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 [Page 988]
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 [Page 989] 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,
[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 [Page 990] 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.
