OCR Text |
Show Clearly the act was sufficiently flexible so that, while encouraging private development of water power for the time being, it would permit the evolution of Federal power policy toward Federal development and operation of all water power subject to the jurisdiction of Congress, if the public interest should point in that direction. Of particular significance, as illustrating Con- gressional recognition of the Nation's power sup- ply as both public and private, is the preference accorded States and municipalities in the devel- opment of any water power resource not pre- empted for Federal development. The increasing emphasis of the several Federal commissions and of Congress itself on full utiliza- tion of the possibilities of hydroelectric power de- velopment in connection with reclamation, navi- gation, and flood control projects has already been noted. Perhaps the most important emphasis on this in the decade following the enactment of the Federal Water Power Act is found in the con- gressional action which led to the 308 Reports of the U. S. Corps of Engineers. These reports resulted from the act of March 3, 1925, directing the Corps of Engineers and the Federal Power Commission jointly to prepare and submit an estimate of the cost of making examina- tions and surveys of those navigable streams and their tributaries on which power development appeared feasible and practicable. The ultimate objective set by Congress was the formulation of general plans of improvement of such streams for the purposes of navigation and the prosecution of such improvement in combination with the most efficient development of the potential water power, control of floods, and the needs of irriga- tion. Congress in 1927 authorized the Army Engineers to make the surveys. In 1935 Congress directed that these surveys be supplemented by such additional study or in- vestigation as the Chief of Engineers finds neces- sary to take account of important changes in economic factors and additional stream flow data. Surveys of 191 streams had been completed by June 30, 1949. While these surveys are not com- pletely comprehensive in that their emphasis tends to be on navigation and flood control, they pro- vide a valuable basis for planning future power development as a part of multiple-purpose Fed- eral river basin programs. The Boulder Canyon Project Act, signed by President Calvin Coolidge on December 21,1928, marked the next important forward step in this phase of Federal power policy. It marked the initial undertaking by the Federal Government of a truly large-scale multiple-purpose develop- ment, with generation of a very large block of hydroelectric power for public distribution as one of the major purposes. Other major purposes of Hoover Dam (for- merly Boulder Dam) were flood control, silt con- trol, navigation, reclamation, and municipal water supply for southern California. The gen- eration of electrical energy was expressly de- scribed as a means for making the project a "self- supporting and financially solvent undertaking." For example, discretionary power to lease units of any Government-built plant, with right to gen- erate electrical energy, or to lease the use of water for such generation, was vested by the original act in the Secretary of the Interior. A maximum power contract period of 50 years was prescribed, but with the lessees entitled to renewals. The act was revised in 1940 to permit termi- nation of the leases and to provide agency con- tracts under which payments must be sufficient to cover costs of operation, maintenance and re- placements, amortization of the entire investment over a 50-year period, with interest at 3 percent, except for 25 million dollars allocated to flood control which is to be repaid after the 50-year period, certain payments in lieu of taxes to the States in which the project is located, and $500,- 000 a year to the Colorado River Development Fund. The Los Angeles municipal power sys- tem and the Metropolitan Water District, com- prising 29 cities in southern California, are the major purchasers of Hoover Dam power. Los Angeles has constructed three high tension trans- mission circuits to carry the power 260 miles across desert and mountains to the Los Angeles area. The Metropolitan District uses 36 percent of the power for pumping water from the Colo- rado River. Since the completion of the Hoover Dam the Federal Government has completed Parker Dam, 225 |