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Show of March 1936 overtopped these channel walls, causing considerable further damage. Numerous communities in the mountainous reaches of the river and its tributaries built some form of flood control works during the period 1936- 40 with assistance by the Works Progress Adminis- tration. The structures consisted generally of stream bank revetments and channel walls, and in most instances are inadequate or afford protection only against the frequent minor overflows. The local flood control project for Washington, D. C, comprises levees, walls, and raising of street grades. It was constructed between 1937 and 1943 to protect Federal and private buildings along Con- stitution and Pennsylvania Avenues, and for the protection of Boiling Field and the Anacostia Naval Air Station. Modification * has been authorized to eliminate emergency measures during floods. Tide or flood- gates have been installed on all outlet sewers, and interior drainage is handled through the regular sewage pumping plant of the District of Columbia. Facilities Under Construction and Authorized The local flood protection project for Cumber- land, Md., and Ridgeley, W. Va., consists of levees, walls, channel excavation and paving, pressure con- duits, sewers, and pumping stations for interior drainage. It also includes removal and reconstruc- tion of the old Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Dam, now used for industrial water supply, and altera- tions and reconstruction of highway and railroad bridges. Floods have caused 9.3 million dollars of damage to this locality during the past 50 years. The Savage River Dam, sponsored by the Upper Potomac River Commission to supplement low stream flows for industrial water supply, was started in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration. The dam was about 60 percent complete in 1942, when construction halted because of the war. Construc- tion to finish the project, started by the Corps of Engineers in 1949, is scheduled to be completed in 1951. The project consists of an earth and rock- fill dam, with a storage capacity of 20,000 acre-feet. It will control the runoff from a drainage area of 105 square miles. The dam will regulate the flow of the north, branch of the Potomac at Bloomington, Md., to a minimum of 93 cubic feet per second from a previous minimum flow of 23 cubic feet per second. * Act of July 24, 1946, § 10, 60 Stat. 641, 644. 586 Local flood protection projects for Waynesboro, Va., and on the Anacostia River in the District of Columbia and Maryland have been authorized. Plans for the latter call for local protection works along upper Anacostia River and the lower sections of its northwest and northeast branches. Projects Authorized for Study A number of other local flood control projects are being planned by the Corps of Engineers at Hyndman, Pa.; Front Royal, Va.; Hagerstown and Williamsport, Md.; on the North River, Va.; and the south branch of the Potomac in West Virginia. Hydroelectric Power Capacity, Yearly Production, Areas Served Although the Potomac River Basin has long been recognized as a water power source of some im- portance, little use has been and is being made of its potentialities. There are only two existing hy- droelectric plants of 2,500 kilowatts or more in- stalled capacity in the watershed. The Dalecarlia plant, with 3,000 kilowatts installed capacity and annual generation of about 5 million kilowatt-hours, is operated by the Corps of Engineers in connection with the water supply system for Washington, D. C. The Millville plant, with 2,840 kilowatts capacity and annual output of approximately 18 million kilowatt-hours, is located on the Shenandoah River and operated by the Potomac Light & Power Co. (See table 1.) In addition to the two plants men- tioned above, there are 18 small utility plants of less than 2,500 kilowatt capacity having a total in- stallation of about 12,000 kilowatts and one hydro- electric plant of an industrial establishment having an installed capacity of 785 kilowatts. The esti- mated average annual generation of these small utility plants and the industrial plant is about 67 million killowatt-hours. The primary market for the undeveloped hydro- electric power in the Potomac River Basin (see table 1) is in a limited area immediately adjacent to the watershed, comprising a part of eastern Mary- land, the District of Columbia, and most of Virginia. Electric energy requirements in that area amounted to about 9.2 billion kilowatt-hours in 1948, and are expected to increase to approximately 17.4 billion kilowatt-hours in 1970. The maximum demand upon utilities serving the area is expected to increase |
