Show t i PROGRESS INWRA = TIN D HTR1fNtfr 1899O I 107 II U filj LJ Ii u 0 ti While irrigation projects have not felt the Impulse due to the good limes to the shine extent aa railway and mining mi-ning enterprises during 1S9D still there has been much activity and interest The building of Irrigation systems has been more on the cooperative plan In Utah than In most of the other arid States the canal and ditches being built and operated by the farmers who live under them and use the water Very many of the older ditch systems are still operated by the owners acting together there being no ccntrallacd management such as could be afforded by the farmers incorporating and forming form-ing a company In such systems and even In many owned by incorporated companies ownership In the first place was nearly always acquired by labor I performed on construction of the canal or ditch and by the payment of very lillle cash In consequence of this hayIng haY-ing become the prevailing mode of obtaining I ob-taining water rights most of the men raised on farms in Utah seem disinclined disin-clined to locate under Irrigation systems sys-tems which are owned by corporations where water rights would be sccure < lat l-at so much per acre and where the farmers themselves would not have a I I hand In the management It is for this reason that though Utah has a larger proportional rural population than any other Western State and large numbers of young men reach maturity ma-turity every year who have been reared to farming and Intend lo follow It in I the future yet the companies building new Irrigation systems find It hard to secure settlers to lake the water without with-out bringing In Immigrants from the Eastern States About all the companies organized by natives of Utah for irrigation purposes pur-poses have been on the cooperative plan the users of the water being the stockholder Jn these the organization organiza-tion was for the purpose of transacting the business to better advantage than could be done by loose associations of Individuals and they were not projected project-ed as moneymaking ventures Most of the more modern irrigation plants have been built by latercomeis or by Eastern > men For the systems constructed during recent years nothing of very great importance Im-portance has transpired during the past year The Ml Nebo Irrigation company whose works are located In the Goshen valley south of Utah lake has been Improving and settling the lands controlled by it Negotiations and plans are under way that may lead to important developments In the near future The great Bear Pvlver system In the Bear River valley In Box Elder county has been badly lied up by litigation ever since construction and It Is still In Its chronic condition It is to be hoped thaV sonic day this I fine and expensive property will bo freed from all contentions and become a paying investment In the northeast part of the Stale on the north slope of the TJIntah mountains moun-tains In Ulntali county is located the system of the Lucern Land and Water company This company composed of R C Chambers Ellsworth Daggett and Adolphe Jensen of Salt Lake City has been mulling an important addition addi-tion lo Its water supply during the past season Water is taken from Sheep creek and convoyed to the land in the Lucern valley val-ley west of the Green river Owing to the fact thatjthe creek runs in a very deep chasm or gorge where It would otherwise be most economical to divert It onto the land It Is found necessary to take the water out far up the creek at an altilOdc of about S500 feet or nearly 3000 feet In elevation above the land j The canals convey the water over to I another natural drainage channel down which It runs until diverted by another an-other canal directly ont > the land The main fork of Sheep creek was lapped by a canal built aboul six years ago but during the past season another and larger canal has been Iniilt to tap both Iho south and main forks of the creek thus giving a greatly Increased l supply About 15000 acres of irrigable land are covered all quite close to the Wyoming Wyo-ming line As the nearest railway is the Union Pacific some fifty or sixty miles distant in Wyoming there will not be much shipment products excepting ex-cepting live stock from this locality until holler transportation facilities are secured The year 1S99 marks the Introduction I of a very decided improvement in the means of conveying water for irrigation irriga-tion namely by means of pipelines Although pipelines have been connecting connect-ing links In Irrigation systems con atructed in Utah before It is believed that no water conveyor of any length has consisted entirely of pipe before During the fall ofct1898 A V Taylor and associates constructed a sixinch steel pipeline fromra spring In Noffs canyon len miles southeast of Salt Lake City to a body of line fruit land owned by them ori the south side of Mill creek and at the base of the mountains moun-tains j This line Is slightly over a mile in length Is of No IS gauge sheet steel Mingle riveted andjfasphaHcoated and 11 has a fall of 750 feet In its length thus presenting fine possibilities for waterpower development It has a capacity of 150 cubic feet of water per minute y The pipe cost 22I cents per foot delivered de-livered In I Salt Lake City the cost of trenching laying etc bringing the price up to ovcrJSO cents per foot A pipeline is used because the water would otherwise be lost in the bed of Neffs creek before reaching a point where It could be