Checking the Waste Part 9

We now come to the use of water as power; and although in the last fifty years this subject has received little attention, as manufacturing increases and as fuel decreases and becomes higher, the value of water becomes more evident, and water-power sites are being eagerly sought.

Our age may come to be known in the future as the age of power, because through the application of mechanical power man has gained such marvelous control over the world about him. Wind and water led in the production of power until about 1870, since which time they have scarcely increased at all, the greater advantages of steam and electricity having driven them out.

As long as all factories had to be built by the side of streams having suitable water-power, the number and size of factories were always extremely limited. With the introduction of steam it became possible to build factories at mines, in forests, in fruit or grain regions, wherever the supply of raw material was plentiful, and to multiply factories of all kinds in cities near the markets for their product, or where labor was cheap and abundant. But power could only be used where it was developed, and the size of the power plant depended on the amount of business done by each individual user.

Now a new era of power has again enlarged the possibilities of manufacturing. By means of electricity the work, not only of factories, but also of the home and the farm may be done in any place where electricity can be installed. We must bear in mind that electricity is never a source of power, but is only the agent that carries power to the user. The source of all electric power is either steam or water, produced by water-wheels, turbines, steam-engines or gas-engines. The economical way to furnish electric power is to establish central power plants, and electricity may be conveyed from them for many miles. An electric railway, telegraph, or telephone system many miles in length is operated from a single power plant. Electric light and power are transmitted all over the largest cities. It is no longer necessary that a factory be of any specified size nor that it have any waste power. If it be within reach of the electrical current it may use as much or as little as is needed.

The cheapness of electric power must always depend on nearness to the source of supply or to the market. Until a short time ago it was customary to locate electric power-houses near the market, that is, in cities. But the benefits to be derived from having the electric plant near the source of power, so that the cost of production is greatly lessened, are becoming better recognized. This will make water-power increasingly valuable.

It is even now practicable to develop water-power, wherever located, for the production of electricity. Although the lowest grade coals are used for electric power at the mines yet they can now be used for still other purposes. Coal or other fuel once used can not be replaced, but when electricity is derived from water-power only energy otherwise wasted is used. This energy, if derived from water-power, is all added to our a.s.sets instead of being lost.

For many years the amount of power used for manufacturing and other purposes has doubled about once in ten years, and the steady pace kept by different lines of development shows how closely they are related.

Our power, our forest cut, the use of our iron and other minerals, our coal and petroleum, the railroad earnings, freight and pa.s.senger traffic, and our agricultural products all double themselves every ten years. This means that in ten years we shall require twice as much power as now, but will have far less coal to use. This raises the question,--have we available water-power to conserve our coal supply?

Let us see. It is estimated that we are now using 26,000,000 horse-power of energy derived from steam, 3,000,000 horse-power derived from water, and 800,000 from gas or oil, a total of 29,800,000 horse-power. It is also estimated that there is now running idly over dams, falls, and rapids 30,000,000 horse-power of energy. In other words, we are wasting every day enough water to run every factory and mill, and to turn every wheel, to move every electric car and to supply every electric light or power-station in the country.

The amount of water-power is gauged solely by the low-water stage of the stream. A river is considered to produce only as much power as it can furnish at its season of lowest water. At other times factories may be operated more actively, but usually most of the extra power is wasted during a large part of the year.

If these storm or flood waters can be stored in reservoirs, the stream-flow throughout the year can be made fairly uniform and the power possibilities greatly increased. The Geological Survey believes that by storing the flood waters and regulating the flow of the streams, the large rivers of the United States may be made to furnish 150,000,000 horse-power, enough, if it could be utilized, to supply every power need of our country for many years to come without using a ton of our coal, and without in any way decreasing the water.

Of course this can never be practicable. Much power will always be needed where no stream for power is available. But the lesson is plain that where water can be used it should be, both in order to save the coal and because it can be produced more cheaply. The 30,000,000 horse-power now available, if produced in our most modern electric plants, would require the burning of nearly 225,000,000 tons of coal, and if in the average plant run by steam-engines, more than 650,000,000 tons of coal, which is fifty per cent. more than all the coal that is now produced in this country. At three dollars per ton it would cost $2,000,000,000 a year to supply the coal to furnish the power that we might have, one might almost say, as a by-product from the improving of the rivers for navigation. The development of the water-power possibilities of the country is now going forward at a rapid rate, however.

Dams on the Susquehanna River will soon make 30,000 horse-power available, which could be increased to 200,000 by building storage reservoirs.

A dam just begun at the rapids of the Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa, will, when completed, furnish 200,000 horse-power. Niagara is producing 56,000 horse-power on the United States side. The Muscle Shoals Falls rapids in the Tennessee River is furnis.h.i.+ng 188,000 horse-power.

Illinois will greatly increase its possibilities for offering cheap power to factories, when the Lakes to Gulf Ca.n.a.l with 173,000,000 horse-power worth $12,750,000 yearly, and the Chicago Drainage or Sanitary Ca.n.a.l, which has nearly 60,000 horse-power, are complete. Both of these projects were undertaken by the state.

In California 250,000 horse-power is now in operation, and 5,000,000 horse-power might easily be developed in that state alone, which at the price of coal would be worth a billion dollars a year.

New England has the oldest system of water-power control, because before the era of steam it was the chief manufacturing region of the country.

