Irrigation and River Control in the Colorado River Delta

Year: 1913

By H. T. Cory, M. Am. Soc. C.E.

Written after nearly a decade spent redirecting the lower Colorado River and managing the vast Imperial Valley irrigation scheme, Cory’s paper documents the river’s hydrology, silt load, flood behavior, and shifting channel; reviews storage prospects and levee design; and analyzes the 1905–08 Salton Sea diversions that temporarily routed the river into the desert. Drawing on flow records, sediment studies, and first-hand construction experience, it offers an early systems view of how reservoir sites upstream, rock-fill diversion works, and a comprehensive levee network could tame floods, protect farmland, and deliver reliable water to more than a million prospective irrigable acres on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border.