diverted by a ditch As land planted to fruit and well watered wa-tered becomes very valuable In that vicinity the construction of an expensive expen-sive pipeline will no doubt be fully Justified litigation from the pipe began be-gan the last season About torty acres will be planted to orchards amid small fruits will also be I grown Ice ponds have been built for making Ice as the water from th spring is absolutely pure and will make the finest Ice In the world The parties I own another spring over a mile further up the main Ncefs Creek canyon and next season will construct a fourInch branch pipeline from It to connect with I the main line A still more Important pipeline for 1 conveying water has been built the past fall by George C Whltmore This is i in Whltmore canyon In Emery county Tho construction of a branch line by lie Rio Grande Vestcrn railway from Mounds to the new coal mining camp f of the Pleasant Valley Coal company at I Sunuyside station in the canyon made a demand for water for domestic use Mr Whltmore ha used the spring I water arising In the canyon and How ing down ihe name for irrigation on his ranch Just outside the canyon Tho I pipeline Is intended to convey this water without loss or befoulment from the spring to the new camp and then I on down to the ranch The line ia I three miles long and consists of SSOO feet of No 11gausc sheetsteel singleriveted asphaltcoated pipe and of 7000 feet of vitrified clay pip the last being man ufactured at Ogclen by the Enterprise I Clay company The size of both Is six inches The total fall is t20 l feet and the capacity when running freely is nearly a million gallons per day The upper section ending at the coal camp Is of steel so that It will stand the pressure required for use In the camp the Fame being obtained by means of a valve at the lower end that backs up the water Prom here the water enters the lower or sewerpipe section As the fall of the canyon down which Ihe pipe runs Is quite regular there is but little prcssure brought on this part the lower end being open all the time so that the use of sewer pipe Is allowed Trent Co of Salt Lake were the contractors for the entire line lineBoth Both steel pipe and sewer pipe are much used In southern California for Irrigation but very little In any of the other Western States The large reservoir projected by the Otter Creek Reservoir company jn Grass valley Pluto county has been but partially completed although work was begun iu 1807 The company has been hampered by 1 lack of funds and application for an appropriation for aid was made to the State Legislature last winter but such assistance could not be legally given The dam had been raised to a sufficient height to permit of storing a considerable consider-able quantity of water the past season and this materially assisted during the lowwater season The reservoir at Hebron in Washington Washing-ton county Is not yet completed for the same reason given for the last one I The reservoir of the Davis and Weber We-ber Counties Canal company in East canon In Morgan county was completed com-pleted and used the I past season Tills reservoir was created by building adam a-dam across natural site in the canyon can-yon whera the rock sides came close together and formed a narrow gorge fly a dam CS feet high 52 feet long between the rock sides at the bottom and 90 feet at the top a reservoir about three miles long by onehalfmile wide was formed The dam Is of an unusual type consisting con-sisting of steel Inside or core bedded in masonry or concrete while the body is made of loose rock to give the proper I weight or slnblllty The outlet from the reservoir Is a tunnel drifted through r the solid rook formation at one side of the dam The contract ficpirea of the dam amounted to about 28000 it has been In I use the past season and the addition to the companys supply sup-ply system has proved to be a greats great-s 11 ces Of the Irrigation projects In Utah on which construction has not yet begun that of the Lake Bonncville Water and Power company Is by far the most important im-portant This enterprise seems to have temporarily tempo-rarily collapsed although a vast deal of preliminary work hag been done on It and full arrangements have been made with the State whereby the company com-pany was to secure control of 215000 acres of land under the provisions of the Carey act It la hoped that the project may yet be revived and the j great system be built It ia probable I that the vastness of the enterprise has been the principal obslacle in securing capital for It and It seems that 1C the proposition were reduced in alze and the scope of It narrowed so that only the moat available part of the reservoir sites and the cream of the irrigable lands were utilized at first und only enough water developed for which there would be an immediate and certain demand de-mand that capitalists would be l much more willing to take hold of it Late In 1S98 the State Land board made a contract with the White Mountain Moun-tain Reservoir company by which about GOOO acres of land In Mlllard county were to be reclaimed under the Carey act and It also selected over 10000 acres along the western boundary I line of the State In Millard county for the Holbrook Land and Vater company com-pany Neither of these companies as yet however has given a bond not made full arrangements to comply with the provisions of the net Some Salt Lake Denver and Eastern I parties have projected a system total to-tal e water from the Green river In Emery I Em-ery