Case Study: The Yuma Project

Yuma Project
Yuma has a very dry weather and sandy sand making almost everything hard to grow. Alfalfa was one of the only things able to grow because of the dryness here in Yuma. Although Yuma Is very dry there was often flooded from the Colorado River, making this a huge problem because of the damages it would leave behind. The government came up with a plan called the Yuma Project. The Yuma Project would include an irrigation system this would help the soil, making crops easier to grow.

I believe the Yuma project had a greater positive effect on the Yuma County. Before the project started much of the land was said to be non irrigable. With around 115,000 acres of land in the Yuma county 40,000 was considered to be non irrigable. By 1975
Today out of the estimated population of 4,500 in the Mohawk-Welton region one-third of the population works in the agricultural industry. The Yuma project also gave a positive effect by growing the population in the Yuma county because of all the new jobs brought to such a small town. The population of Yuma County went from being around 5,029 in 1912 to around 37,800 in 1989. This was a great impact in the community. The Yuma Project was a great effect towards the Yuma county since there would often be floods, especially around spring time when the snow melted from the northern sides along the Colorado river. The Hoover dam was built in order to prevent many of the floodings
In order to improve agriculture the Yuma Project had to be made to allow more acres to be irrigated. For example, in 1912 only 13,767 acres were irrigated but after the irrigation system was improved in 1989 around 61,000 acres are now being irrigated. There were also challenges that needed to be fixed with technology. In order to begin the project in 1912 water had to be brought from California to Yuma. They made the Colorado River Siphon that would pump water out of canals and transport it through a tunnel under the river. The Laguna dam had been built to generate hydroelectric and keep the Colorado River Siphon going, but it was also able to control any floods. Technology had a lot to do with the construction of the Hoover Dam especially since so many states were going to benefit from the Hoover Dam. Before the Hoover dam there were many floodings and money being wasted to fix the floodings. The Hoover Dam would control the water usage and prevent floods. In El Mayor, Mexico families were struggling to obtain water because of the over usage from the Basin States. A treaty was made with Mexico in order for the Basin States to control their water usage and allow the water flow to reach these areas of Mexico. Yuma has a very sandy soil, making almost anything hard to grow, especially with the extreme hot weather in the summers. Alfalfa is one of the only crops that is able to grow with the sandy soil