Yuma Irrigation Project

Along this journey created by nature, the river interacts with man’s influence to encapsulate the full geographic experience of this region. The succession of dams along the river’s path is a major contribution to how man has decided to mesh with the river. The dams have created reservoirs for water supplies, harnessed energy to provide electric power to the southwestern region, and controlled flooding. Flood control was the main concern at the time between the years 1905 and 1907 when large floods broke through the irrigation gates and destroyed crops in California. The flooding was so large it actually created a 450 square mile sea, named the Salton Sea. As a result of this major disaster, ideas were formulated to

Warmer temperatures in Arizona in river has been leading to more evaporation. The water that is being used by plants and soil experience evapotranspiration which has accounted for a loss of at least half-million acre-feet of water annually.

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

The Central Valley Project (CVP) is a Federal water project set up and run by the US Bureau of Reclamation to provide water for the Central Valley in California. Through twenty dams and reservoirs the CVP facilitates the collection and delivery of water for irrigation, municipal, and industrial use, as well as producing hydropower, providing flood control and recreational facilities on their reservoirs. The CVP provide a good example of how cost allocation works within a vast organization. I will use this organization to describe the method used by the CVP to allocate cost and whether I agree or disagree with their methods. I will also be identifying situations where common costs are allocated. I will explain the impact of allocating

The Grand Coulee Dam, located in Eastern Washington, was one of controversy, risk, and a point of no return. While the water captured made the desert area blossom in agriculture and it powered some large cities, it created a sense of accomplishment, that humans can control Mother Nature. While many people were very excited for this new construction – which gives power and resources - at the time, some thought it should not be allowed, they are not proud of containing the Columbia River. In this analysis, I am going to focus on the economic and social effects that the Grand Coulee Dam created in its build.

Hohokam water control developed their economy and allowed for agriculture in a desert environment. The location of what was named the Pioneer Canal provided evidence of far-reaching implications, first, that the water had to be taken form the river approximately three miles upstream, and second, that major earth moving operations were involved with large organized teams of people for labor, and that the initial group of people had already developed irrigation technology. (Haury,

When the Yuma Project began more people from different places migrated here. The invention of water canals became together providing water year long and when other places were dry people found the way to come here and live. Most of these people would work on the fields growing crops. The Yuma Project was important in many ways. One important factor is construction on the city. Over time there was not much places where people can enjoy the day or stay at a home. The results had people staying at these homes to work and make a living. When many canals were built there would be occurring floods. A flood hit in 1916 in the city of Yuma causing reconstruction on the city. When it was all payed for the buildings were built better. When the canals break free construction workers would use leaves to fix there problem. Canals were one of the other important sources in Yuma. The Laguna Dam was built resulting flowing water and irrigation issues were not more of an

With so many people mining for gold and trying to find as much as they can, new technology was invented to make the process easier and more efficient. Before this new gold-mining technology, many miners would dam up rivers to make their findings easier and supply water during dry months, or the rivers would become blocked with deposits and sediments, effectively changing the rivers for animals and plants. Along with that, the need for wood and lumber increased so the forest changed with more and more trees cut down to create canals. The land was essentially torn up just in the miner quest for gold. With the invention of hydraulic mining came one of the most disastrous effects on the state’s physical environment. Before workers would only dam up rivers, but with this machine, mountainsides and other areas were torn up,

The Red River Compact Commission was created and signed by 1978 by 4 states Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The Red River, the northern boundary of a lot of the state, is a major water source for all four of these states and was being fought over until this commission was made to help solve many of the disputes that could come up. Similarly, Texas has more agreements with other states including the Sabine River Compact Commission and the Rio Grande Compact. These commission serves the same purpose as the other commission, to make sure that all states receive the correct amount of water and that neither state ruins the water for any other one. The United States has an agreement with Mexico regarding the Colorado River that helps decide what should be done with a river that gives water to more than 33 million people across the two nations. The agreement is made to help the Colorado River make it back to the Ocean which will in turn help refill Lake Mead, the main source of water for the city of Los Vegas. The major treaty between the US and Mexico that Texas has a large hand in is the Treaty of February 3, 1994. This treaty restricts the water that the other country can take from the Rio Grande river, and guarantees the US one-third of the water from 5 tributaries in Mexico, and guarantees Mexico all of the water from two other tributaries. This treaty also allows both nations to dam parts of this

There are many different ways irrigation has changed Yuma and the rest of Southern Arizona very drastically. Irrigation has existed in Southern Arizona and Yuma County since the 1800’s. Irrigation has been practiced in the Algodones Grant with a view to determine if gravity canals would be effective for irrigation. 50,000 to 60,000 acres are extremely fertile and are very capable of producing crops when there is a sufficient amount of water given for irrigation to take place. “Water is too valuable to use on farms” was a myth in the 1900’s about irrigation but there is 80% of the Colorado River water the is used in agriculture. Agriculture business in Yuma county has changed

In his book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner’s main thesis is to show the inefficiency, greed, and inherent difficulty in the American West’s never-ending struggle to turn its unwelcoming desert into a lush garden. One of his main sub-points is that the West is not meant to support millions of people. It has a wide range of geographic challenges throughout the entire region. Its inconsistency and diversity is a primary cause of its water problems. For example, Reisner notes that the West consists of “plains so arid that they could barely support bunchgrass; deserts that were fiercely hot and fiercely cold; streams that flooded a few weeks each year and went dry the rest; forests with trees so large it might take days to bring one down; . . . hail followed by drought followed by hail;” (23).

The yuma project was first authorized in May 10,1904 and was the first irrigation project in Yuma. Thanks to the Yuma project many farms got water and the farms were finally able to produce goods. Once the project was done many people found out that Yuma had water and it was able to be transported to the farms, the population started to increase, but it didn't only just increased, it also decreased by a little, but later on population started to expand once more. Developers also faced many challenges, it wasn't easy for the developers to assemble the project. Something that was also a bit of a problem to them was the cost of building, repairing, and paying the workers when the project was being generated. The challenges that they had to face were not that simple.

The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water tunnel brings many benefits to local farmers around the state. It is the state’s second largest water project and is only smaller than the primary diversion tunnel of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. It is an elaborate reclamation project that brings more than 230,000 acre- feet of water to various cities, including Denver, and to irrigators in the southeast section of the state. Transmountain diversions provide much-needed water to eastern Colorado, which holds more than 90% of the state’s population, but receives less than

There was a need for more irrigation and more people. The Yuma project was a big opportunity for farmland because it was so close to the Colorado River. There were some problems and conflict with expanding our irrigation. In my opinion the biggest problem was if a company that grows a crop is looking to expand there land for there business.

     As previously mentioned, the Boulder Dam was one of the most famous, and certainly most expensive (with the whole project costing about $385 million) public works program. To provide jobs and much needed money to unemployed Americans, the Bureau of Reclamation, under President Hoover, authorized the Boulder Canyon Project on the Colorado River in 1928. The entire project included a hydroelectric power plant and a reservoir to control floods of the Colorado River and supply power to the Pacific Southwest. The dam reservoir is Lake Mead, which can store approximately 28 million acre-feet of water, making it one of the world’s largest artificially created bodies of water. Besides providing many jobs, the project responsible for the officially named Hoover Dam (as of 1947), added about 3 million acres of national parks and monuments and expanded