Show governor urges money I 1 for small reservoirs an appropriation bill from which utah is hopeful of obtaining 1 to be used for construction of small reservoir projects in the state slate is now awaiting introduction in the united states senate governor henry H blood made a strong plea for that amount at hearings conducted by a house of representatives subcommittee sub committee on interior department appropriations two iwo weeks ago in washington D C A report on governor bloods request including a transcript of what he told the committee was received lecci ved thursday by state engineer T H humpherys secretary of the he utah water storage commis fon on J W robinson and abe murdock members of the lower house appeared with governor blood before the committee they joined him in making a plea pica for an addition to the small reservoir appropriation an enlarged appropriation for the deer creek project and for use by the united states bureau of reclamation to finance surveys of proposed water projects in the western states since that time an extra fund has been earmarked for the deer creek project governor blood in appealing for the small reservoir fund listed 19 preferred projects selected by the utah water storage commission two of these 19 projects aie in iron county included are the newcastle site on pinto creek and the fort site on creek the two projects combined will cost to build early investigations were madi made at these sites by the state engineer and later dater a detailed survey into feasibility and other aspects of the proposed projects was undertaken in in a joint survey by the reclamation bureau and the water storage commission mr humpherys requested last week that the bureau begin diamond drill explorations at preferred sites after he was authorized to do so by the commission the explorations will kill begin as soon as weather conditions permit reclamation officials disclosed total cost of the 19 preferred projects listed by the governor before the committee was he expressed hope that utah will be able to get annually for five years in order to complete all 19 projects within that time when discussing these projects he said they had been bech selected from feasible reservoir projects out of possible sites in the state prosperity rests primard ly upon irrigation governor blood told the committee her agriculture has experienced great losses during the drouth years although much water is still cs escaping cap through uncontrollable floods the losses to utah farms in if this is manner have been estimated at in 1935 and OCO in 1939 the governor said pointing out there are substantial losses every year in some parts of the state because of a short water supply he said there has been lit tie increase in lands in U continued to back page GOVERNOR URGES MONEY FOR SMALL reservoirs oira I 1 contin continued u ed from first tah during the past 20 years the population is living on less than ac acres of plowed land the agricultural population populate ion pressure is greater rc ater in utah it is said than in iny any other state stale in the union this lie pointed out makes drouth conditions immediately felt and reduces the margin of safety until it is altogether too small hi he told tile the committee members that utah is a state of small farms 27 per cent of its farms consisting of I 1 less th than a n 20 acres each th these se small farms coupled with the population pressure governor blood said indicate the necessity for growing a full and profitable pi op on every acre every year which means making every drop ot of water available to the farmer these waters are not asked f for or development of desert lands they arc wanted for old established communities 11 the T e governor then traced th the e history of the development of the state slate declaring its citizens to be thrifty their children desire to re main in the state he said it is not too much to as ask k that they be given assistance not as a dole but only water that will enable them to make their way unaided and even to pay back a large share of a wise investment ho he said I 1 it is planned that an earth dam 64 feet high would be constructed at the newcastle site costing with a capacity of 1690 acre feet of water directly and indirectly benefiting a population of the hamilton fort reservoir will has a capacity of acre feet and wil cost the earth dam will be 38 feet high other projects included in the preferred list are ash creek enterprise ter prise and big dolob creek sites in washington co three creeks in beaver county lower beaver narrows and enlargement of newton reservoir cache county enlargement lar gement of east canyon dam in morgan county lower joes valley and millers flat sites emery county woodruff creek rich county mammoth site sanpete county brush creek site uintah county thurber site wayne county and bally watts site weber county |