The Water Supply of the El Paso and Southwestern Railway from Carrizozo to Santa Rosa, N. Mex. | Page 6

the head of the pipe on Bonito Creek.
This reservoir is a natural basin or bowl, 1/2 mile in diameter across the top, 1/4 mile on the bottom, and 36 ft. deep. A level line, 1,500 ft. long, drawn from its bottom, comes out to grade on the north declivity of the table-land. On this level line an open cut was made and the outlet pipe laid. The cut was then closed by a dam.
The supply pipe from Bonito Creek delivers water into the basin over the top of its southern rim, the water, as it leaves the pipe, flowing over a standard weir, without end contractions, into a stone gutter. A by-pass pipe, with suitable valves, passes around the western side of the basin and connects to the outlet pipe.
This comparatively small amount of work equipped a very good natural reservoir with a capacity of 422,000,000 gal., which can be increased to 1,000,000,000 gal. by embankments across low places in the rim.
Service Reservoirs.--At Coyote, an artificial service reservoir, 100 by 200 ft. on the bottom, with slopes of 1-1/2 on 1 and a total depth of 15 ft., serves as an equalizer of the flow to and away from the pumps at that point. The pump-house is built alongside this reservoir. The delivery pipe from the Nogal Reservoir runs directly to the pumps, but has a tee-branch, 50 ft. long, into the Coyote Reservoir. This branch passes through a valve chamber between the pump-house and the reservoir. In this chamber there are controlling valves and an automatic overflow. This overflow is provided against the contingency of a full reservoir and idle pumps. If the pipe line is delivering water faster than the pumps discharge it, the surplus goes into the reservoir. This arrangement is self-acting and controlling. There is a similar arrangement at the Luna pumping plant, also at the Carrizozo service reservoir, and at the regulating reservoir on the Corona summit.
Each of the four service reservoirs is of the same size, and lined with 4 in. of 1:2:4 concrete. At Luna and Corona the concrete is reinforced with 3/8-in. round rods spaced 12 in. from center to center, both ways. This reinforcement should have been used in all the work.
Pumping Plants.--The pumps at Coyote and Luna are Nordberg duplex, cross-compound, condensing, crank-and-fly-wheel machines, with 6-in. plungers, traveling 600 ft. per min. at full normal speed, and designed to work against 300 lb. per sq. in. They have a guaranteed efficiency of 135,000,000 ft-lb. per 1000 lb. of steam at 150 lb. and superheated 75 degrees.
The boilers are 125-h.p., Sterling, water-tube, with Foster superheaters, and 33-in. stacks, 100 ft. high.
Each plant is in complete duplicate pump and boiler units, only one set working at a time.
The pump building is a substantial concrete, brick, and steel structure, 50 by 80 ft. in plan, with a fire-wall, with two steel doors dividing the floor space into an engine-room 50 by 50 ft., and a boiler-room 50 by 30 ft. A concrete coal-bin adjoins the exterior boiler-room door. Coal is delivered directly from the car to the bin.
The plant is lighted by a small, but very complete, engine and dynamo on one base and run by steam from the Sterling boilers.
The two plants are exactly alike throughout.
Reservoir Leakage.--The Nogal Reservoir basin is covered with from 2 to 5 ft. of good clay, except where it is punctured by a dike, or washed down to the underlying sandstone by a few gullies. These punctures or washes were covered or filled with clay from 1 to 4 ft. deep. During the first season the leakage, above the 6-ft. contour, was at the rate of 2 in. per day.
As the water fell, due to leakage, evaporation, and use, a herd of from 300 to 400 cattle were worked around the shore line. This reduced the leakage to 3/8 in. below 8 ft., and to nothing below 6 ft., above the outlet. As the flow line rises higher each season, the puddling will be continued to the top. The leakage at 12 ft. above the outlet, or 17 ft. above the bottom, is still approximately 1 in. per day. The total puddling, to date, covering two seasons, is equivalent to 11,150 days' work of one cow, and covers an area of 1,500,000 sq. ft.
The clay packed densely, the final hoof marks being not more than 1/4 in. deep and remaining distinct under the water around the shore line for one year. Apparently, the reservoir will finally become water-tight at all elevations.
The soil in which the four service reservoirs on the railway are built proved to be about the worst for such work. In its natural state on the prairie, after the excavation for the reservoir was completed, it filtered water at the rate of 3 ft. per