the Colorado River and for the protection of property in the United States from damage by the flood waters of that river, and to be expended in whole or in part for the purposes stated and under the direction of the President of the United States.

Wm. H. Taft.

The White House, June 14, 1912.

[Inclosure.]

The Secretary of the Interior to the President.

Department of the Interior,
Washington, June 13, 1912.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of letter from the board of supervisors of Imperial County, Cal., relative to the securing of an appropriation in sufficient amount to safeguard the Imperial Valley from the further overflow of the lower Colorado River.

Your attention is respectfully invited to your message dated February 2, 1912 (H. Doc. No. 504, 62d Cong., 2d sess.), transmitting data of the work of the Interior Department, in which will be found a detailed report of all work done prior to that date under the special appropriation of $1,000,000 made by Congress on June 25, 1910, for the protection of lands and property in the Imperial Valley, Cal., against the flood waters of the Colorado River, and also the report of the special advisory board convened by your direction, which report, dated June 7, 1911, contains a full statement of the physical and related facts concerning the lower Colorado River and its floods and the recommendations of the board as follows:

We recommend that further work should be undertaken at once and in approximately the following order:

(a) The levees north of Volcano Lake should be raised, strengthened, and extended.

(b) The existing levees, along the west bank of the Colorado River to the Abejas should be repaired and protected.

For this purpose and to meet emergencies there should be immediately available the sum of at least $1,000,000.

This provides only for temporary maintenance of levees and does not include the systematic revetment of the river banks.

With the balance of the appropriation of $1,000,000 secured under the act of June 25, 1910, amounting to about $175,000, a part of this work (a and b) under the above recommendation has been completed since the date of your message of February 2, 1912. The levee north of Volcano Lake has been raised about 3½ feet, strengthened and riprapped over a distance of about 8 miles, and the levee along the west bank of the Colorado River north of the Abejas River has been repaired and protected against scour as far as may be done without gravel or stone covering by short spurs or tapoons. There remains still to be done the raising of the Volcano Lake levee about 3 feet additional and extending it over 10 miles to a junction with the line heretofore constructed by the California Development Co., and the further strengthening and protection against scour of the levee along the west bank of the Colorado River north of the Abejas, none of which work, however, is at this time considered so urgent as to constitute an emergency.

Since the report of the special advisory board, the necessity for revetting the banks has been emphasized because the Colorado River about mile 7 below the Imperial Canal intake has begun and continued caving its bank until the levee is seriously threatened, and if this caving continues there is danger that the river may make a deep connection with the Imperial Canal and again flow into Salton Sink, with disastrous results to the Imperial Valley. The situation there now is such that the river may possibly in one flood accomplish this result; on the other hand, the caving may cease and the danger be temporarily averted; but there will always be this danger as long as the Colorado River caves its banks in this vicinity, which danger can only be averted by fixing the river in its present channel by a strong revetment as recommended by the special advisory board in its report of June 7, 1911.

To revet the banks on either side of the river for 10 miles of its course, wherever caving is likely to cause damage, and to complete the work on the levees above referred to, there should be a fund at the disposition of the President of at least $1,250,000, $500,000 of which is estimated as necessary for raising, riprapping, and strengthening the levees already constructed and for closing the gap between the Volcano Lake and California Development Co.’s levees, and $750,000 for revetting the banks where necessary to prevent further caving on the United States and Mexican sides. This fund should be now held and applied only so far as may be needed from time to time to meet emergencies, but to be expended in full whenever negotiations now under way with Mexico may be so far perfected as to permit the work indicated herein to be done under proper international supervision, the work being, except part of the bank revetment, in the Republic of Mexico, but for the benefit of lands and property in the United States and to a quite small extent in Mexico.

Very respectfully,

Walter L. Fisher.

[Subinclosure.]

Board of Supervisors, Imperial County, Cal., to the Secretary of the Interior.

Dear Sir: In your communication of December 22, 1911, addressed to the President, you recommend that “at least $1,000,000 should be appropriated” by Congress “to meet the present emergencies” existing along the lower Colorado River. You are already fully aware of the serious danger confronting the Imperial and Coachella Valleys from this source, while the engineer’s reports which accompany your letter disclose the fact that conditions are so serious as to constitute this an emergency.

The conference board incorporated in its report of June 7, 1911 (H. Doc. No. 504, 62d Cong., 2d sess., p. 161), the recommendation “that further work should be undertaken at once and in the following order: (a) The levees north of Volcano Lake should be raised, strengthened, and extended; (b) the existing levees along the west bank of Colorado River to the Abejas should be repaired and protected.”

On page 160, caption 3 (ibid.), they further recommend that in addition steps be taken to “hold the river by adequate bank revetment practically on its present alignment.”

Gen. W. L. Marshall, consulting engineer for the Department of the Interior, concurs with these recommendations. On page 185, caption 8 (ibid.), he says:

To revet the banks in the most substantial way yet developed and as applied along our western rivers, as far as a breach directly into the Imperial Canal or Alamo River can take place, then to construct and riprap the levee north of Volcano Lake, is in my mind the best possible solution in so far as affects the interests of the United States.

As is pointed out by Gen. Marshall:

The greatest and most imminent danger to United States lands and property lies in a possible breach in the banks and levee on the west bank of the Colorado River in the first 8 miles below the Mexican-California boundary, thus admitting water directly into the Imperial Canal. (Ibid., p. 185, cap. 11.)

The serious cutting of the western bank at a point known as House 7 suggests the necessity for adopting some method, such as revetment, to stop bank erosion and preserve the alignment of the river at this point. This situation calls for immediate action, while the conference considers the proper raising and strengthening of the Volcano Lake embankment to be “an essential requisite as a protection of Imperial Valley against menace from the south, and should be constructed without delay” (Ibid., p. 160, cap. 4, b.) (Italics ours.)

Connected with the permanent control of the Colorado River are international questions which must be settled by an international board, as is pointed out by the conference. In view of the length of time which will probably elapse before these questions can be determined, it is manifestly inadvisable to defer for consideration, by such possible commission, the work above outlined, which all agree should be done immediately.

When the overflow occurs, as is certain to happen if steps to prevent are not taken—when it does come the Colorado will again send its waters into the Salton Sea. Owing to the great fall which the water will have and the peculiar character of the soil, the checking of the river will prove a most serious undertaking and would be accomplished only by the expenditure of millions, if at all. The floods of 1905–1907 are estimated to have cost between $5,000,000 and $7,000,000 in money expended to control the river and for the damage wrought. When this task was accomplished, in 1907, nine out of ten engineers are reported to have pronounced the undertaking impossible. If not checked, the river will fill the Salton Sink, compelling the abandonment of the Imperial and Coachella Valleys. Within this region there are now 30,000 inhabitants and property valued at $40,000,000 to $50,000,000.

Wherefore, on behalf of the people of Imperial Valley, we, their properly authorized representatives, do most respectfully request that you urge upon Congress the necessity of an appropriation, at the present session, of a sum sufficient to permit the following work being done:

1. The proper repairing and strengthening of the levees along the west bank of the Colorado River as far as the Abejas River.

2. The retention of the river, by adequate bank revetment, on its present alignment, and thus preventing a breach in the banks, admitting water directly into the Imperial Canal.

3. The raising, strengthening, and extension of the levee north of Volcano Lake and riprapping the same.

We have the honor to be, most respectfully, yours,

Board of Supervisors,
Imperial Comity, State of California.