Hall letter page one header
Hall letter page one paragraph one to three
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.
Hall letter page two last four paragraphs
The cost of irrigation canals in California and elsewhere, of which I have knowledge, ranges from two dollars to ten dollars to the acre which they are capable of irrigating.
Irrigation upon the plains commanded by the Walker and Carson rivers, should not anywhere cost, for main canals with their principal branches, more than three dollars to the acre which they would be capable of serving.
In the basin of the Truckee this cost will be greater, I think, ranging between five dollars and six dollars to the acre-although, in the case of those lands which are already irrigated, doubtless their works can duplicated at a less cost.
Supposing that your storage and canal combined works are to cost even as much as fifteen dollars per acre. Surely lands which are almost absolutely valueless without water, and which, being supplied with it are worth fifty dollars, can stand this outlay of fifteen dollars to effect the desired end.
Hall letter page two paragraphs nine and ten
Of the sites within your Truckee and Carson basins, of which I have exact data, I expect from the surveys made for the benefit of your own people, you have already some definite knowledge. I may say, however, that aside from Lake Tahoe, Webber lake presents opportunity for the cheapest storage. There something over 11,000 acre-feet of water can be held at a cost between three and four dollars to the acre-foot.
Then, next in order comes Donner lake, where something over 40,000 acre-feet can be stored at a cost between five and six dollars per acre-foot. Or, by another scheme, not taking in all of the Donner and lower part of the Coldstream basin, about 22,000 acre-feet can be stored at a cost (according to the General Government Irrigation Surveys) of five to six dollars to the acre-foot. But judging from an inspection of the locality, and from private surveys, I think it likely that the cost in this case may not exceed four dollars the acre-foot.