Holtville, Calif. — At the far end of the Terrace Park Cemetery, between the grassy field of flower-dotted gravestones and a makeshift dump, lie rows of numbered bricks in the dirt, some with names and some that read "John Doe." Among those buried here, mostly illegal immigrants, are at least 40 who drowned in the nearby All American Canal.
The 82-mile canal that carries water west from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley has claimed the lives of more than 500 people since 1942, including almost 180 in the last 10 years. It's about to get more treacherous.
About 23 miles of the canal are being lined with concrete to conserve water by preventing it from seeping into the ground. When the lining is complete, water will flow faster and the canal sides will be steeper, slicker and harder to scale. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation began work in June.
The original 1994 plan for the lining project called for "large mammal escape ridges," or steps, to make it easier for both humans and animals to get out of the water. But the Bureau of Reclamation no longer intends to include escape ridges, saying they cause structural instability and leakage.
Critics of the lining say it is illegal to drop the safety provisions. And they say there are reasons, not stated in the official record, why the escape ridges aren't being included. The canal, which is operated by the Imperial Irrigation District, runs parallel to the Mexican border -- less than a mile from it in places -- and is a long barrier to people trying to make their way north.
"If the IID's kids were playing in the canal, I assure you they would put those ridges in," said John Hunter of Poway, in San Diego County. He is founder of Water Station, an organization that provides water in the desert for migrants. Hunter said that, at the very least, the bureau should roughen the surface of the concrete lining, as was done with the Central Arizona Project, a long canal that takes water from the Colorado River east to Phoenix and Tucson.
Hunter's views are shared by his brother, congressman and Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter of El Cajon. Although he takes a hard line against illegal immigration, Duncan Hunter wrote a letter last month to officials in charge of the canal advocating the safety ridges. He wrote that "the loss of human life in the canal to date has been a costly consequence to past indifference."
