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() 1754 MAP NO. 26380 1-- ,. I Ql!&<r , j I , The rich, fertile Imperial Valley is a deep saucer. 250 feet below sea level at the lowest point. Lapping along the rim of this low-lying valley was the Colorado, ever menacing. In 1905, only 4 years after the river had been tapped for its life-giving waters, the disaster came. The Colorado burst its hanks. For nearly 2 years the swirling coffee-colored flood ran amuck, slashing through the valley's sunny fields and flourishing communities. Time finally laid bare the mud-caked havoc wrought by the angry Colorado-ruined farm land, destroyed homes--highways washed away, railroads wrecked. A permanent memento was left in the form of a huge lake nearly 300 square miles in area which today is labeled on the map 85 Salton Sea. The Reclamation Service had recently (June 17, 1902) been established by the Congress to develop the arid West by regulating and conserving its most valuable natural resource---water. Here was a Gordian knot to untie. Protection of the lands lying below the elevation of the Colorado had required the building of levees. Each year the river with its silt.laden floods tore at these. The levees were built higher and stronger. To prevent another disaster such as that of 1905, about $1,000,000 was spent on the Ockerson Levee. It was barely completed in 1909 before the Colorado crashed through. Failing to find an opening into the Imperial Valley, the Colorado swirled westward into what is known as. Bee River to Volcano Lake. On this new course the river flowed for 10 years, kept there by another expensive levee system. Failing to smash this new levee the Colorado deposited millions of tons of silt in its channel, lifting itself still higher. The fight went on year after year. The defensive measures became more and more oppressive. The cost of maintaining the levees rose to approximately $500,000 a year. Even this large expenditure did not eliminate the menace. Nearly 100,000 people lived in fear that the river might overwhelm them. On the other hand, there were occasions when the river ran dry. Men walked out on the river bed and conferred about the emergency. Their crops were withering and drying for lack of moisture. Their livestock must be slaughtered to save drinking water for their families, if the drought should be extended. They were hauling precious water from 100 miles or more away. It was a vicious cycle of flood and drought. Both extremes threatened the lives and homes of the people of the Southwest who depended on the whims of the unmanageable Colorado. Colorado River poured from the Imperial Canal, looping through Mexico, into the Imperial Valley. At last water from the Colorado was diverted to the thirsty soil. But, the problem of a stable water supply for the irrigated lands was far from solved. Flood . . . and DroufI'd Like all other western desert streams, however, the Colorado ran hog-wild each spring. Fed by rapidly melting mountain snows, it swelled to a torrent which swept over its banks and inundated the country for miles around. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TKE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION COLORADO RIVER BASIN .5CAL.EOFlIILEl! ". .. EXPLA-'*ATIO'* _lrrlgaladAfNU.5.f'roject -lJNe<s.Ion!rornllosOn hi: x I c o r.e Bol" Dec'.Ion Faced with con~tantly recurring cycles of flood and drought, the people of the Southwest appealed to the Bureau of Reclamation to solve the problem. Their study pointed to only one solution and called for a bold decision. Harness the untamed river and control its flow to protect the low-lying valleys against floods and assure a stabilized water supply the year round. This was indeed a bold decision. Could it be done? II 4