The Merrimac, flowing through New Hamps.h.i.+re and Ma.s.sachusetts, is the most carefully conserved river in the world, and Governor Dingley of Maine said that the water-power of Maine is equal to the working energy of 13,000,000 men.

The money value is counted at twenty dollars a year per horse power, but it frequently brings as high as one hundred or even one hundred and fifty dollars a year in a good manufacturing region, so that the value of our water-power facilities can hardly be computed.

An ideal picture of the harmonious development of our water resources for all purposes is one that is not too difficult to realize. It is the ideal that should be always before us in the improvement of our waterways, and we should bear in mind that although the expense will be heavy, it will not cost more than one-tenth as much to improve all the important waterways as to equip the railways to carry the traffic they will be called on to carry in the next ten years; and also that in the past, for every dollar that has been spent on waterways, almost twenty-five dollars has been spent on railways. The railways are a great and important part of our national development, but the waterways should not be neglected. Rather, the two should be so harmonized and adjusted as to make one great commercial system that will furnish cheap and abundant transportation for all our commerce.

The most complete plan for conserving our waters is as follows: First, build storage reservoirs along the upper stretches of the river to hold the overflow waters of the flood season which are to be turned into the main channel when the water becomes too low for ordinary navigation.

These storage reservoirs should be on the lowest grade of land, that which would be least productive. The reservoirs should be well stocked with the best varieties of fish to make them profitable. The banks should be planted with forest trees and made as attractive as they can be made to form public parks and pleasure grounds for the people, where boating, fis.h.i.+ng and bathing may be enjoyed.

The next point is to remove all obstructions from the river, to ca.n.a.lize it at shallow places or rapids, so that the whole river will be navigable, and, if necessary, to deepen the channel so that it will carry large vessels between two important points.

Dams should be built to take advantage of every opportunity for water-power. One of the worst mistakes in the past has been the failure to use the power that might have been developed in improving the streams for navigation.

Rivers should be made profitable still further by stocking with fish and should be kept clear of factory refuse and sewage. Soil-wash should be lessened by planting trees and shrubs along the banks; and where overflow or erosion lowers the value of the land or repeatedly ruins the crops, d.y.k.es and levees should be built.

The rivers most important commercially should be improved first. Ca.n.a.ls should be cut between waterways where large benefits will result; overflow and swamp land should be drained, and in arid regions every particle of water conserved for irrigation purposes.

The irrigation ca.n.a.ls may also be used to supply water-power, and the ca.n.a.ls may be used as are other ca.n.a.ls for towing barges. If electric power is produced, electric towing is cheap and very desirable as a means of transportation.

In short, our water supply should be as carefully used and with as little waste as the land of forests. The most important improvements needed are, a Lakes to Gulf Waterway that shall be safe and practicable at least for vessels of moderate size; the improvement of the Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee and Upper Mississippi Rivers; an inner coast pa.s.sage from New England to Florida, and in navigable rivers dredging and deepening if necessary, to make many outlets to the sea which will afford cheap transportation.

In the West, the Columbia, San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers with their branches should be made navigable. Many western rivers have been almost ruined by filling with rocks in hydraulic mining, but this is now prohibited by law and if the channels were cleared they would again become navigable.

Appropriations for much of this work have already been made by Congress, but the work is not systematically planned. The cost of all of it would be about sixty-two and a half cents a year for each man, woman and child in the country and every one would receive some benefit.

The National Conservation Commission on Waterways found that the average family pays for transportation or freight on all its food and clothing and the necessities of life, nearly or quite one-third their actual cost. "It is estimated that the direct benefits would be a yearly saving in freight handling of $250,000,000, a yearly saving in flood damage of $150,000,000, a saving in forest fires of at least $25,000,000, a benefit through cheapened power of fully $75,000,000 and a yearly saving in farm production of $500,000,000; a total of $1,000,000,000, or twelve dollars and fifty cents for each person--twenty times the cost! And this does not take into account the benefits from irrigation, drainage, and the lessening of disease by a pure water supply."

REFERENCES

Waters. Report of the National Conservation Commission.

Report of Inland Waterways Commission, 1908.

American Inland Waterways. H. Quick.

Waterways and Water Transportation. J. S. Jeans.

Waterway Transportation in Europe. L. G. McPherson.

Highways of Progress. J. J. Hill.

Navigation Resources of the United States. (Johnson.) Report, Governor's Conference.

Conservation of Power Resources. (H. St. Clair Putnam.) Report, Governor's Conference.

Florida's Waterways. (Miles.) Report, Governor's Conference.

Our Water Resources. (Lyman Cooley.) Report, Governor's Conference.

The Lakes-to-Gulf Waterway. (Randolph.) Report, Governor's Conference.

Water Resources. (k.u.mmel.) Report, Governor's Conference.

Necessity for Waterway Improvement. (Austin.) Report, Governor's Conference.

Report Congressional Committee on European Waterways. Senate Doc.u.ment, 1910.

River and Harbor Bill. Senate Doc.u.ment. Burton, 1910.

Forests, Water Storage, Power and Navigation. (Taylor.) Proceedings of the Am. Hydrochemical Society.

Our Inland Waterways. (McGee.)

Outlines of Hydrology. (McGee.)

Natural Movement of Water in Semi-arid Regions. (McGee.)

Irrigation in the United States. Dept. Commerce and Labor Census Bureau.