county The canal would tap the river about thirteen miles above Green River City and water a body of land I along the west side mostly north of tho Rio Grande Western railway Preliminary Prelim-inary surveys have bcen made and maps completed showing the right tIt way It Is I expected that the promoters will soon incorporate under tho title of the Green River Land and Irrigation company com-pany panThe The State Board of Land Commissioners Commis-sioners is doing much to encourage Irrigation Ir-rigation development It has lately lot a contract for sinking an artesian well on the Escalante desert In Iron county I If water can he foind there It will result re-sult in private parties putting In wells lo obtain IL The well being snuk for I the State will be 1000 feet deep if necessary neces-sary to go that deep to obtain a good flow and the cost Is likely to be as much as 3000 The well will be eight I inches in diameter at the top dccreas InC with depth Tho importance of Irrigation water I rights in Utah has been well shown by the experience of a few cities and towns during the past few years When thcso came to acquire or to Increase a supply sup-ply of water for domestic use it had to he done by securing water that had before been used for irrigation all of the available sources having been ap proproprlatcd This has led to lawsuits In several cases and has made it expensive for I the cities I As all the available water was naturally nat-urally appropriated and used on agricultural agri-cultural land adjoining the centers of population long before these had grown to their present size It naturally followed fol-lowed that Irrigation rights had to be considered when It came to increasing the supply Generally these towns had a right In certain streams lou both Irrigation and domestic use acquired when they were first settled but when it came to securing secur-ing more water from the same source and also regulating the flow then friction I fric-tion with the claimants adjoining the town was apt to occur Salt Lake City of recent years has had occasion to realize the Importance of ownership of water use r1 for irrigation irriga-tion All the water of City creek on I tho north side of town was early acquired ac-quired by tho city as also part of Emigration Emi-gration creek later on but when the city took on a new growth some ten years ago it I became necessary to increase in-crease the supply Nearly all ot Parleys Par-leys creek was already used for Irrigation Irri-gation and nil of it was appropriated hut as the city owned onesixth of the supply from Utah lake that was cone con-e ed to t town through the citys canal and used for Irrigation of gardens shade trees elcIt became an easy matter to secure Parleys creek water by trading an equal amount of Utah lake water for it the latter being unfit for domestic use but well suited for I Irrigation The Increased demand for water during dur-ing the last two or three years has led to investigations being made of available avail-able sources with a view to increasing the supply and the City Engineer has made thorough examinations and surveys sur-veys of nil the streams south of the city within a reasonable distance and has already rendered exhaustive reports re-ports on tho propositions to oblaln the water of Mill creek or of Big Cottonwood Cotton-wood creek All of the water obtainable during the summer and fall months from the streams south of town has been apPropriated ap-propriated for many years and to se curo water from any of these sources t he city has either to trade Utah lake water for it or to buy or condemn tho = = = irrigation water rights or perhaps all three Primary water rights on Mill creek and Big Cottonwood are worth from I SO to 150 per acre and when it I is known that there arc over 2000 acres I of such rights on the former stream I and nearly 8000 on the latter the truth of the saying that Water Is king Is fully realized During the past season an accurate measurement of the amount of water flowing Into nearly all the Important ditches on Big Cottonwood creek was mode by State Engineer Gemmell for I the Agricultural department at Wash ington and a census of the crops wa I tered from the same ditches was also j taken so as to ascertain the amount 1 of water required per acre of land I It has been found thnt during the lowwater period of the extremely dry I season of 1S3S the duty of water I must hAve risen to as high aa 250 acres per cubic foot per second The great value of a flow of only one sccon foot I is thus readily seen The use of the same water for both waterpower aevelo1 nit and for Irrigation I Irri-gation has become quito common In Utah In oil the recent works built for I the generation of power to bo electrically electri-cally transmitted to distant points the water supply has been one already appropriated ap-propriated further down the stream and It han to be returned to the stream practically undIminished in volume for use below In the case of the Salt Lake City Water Wa-ter and Electrical Power companys plant on the Jordan river In the Jordan Narrows the situation much complicated i compli-cated by reason of the plant being located lo-cated below the heads of canals already al-ready using the water and though tho power company proposes to return the I water Into tho canals after use they running on down the valley by the powerhouse at a lower elevation the plan will be objected to by the city of Salt Lake If attempted to be applied to the city canal canalW P HARDESTY f Civil Engineer |