Madalyn Rehme
Coursework
Ploude 4
Irrigation in Yuma and it's significance When you look at Yuma you normally don’t think much of it, especially if you were born and raised there. But if you really look into it Yuma usd to be quite a large state before it was even called Yuma. Before it was called Arizona City and it was used as a crossing for traded goods and produce. The shipments would cross from Arizona city to California across the Colorado. This however changed once they began building the irrigation systems in Yuma and controlling the Colorado river.
Question 1: What challenges did the developers of the land in Yuma County have to overcome?
As you would guess the early developers of Yuma County had many challenges to overcome. Though …show more content…
In order to accomplish this the Yuma Project was founded and began planning different structures that could be used to block, redirect or control the natural flow of the river. The plans included the building of the Imperial dam and the Laguna dam. It was not planned by the Yuma project however the Hoover dam was built and it did coincidentally help with both the building and maintaining of the Imperial and Laguna dam. The Laguna dam much like the Hoover dam was beneficial not only by controlling the excess water flow but also in filtering more of the silt and debris from the water before it got to the canals. Before the Laguna was built ““They were always out there with dredges, trying to the silt out of the canals, but they couldn’t keep up,” said Carol Brooks.” Once the Laguna dam was built the problem of silt blockage all but disappeared. The Laguna dam also serves the purpose of redirecting irrigation to other …show more content…
In order to better control the river we began to dig canals. This was only a slight improvement however we still had the issue of the silt that the river brought into the canals. The workers were shoveling silt from the canals when it clogged, and the canals clogged fairly often before the building of the Laguna dam. Once the dam was built it filtered out the silt, redirected the river and regulated the flow downstream. The Laguna dam however would have collapsed under the full weight of the river eventually had the Hoover dam not been built to further filter and control the river flow. The Hoover dam is a massive structure meant to be put under a lot of pressure. The Laguna dam surpasses the Hoover dam in the fact that it was not only meant to function as a block but also stores water for later use in droughts. This however caused its own problem when the lower parts of the river like near where Cocopah indians live dry up and cause a drought in a different part of the river because of the restriction of flow. In order to prevent the chance of drought in towns down river and avoid the repercussions of drought. In order to do this developers signed a Treaty with Mexico “on February 3, 1944, Mexico is entitled to 1.5 MAF of Colorado River water each year. In years of low flow, any shortfall required to meet Mexican treaty rights will be made up in equal quantities by the upper
Coursework
Ploude 4
Irrigation in Yuma and it's significance When you look at Yuma you normally don’t think much of it, especially if you were born and raised there. But if you really look into it Yuma usd to be quite a large state before it was even called Yuma. Before it was called Arizona City and it was used as a crossing for traded goods and produce. The shipments would cross from Arizona city to California across the Colorado. This however changed once they began building the irrigation systems in Yuma and controlling the Colorado river.
Question 1: What challenges did the developers of the land in Yuma County have to overcome?
As you would guess the early developers of Yuma County had many challenges to overcome. Though …show more content…
In order to accomplish this the Yuma Project was founded and began planning different structures that could be used to block, redirect or control the natural flow of the river. The plans included the building of the Imperial dam and the Laguna dam. It was not planned by the Yuma project however the Hoover dam was built and it did coincidentally help with both the building and maintaining of the Imperial and Laguna dam. The Laguna dam much like the Hoover dam was beneficial not only by controlling the excess water flow but also in filtering more of the silt and debris from the water before it got to the canals. Before the Laguna was built ““They were always out there with dredges, trying to the silt out of the canals, but they couldn’t keep up,” said Carol Brooks.” Once the Laguna dam was built the problem of silt blockage all but disappeared. The Laguna dam also serves the purpose of redirecting irrigation to other …show more content…
In order to better control the river we began to dig canals. This was only a slight improvement however we still had the issue of the silt that the river brought into the canals. The workers were shoveling silt from the canals when it clogged, and the canals clogged fairly often before the building of the Laguna dam. Once the dam was built it filtered out the silt, redirected the river and regulated the flow downstream. The Laguna dam however would have collapsed under the full weight of the river eventually had the Hoover dam not been built to further filter and control the river flow. The Hoover dam is a massive structure meant to be put under a lot of pressure. The Laguna dam surpasses the Hoover dam in the fact that it was not only meant to function as a block but also stores water for later use in droughts. This however caused its own problem when the lower parts of the river like near where Cocopah indians live dry up and cause a drought in a different part of the river because of the restriction of flow. In order to prevent the chance of drought in towns down river and avoid the repercussions of drought. In order to do this developers signed a Treaty with Mexico “on February 3, 1944, Mexico is entitled to 1.5 MAF of Colorado River water each year. In years of low flow, any shortfall required to meet Mexican treaty rights will be made up in equal quantities by the upper