OCR Text |
Show DEVELOPMENT Of as proposed by Division Engineer, Corps of Enginee: through a precipitous gorge the river descends 156 feet in 14 miles from the Fall Line at Great Falls to tidewater. The gorge furnishes favorable sites for dams, and the fall offers an unusual opportunity to produce substantial heads of water for power production.. Surveys indicate that approximately one-half of the entire power potential of the Po- tomac would be realized by using the head devel- oped from Great Falls down to tidewater. (See figure 2.) At the sa.me time the gorge borders the District of Columbia and traverses the populous Washington metropolitan area. As such, it is a natural land- scape in the heart of a great city which contains 604 FIGURE 2. many features of historical, scenic, and recreational interest. In the survey by the Corps of Engineers, the dis- trict engineer recommended a multiple-purpose dam and reservoir plan. Of the 14 reservoir projects, 8 were designated as multiple-purpose, and 6 were designated as power projects. It was estimated that the plan would produce annual benefits of 15.7 million dollars, of which 14.3 million dollars were from power. Approximately $500,000 benefits were assigned to pollution abatement, and some $250,000 benefits each to flood control and recreation. The economic feasibility of the proposed plan de- pended upon power. Important to the full realiza- |