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Show Slatter torageCssion Urged to Construct Small Reservoirs on Utah Streams Water Saving I Held Vital To I Utah Farmers vs: $ State Engineer Asks For An Increase In Small li Eeservoirs In Utah T. H. Humphreys, state engineer, Wednesday urged the Uta-.ii Water storUt Ccuoanission to use its power pow-er and resources to encourage con-struction con-struction .of small reservoirs on Utah t :l irrigation streams. 55'. 'i At the aneeeing today lie pointed it cut that such reservoirs this year F- mould have saved; Vmllions of dollars 5i ! worth of crops in sections that 'have no storage. "The extra half acre-foot or cne acre-foot of water available at the Ijl end of the season is the datenmin-ing datenmin-ing factor in the suoess of agricul- tare in the state," he saidj. r I I Sanpete Farms Suffer Loss til Mr Humphreys pointed out toat over rr.ra'ch of the farm area cf San-pete San-pete County the work of the far.nt-ers, far.nt-ers, the seed and all the water from . the natural flow of the streal.ru this year has been a total loss because K6S crops that were flourishing July 1st , . are now dead. Yet, ihte said, 35,000 ifllS acre-feet of water ran ito waste this 5.ring past the site of the proposed 3(11 i Gooseberry reservoir in Sanpete , county. An extra ,10,000 acre-feet of lmS later available 'after the streaicns , "j tailed, would have saved all the crops planted in this section, he STPhi The cornrnission was expected to ;A 1 1 U , mike a careful study of the pos-eulun pos-eulun sMities and launch 'a program. ,i .,! The high cost of drouth was livnl forcibly to the Utah water storage commission Wednesday by Director William Petersen of the Utah agricultural experiment station , during the meeting in the c4 dtol. y He said the loss this year from drouth in Utah will be nearly $6,000- ,000 or half the total aixiount invested invest-ed in operating reservoirs, exclusive of the Deer creek project. 0 ... ' In 1934, Utah's worst drouth year IjOo f a generation, the loss was $17-,. $17-,. . 000,000. In that year and this, half redlEIlt cr more of the loss could; have been III, prevented with a few strategically located reservoirs to provide supple-mentary supple-mentary water, the director stated. "If we are going to continue to live in this state," Mr. Peterson doelared, m "we must put all the water there is t U to benefioal use." A i He told the group experience taBy scow that the kind of whiea.th.er II Utah now is htaving is "norxlail" and tot agriculture will have to becoxie adjusted to it. It ixay be shcun tha years of axt-le rainfall are not "nor-mil" "nor-mil" at all, but occur only at in- 1 frequent intervals. Holds Reservoirs Answer i For tois reason, Mr. Peterson be-Seves be-Seves t.-.at reservoirs will have to be milt even if found to be too expensive expen-sive by the standards of such agen-inPffS! agen-inPffS! sas the bureau of recl'-Uation. lllCljl' It as explained during the rneet- leg that, under the new reclamation M Ki, congress may make special pro- il ion ior incLvidiUial proieots wnid.'j W n.t pay out under t.13 usual toritacts. The reclamation bureau , j iis always detenxlined! the econuxiX I lflS leaaomiy of a project by balancing Ul"u tie cost of , the waiter against t-'ie V ffijue of crops ttoaiuoedi. May Form Setup Water users associations mlay be u.efl to quaiiiy ior construction 1 rtservoir ito nxlpound 1,000 acre ) f. n'C 't of vfater under f-e reclamation Lllln3 ici wito less tiouble taan for giant j' ':ieot, it was said, cua.U;ission also heard re-,g re-,g ...It ;ir iron e. B. Debbler, recla- Jiton service engineer frq.nl the (strict office at Denver, w.'.o has rge of the cooperative surveys to -rnV tti!Imine it water on a large scale Y (J ba transferred for power ana j(l ;'-tion rJ.r.i the Colorado River 1 ' Great Salt Lake Basin. iQE 1 has reserved rigiite for ''to of the Colorado througihl an rstaite caaapaot but it is said, if s water is n:t put to beneficial ( !' " Wl11 used eventmaOly on the ah 9 'and in t). United States li Mexico belo the Boulder Dam. |