paid by the United States, said firm is entitled to be paid out of such award said sum of $16,889.79, with legal interest thereon from April 11, 1897. And said William C. Bradbury, on behalf of said firm, prays that the United States will protect his interest and the interests of said firm in the premises, and will give to him and it the opportunity and right to intervene and establish the claim herein made if the same shall become necessary to the end that the amount due and owing said firm may be retained by the United States out of any award made, for the use of said firm. WILLIAM C. BRADBURY. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 31st day of March, A. D. 1923. [Seal.] SAMUEL RICHARD ROBERTSON, Notary Public in and for the City and County of Denver, State of Colorado. My commission expires February 24, 1925. The Director of the Reclamation Service to the Agent for the United States. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE, Hon. FRED K. NIELSEN, Agent of the United States, American and British Claims Arbitration, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: In accordance with your request I beg to submit the following notes bearing upon the engineering features involved in the Rio Grande claim. The dam proposed by the Rio Grande Irrigation & Land Co. was planned to raise the water surface about 100 feet, forming a reservoir with a capacity stated to be 11,036,722,000 cubic feet (253,368 acre-feet). This was the maximum development possible at this site, as the rocky promontory against which the southerly end of their dam was planned to abut reaches only to this elevation. Farther downstream the Reclamation Service has since constructed a dam on the site, one of the determining features of which is a favorable spillway location about 200 feet above the stream level, with hills reaching to a much higher elevation at either abutment. This dam creates a reservoir of 2,638,000 acre-feet capacity. The mean flow of the Rio Grande at San Marcial, near the upper end of the reservoir, based upon 27 years' records, is 1,200,000 acrefeet annually. This run-off, if totally conserved, would be sufficient for little more than 300,000 acres, and studies by our engineers show on account of the great evaporation losses and the recurrence of periods of several consecutive years of low run-off that even the Reclamation Service reservoir, with 10 times the capacity of the one proposed by the claimant, can safely be counted upon to care for less than 200,000 acres without danger of shortage in some years. Yet the company planned to rent water and sell water rights covering 530,000 acres from their reservoir. This proposition appears so preposterous on its face that it may be well to tabulate the figures from the prospectus. of the Memorial.) (See p. 59 Water rights, 300,000 acres, at £10 per acre, £3,000,000. Acres. 230, 000 300, 000 530, 000 The above cost estimates were prepared without exploration of the dam site, and upon the assumption, without any evidence whatever, that bedrock was to be found at or near the surface clear across the stream. As a matter of fact, a boring was subsequently made at this location which after passing through 3 feet of soft sandstone 15 feet below the surface passed through continuous sand and gravel to a depth of 72 feet, at which point soft shale was encountered, which, with fire clay and occasional traces of coal, continued to a total depth of 101.5 feet, where drilling was stopped. If a dam could have been built on such foundation at all, it would have been at a cost far in excess of that estimated. As stated above, it is out of the question to attempt to irrigate 530,000 acres of land from the Rio Grande, as planned by the claimant. Computations have been made, however, on the basis of supplying 200,000 acres of valley lands alone, with the following results: Had the claimant's reservoir been full at the beginning of the year 1895, it could have supplied 200,000 acres that year. It would have been empty from the middle of July until October of the following year, however, the year's shortage amounting to over 20 per cent. Two years of full supply would have followed, after which 68 per cent shortage would have occurred in 1899, and shortages would have been encountered every succeeding year until finally, due to the steadily growing volume of silt deposits, in 1907, 13 years after beginning operations, the entire storage capacity of the reservoir would have been occupied by silt. Since, as shown above, it would be impracticable to raise the height of a dam at this site above that planned, the company would then have been left with a ruined reservoir and a useless distribution system, their entire investment a total loss, and the settlers on the 530,000 acres of land developed in reliance upon this water supply involved with them in a common ruin. Three sources of possible profit from this enterprise are included in the memorial, only one of which, viz, the returns from the irrigated acreage, is mentioned in the original prospectus. The two now added, viz, (a) the furnishing of a municipal water supply to the city of El Paso, and (b) the development of hydroelectric energy at drops in a high-line canal, while possibly feasible, as planned by Mr. L. C. Hill in connection with the vast lake created by the "Elephant Butte Dam," as now constructed, would of course be out of the question with the smaller reservoir and inadequate water supply of the claimant's dam. The statement on page 45 of the memorial that— "The volume of water impounded by the said Roosevelt Dam is very much less than is impounded by the Elephant Butte Dam "-of course, refers to the Government dam and not that of the claimant. Figures are as follows: Claimant's reservoir Roosevelt Reservoir Elephant Butte Reservoir.... Acre-feet. 253, 368 1,305, 000 2,638,000 The discussion of possible profits from power and municipal water supply from a dam built at another site to double the height and 10 times the capacity planned or possible at the claimant's site has no bearing except by way of contrast upon what could be expected from the claimant's reservoir, which would have filled with silt in 13 years after completion, and which could have furnished an adequate supply of water for 40% of its planned acreage only three years during that period. A supply so inadequate and unreliable for irrigation would be of no value as a source of revenue if an attempt had been made to utilize it in addition either for municipal water supply or for power development. It is evident from the foregoing that the Rio Grande Irrigation & Land Co.'s project was infeasible as an engineering proposition from the beginning; that the acreage planned to be included was 3 times the area that can be dependably irrigated by a reservoir of 10 times the capacity of theirs and controlling the entire flow of the stream; that even had the acreage been reduced to that justified by the capacity of their reservoir this reservoir would have filled with silt within a few years and been abandoned; and that had the project been carried out as planned the investors not only would have failed utterly to realize the anticipated profits for the loss of which they are now bringing suit but would have lost in addition their entire capital investment and involved in their failure thousands of deluded settlers. Respectfully, A. P. DAVIS, Director. The Counselor of the British Embassy to the Agent for the United States. BRITISH EMBASSY, Washington, April 6, 1923. FRED K. NIELSEN, Esq., Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. NIELSEN: With reference to recent correspondence relative to the Rio Grande claim, I enclose herewith Exhibits E, G, and H, mentioned on page 50 of the memorial already in your hands, which it is understood had not previously been filed with you. As certain references to Exhibit E are found therein, a further copy of Exhibit N is enclosed for your information. As certain outstanding points have now been cleared up with the counsel in the case and as the said counsel have agreed to proceed to The Hague, I have to inform you that Sir Cecil Hurst agrees to the arbitration of the Rio Grande case at The Hague meeting next July. I presume therefore that you will now be able to proceed with the preliminary arrangements in connection with the matter. Very sincerely yours, H. G. CHILTON. |