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<br />li:~ <br />", <br />~,,~ " <br />1.0, . <br /> <br />by the works of man from an original area of about <br />2,000,000 acres to one of less than 500,000 acres lying <br /> <br />south of the Volcano Lake and Saiz levees. <br /> <br />Without Boulder Dam, it would have meant that no <br />longer could th<3 River have been permitted to wander at <br />will over the,rostricted delta but instead, in order to <br /> <br />handle the 140,000 acre feet of silt a year, it would have <br />been necessary to divert the River from one part of the <br /> <br />area to anoth~r, thus spreading the silt as much as pos- <br /> <br />sible and holding to a minimum the rate of building up. <br />This was what was done intentionally by construction of <br /> <br />the Pes cadel'o cut and unin tentionally by cons true tion of <br /> <br />the VacanOJ'a Canal. In other 'i"lords, the restricted delta <br /> <br />'.' <br /> <br />would be J.ike a living thing, growing and spreading year <br />by year and, hence, the reason for calling it the "live" <br /> <br />delta. ~oreover, it would have been necessary continually <br /> <br />to raise the entire protective levee system from the <br /> <br />International Boundary to the lower end of the Volcano <br /> <br />Lake Levee to keep pace with the silting up of the live <br /> <br />delta. Not only would this have entailed an ever-increas- <br /> <br />ing cost, but the danger of brealcs would have threatened <br />more seriously each year as the delta and the levees grew <br />higher. In ten years' time the amount of silt carried by <br /> <br />~jf.' <br /> <br />the River, if deposited evenly over the live delta, would <br /> <br />have raised the entire area three and a half feet. <br /> <br />- 12 - <br />