San Francisco, August 22, 1890
HON. FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS, Reno, Nevada:
My Dear Mr. Newlands- You have asked me to write something concerning the cost of canal works and of storing water, for your irrigation pamphlet to be put before the good people of Nevada, and I take pleasure in sending you this hastily-written letter, regretting that I am not enabled to lay before you, in detail, the full line of data on these subjects at my command.,
Of course there are storage sites like Lake Tahoe, and similar natural lake basins which might be mentioned (the outlets being narrow and easily closed), where storage may be effected at exceedingly low rates; but these are hardly to be regarded as artificial reservoirs, even after dams are built.
In such places water may often be stored at less than a dollar per acre-foot of storage capacity. As you very well know from your own examinations, the cost of storage in Lake Tahoe will come to only a few cents per acrefoot.