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Show Good News CONCRETE WILL STOP WATER LOSS Delta Company Will Commence Com-mence $100,000 Improvement Im-provement Through the courtesy of Su- perintendent A. M. McPherson of the Delta Land & Water Company and President of the Beaver County Irrigation Com- pany, the News this week is able to announce the immedi- ate commencement of a work of water conservation that will mean much to not only the project adjoining. Milford but also to Milford and Beaver county. Finding the Leak Not until this year 1917 has there been any engineering.. work done or records kept to ascertain ascer-tain where the loss of water occurs in the big irrigation system. It was well known that there was a considerable consid-erable loss somewhere between the dam and the property of the settlers. It has been stated that much of this loss was from the open canals of the system. ' Last Spring, as soon as the ice was out of the system sufficiently to make the tests, Supt. McPherson secured the services of H. C. Clark, - a competent hydrographic engineer, and commenced an accurate system of record keeping along the entire course of the water supply from Ad-amsville Ad-amsville to the end of the project. From the first the records began to tell where the loss occurred. It was not in the canals, as the records show .that the loss in the canals is less than in any other system of the kind in the West about one-fourth of one per cent to the mile. But the records did and do show that the loss from a short distance below the Minersville highway bridge to the intake in-take of the project main canal is enormous. From day. to day, and week to week, and month to month, the accurate record kept has been accumulating this indisputable evidence evi-dence of waste and loss against this distance of about 8,600 feet in the open river bed. Investigation to discover the cause of this great loss in so short a distance disclosed the fact that the bed rock which underlies under-lies the river above Minersville comes to the surface and crops out below the bridge. From that point to the intake of the canal and doubtless much further the coun- ' try is underlaid by a huge bed of gravel. Another Great Loss The leakage of waters from the dam has been another great loss, and absolute waste for more than six months each year. This stream of water it has been ascertained by extensive ex-tensive tests made, does not come 'through the dam proper. It seeps through around the ends of the dam. The formation 4s of volcanic rock and porous. The best engineers of the country declare that the dam is strong enough to hold all the water that can be stored above it. There are no openings through the dam itself. it-self. The old volcanic mountain adjoining ad-joining leaks like a sieve, as does also the formation to the west. Rciort Checked Up After the various tests had firmly established the facts as to where the leakage and losses occurred, Superintendent Super-intendent McPherson presented the matter in an exhaustive report to the financial backers of the project with recommendations as to how to atop the same. The company sent Engineer C. A. Tush, one of the most reliable and experienced chydro-graphic chydro-graphic engineers and who was the chief engineer in building the dam and canal system, to investigate. After going over the whole matter he agreed with Supt. McPherson as to every detail of the report which had been made. The Remedy In his report Supt. McPherson recommended rec-ommended that the loss in the river bed be stopped by building a new intake in-take dam below the Minersville bridge and just above the out-crop-plug of the "bedrock to eliminate the great loss in the very leaky riv-'er-bed. This new canal, to be the source or head of the main canal of the project system, will be lined with concrete where necessary. It Will be 8,600 feet in length and must be built through the bench lands of Messrs. Gillins and Solomon Walker to connect with the present main canal. As the formation over this route is the same as that in much of the present canal it is determined that the loss in the new portion of the main canal to be built will be appro-'mately the same as that in the present canal. Will Fix the Dam The other recommendation submitted sub-mitted was that the leakage at the dam be stopped by drilling a large-number large-number of holes from the top of the same and in front, and in fact wherever wher-ever necessary, to extend even below the base of the dam. The holes are to be filled with liquid cement under two hundred pounds pressure. This cement will find any pores or openings open-ings that the water can find and when it hardens will effectually stop the leaks. The filling of the porous formations with the pure liquid cement ce-ment will really make of the dam and its abutting ends a solid concrete con-crete structure effectually holding all of the river water until released through the spillway. "All Right, Go Ahead" It was not until Thursday of this week that Supt. McPherson received the word to go ahead immediately with this work. His recommendations recommenda-tions have been adopted and the appropriation ap-propriation of more than $100,000, or as much as necessary to do the 'job right, secured. When? ' "When will this work begin?" Mr. McPherson was askea. His characteristically brief reply was : "Now. It has begun." Men and teams will immediately commence operations. Teams are plentiful, the company owning quite a number besides those available on the project. The water has already been shut off at the reservoir and there will be no more this season unless un-less future rains increase- the amount in the reservoir. The water remaining is reserved for Minersville. Miners-ville. Had this work been done before no shortage would nave been experienced ex-perienced this year and there need be no fear of a future shortage as this has been the lowest water year of record on the Beaver rjver about 15,000 feet shorter than last year and had there been no leaks there would have been no shortage this year. |
