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<br />. <br /> <br />~. <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />-1O~ <br /> <br />oannot be maintained to divort tho wator from the rivor. In this <br />valley the value of tho rivor is its possibility of diversion to <br />the farmlands whioh are in irrigation. Some 600,000 aores are <br />boing irrigated from tho Rio Grando Rivor. Most of the Canal <br />Companies are snaIl oc,mpanies whioh are kept in shapo by the <br />oontributions of the farmers who live on tho oanals. Most of them <br />are not of suffioient finanoial strength to build flood oontrol <br />struotures nocessary to control tho rivor so the only thing to be <br />done is to have some sort of control that controls tho river <br />itself. You all lmow the difficulty the Commonwealth Company <br />had and you lmow how much money it has cost that Company to try to <br />harness the river. The Centennial and the Del Norte Irrigation <br />have had some trouble, and the Monto Vista Canal and tho Farmers <br />Union have had muoh diffioulty with the river. This is 'our big <br />problem: we have a river s-ystom that gots out of control. If we <br />get three or four days steady rain we may look for trouble. <br />Whenever the soil beoomcs so wet it will not takc care of thc water <br />then the precipitation must run in to the streams. The slopes are <br />steep and the river has a high grado, so tho runoff is rapid, and <br />the rosu1t is that you have quiok floods that give trouble without <br />an~ particular vmrning. <br /> <br />The floods of 1911 and 1921 wore exoeeding1y damaging to the <br />various systems. In the last large flood in the 1920ls water was <br />almost to the town of Monte Vista and the OOtmtry botvleen Monte <br />Vista and tho river and on tho othor side of the river was a lake; <br />impossiblo to get in to Monte Vista from the North and to Alarnosa <br />from the East or tho North. <br /> <br />Mr. Corlett: Thank you, Mr. Goudy. <br /> <br />I would like to ask Mr. James A. Reed, Vioe President of the <br />Rio Grande Watcr Usors Association, reprosonting all the major canals <br />on the Rio Grande, and owner of extensive farm lands, a question or <br />two. Mr. Reed, in addition to the things you have statod in your <br />brief, how much of your ranoh was flooded in 19381 <br /> <br />Mr. Reed: About 2,000 acros. That vlater came from the Conejos <br />River and maybe water from the Rio Grande. I havo lived thero all <br />my life and I see that the water has ohanged its channel along the <br />Conejos Rivor, completoly changing the course of the River. Some <br />plaoes where the river formerly was 1001 wide are now half a mile wide. <br />This past Spring the levees along some of those orecks were put there <br />to keep the water from spreading out over the lands. This spring <br />we had a drainage system there that cost the Norton Land Company <br />$154,000.00 to put in. There is plenty of water for the irrigation <br />of lands now being cultivated but those soasonal losses are sustained <br />