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Show Chapter 3 Water Development Needs, Opportunities, and Programs The water resources of the basin have been used intensively for a long time. For some purposes, use already has reached the limits of available supply. Serious conflicts in use may be arising. The flood plains are so densely occupied that floods do great damage. Conversely, periods of low flow bring other important difficulties. Most of the water control and other facilities have been installed by local government or private indus- try. These single-purpose projects have now gone about as far as is possible without creating serious conflicts. However, redevelopment of some exist- ing facilities offers opportunities for expansion. There are opportunities to initiate widespread additional beneficial uses of water resources. How- ever, these developments will have to be integrated carefully with the present intensive use. To be most useful, they should be part of a basin-wide program. There are needs and opportunities for increased water control and use in the basin but a compre- hensive program has not yet been prepared. Hydroelectric Power Capacity, Yearly Production, Areas Served Historically, the water power resources of New England have been of major importance. The widespread availability of water power at small sites capable of relatively easy development enabled New England to industrialize early and rapidly. Ever since those early days, manufacturing has been the backbone of the New England economy, and has gone far beyond the capacity of these sites to supply factories with energy. Total energy requirements in New England today are so large that hydroelec- tric power furnishes less than a fifth of the total. Steam power meets nearly all of the base load. Hydroelectric power developed in the Connecti- cut Basin is marketed throughout New England, except Maine. A Maine law prohibits the export of electric energy from that State by corporations, except by special act of the legislature, and in con- sequence, as far as electric power facilities are con- cerned, Maine is isolated from the rest of New Eng- land. A fairly high degree of coordination of elec- tric facilities exists within the five-State area. In planning for the best use of its electric power poten- tialities, the Connecticut Basin cannot be separated from the New England region as a whole. There is no Federal hydroelectric generating plant in the basin. There are 22 non-Federal hydroelectric utility plants of 2,500 kilowatts or more installed capacity, providing a total ultimate installation of 415,040 kilowatts. Most of this power is produced by plants on the main stem and on the Deerfield River. The largest plants are Comerford in New Hampshire and Vermont; Bel- lows Falls and Vernon in Vermont, and Cabot, Mass., on the main stream; Harriman, Vt., on the Deerfield River; and Cobble Mountain, Mass., in the Westfield River Basin. A total installed capacity of about 26,000 kilo- watts is available at 40 additional small utility plants of less than 2,500 kilowatts capacity. Many of these plants are municipally owned or operated. Industrial plants have 67 hydroelectric power plants with a total installed capacity of about 42.500 kilowatts. The estimated average annual genera- tion of these small utility plants and industrial plants is about 68 million kilowatt-hours. Total usable power storage capacity at existing hydroelectric developments amounts to about 243,- 500 acre-feet. The largest reservoirs are Comer- 473 |