Colorado River Siphon

Yuma is on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, a short distance below the mouth of the Gila River and about 25 miles north of the Mexican boundary. The bottom lands on both sides of these two rivers, leveed for protection against overflow, together with some mesa land, form the irrigable land of the Yuma Project of the United States Reclamation Service. The water for irrigation is taken from the Colorado at Laguna Dam, a diversion weir 14 miles above Yuma. To conduct the water to the Yuma Valley and Mesa, which is that portion of the Project on the Arizona side below Yuma, it was necessary to construct main canals to; and provide means of crossing, either the Colorado or the Gila. Both rivers have unstable beds, and are subject to sudden floods, which scour out deep channels.