POOR IRRIGATION WORK.
Disastrous results from irrigation in the Imperial valley in southern California have been predicted by George Y. Wisner of Detroit, an engineer, and member of the International Waterways Commission. Mr. Wisner predicted that, “within twenty years or less, thousands of people who have taken up Government lands in the Imperial valley will be driven out by the water, their homes and fields forming the bottom of an immense inland sea. The cause of the coming catastrophe is poor engineering in diverting the course of the Colorado river for irrigation purposes. The river has cut into the banks of the new course to such an extent that nearly all of the Colorado river flows down into the valley. The engineers realise the danger; but their efforts have failed to change the river’s course back to its old bed. Not for twenty years will the evaporation down there be equal to the inflow into the valley. By that time 1.000.000 acres of the valley, which is from sixty to 265 feet below sea level, will be covered by an inland sea.”
Disastrous results from irrigation in the Imperial valley in southern California have been predicted by George Y. Wisner of Detroit, an engineer, and member of the International Waterways Commission. Mr. Wisner predicted that, “within twenty years or less, thousands of people who have taken up Government lands in the Imperial valley will be driven out by the water, their homes and fields forming the bottom of an immense inland sea. The cause of the coming catastrophe is poor engineering in diverting the course of the Colorado river for irrigation purposes. The river has cut into the banks of the new course to such an extent that nearly all of the Colorado river flows down into the valley. The engineers realise the danger; but their efforts have failed to change the river’s course back to its old bed. Not for twenty years will the evaporation down there be equal to the inflow into the valley. By that time 1.000.000 acres of the valley, which is from sixty to 265 feet below sea level, will be covered by an inland sea.”
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