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Show WHEN WATER STORAGE PAYS. From a comparatively small beginning, the Davis & Weber Counties Canal company has grown to be a most important and financially finan-cially strong concern. A few years ago the farmers of the Sand Ridge to the south of Ogden decided that they must have more water and a more reliable source of supply, so they had bonds issued and they expended $110,000 in building a dam in East Canyon creek, 25 miles back in the Wasatch range. The dam was made 100 feet high and it stored 13,500 acre feet of water. After that, land on the Sand Ridge became highly valuable valu-able and crop failures unknown. The original company had 4,000 shares which sold for from $10 to $12 a share, or a total of less than $50,000. Today there arc G000 shares, not including the' new issue of stock, and this primary stock, as it is termed, is selling for $175 to $185 a share. Does water conservation pay? The foregoing figures are an answer. The value of the property has increased from $500,000 in 1890-7 to over $1,000,000 by an investment of something over $100,000. Now a new move is under way. The company is concreting its canal a distance of 10 miles, at an expense of $250,000, for the purpose of eliminating a 15 per cent loss in seepage and to increase the carrying carry-ing capacity of the waterway. This is being done by the sale of 4,000 shares of secondary stock at $50 to ?G0 a share. Almost the entire amount necessary to meet the expenditure has been raised, and there are now at work on the improvement eight concrete mixing machines, 300 teams and an army of men, the pay roll for last month calling for the disbursement of $75,000. Part of the canal is to have a width of 22 feet on the bottom and a vertical depth of 5 feet, but the main canal, carrying an excess of water to be diverted near Riverdale for power purposes, will be 24 feet wide on the bottom, with a capacity of 725 second feet, 300 second feet of which is to be released and sent through a povier line with a drop of 210 feet. The power plant will cost $350,000 and generate 0,000 horse power, of which 1,000 horse power has been contracted at $2,500 a month. To store the extra water for which the power plant calte in the dry period of each year, the dam in East Canyon creek is to be raised 45 feet at an outlay of $100,000. This addition will double the storing capacity of the reservoir, owing to the water spreading out over a greater area with each foot increase in the height of the dam. The $100,000 for reservoir and the $350,000 for the power plant calh for a total outlay of $450,000, to provide for which a bond issue of $500,000 was authorized a few days ago. As we have said, from a small beginning thi3 has assumed the proportions of a large financial undertaking. |
