Whirlpool on the Columbia

In the booming Pacific Northwest, where electric power is all-important, power will soon be in desperately short supply. Since 1934, a total of $1.8 billion, most of it federal money, has been spent on dams to harness the Columbia River and produce 3,000,000 kw. of power for industrial expansion. In the next 20 years the Northwest will need up to 9,000,000 kw. more, costing from $3.5 to $7 billion. But because of wrangling and bitter competition between public and private powermen, only three big dams are currently under construction, and no new dams have been started since 1952. The Longview, Wash. News put it bluntly: "The Northwest power situation is in a chaotic state. Almost anything would be better than what we are trying to get along with now."

Last week Northwest powermen thought they had one answer to the problem. They proposed a huge, international program that could serve as a model for developing the entire Columbia Basin. The project: a dam and power network at Mica Creek, B.C. (see map) that would back up twice as much water as Grand Coulee Dam, serve Canada and the U.S. with a whopping 3,000,000 kw. of new power.

Share & Share Alike. A group of five Northwest power companies, headed by Paul Raver, onetime Bonneville Power administrator and now president of Seattle's city-owned Municipal Light and Power System, want to build a 700-ft. high, $250-million earth-fill dam across the Columbia where it winds through the Canadian wilderness. At the dam itself and two other sites between Mica Creek and the border, Canada could build powerhouses to produce 1,700,000 kw. of power. The Canadian government would also release enough water from Mica Creek during the dry winter months to produce 1,240,000 additional kw. at Grand Coulee and two other federal dams now under construction: Chief Joseph and The Dalles.

Under the proposed deal, one of the five U.S. companies, probably the Puget Sound Power & Light Co., would build the dam, turn it over to Canada free. In return, Puget Sound would get an 800,000-kw. share of the new power produced in the U.S. (a portion of which it would resell to the other companies), leaving 440,000 kw. for the federal-power network. Total cost to the company for the Mica Creek dam: $700 million, which it would pay off at the rate of $14 million annually for 50 years through the sale of low-cost power.

Salmon & Aluminum. In Washington and Ottawa last week, both the U.S. and Canadian governments were enthusiastic about the new plan, praised it for its cooperative approach. Besides Mica Creek, federal and private dam builders have projects for 49 more dams with a combined potential of some 11,900.000 kw., enough to give the Northwest power aplenty. But on most of them, battles over who shall build the dams, water rights, etc. are blocking construction. One of the most serious fights is between dam builders and conservation groups. So far, conservationists have filed "major" objections to 20 projects, "minor" objections on another 16. Some big projects and their troubles:

P: The proposed $263-million federal Libby Dam (600,000 kw.) on Montana's Kootenay River is being blocked by objections from Canada, where the water would be stored, and by railroad and conservation interests.

P: The $320-million John Day Dam (1,500,000 kw.), authorized by Congress for the Columbia, has been brought to a standstill by a fight over a private-power proposal to pay half the cost in return for a share of the power. t| At Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. wants to build a $25-million storage dam to provide 300.000 kw. of power, split it up between the U.S., Canada, and its Washington aluminum mills. But Canada may kill the program to protect its new $275-million aluminum complex at Kiti-mat (TIME, Aug. 16). C| At Priest Rapids on the Columbia, the Grant County Public Utility District and the Government have agreed to go shares on a $361-million dam to provide 640,000 kw. plus flood control, navigation and reclamation. But a court battle is raging with the Washington State Power Commission over Grant County's right to take the job.

P:At Boundary, Cowlitz and Rocky Reach on the Columbia and its tributaries, three dams are planned to produce 1,310,000 additional kw. of power, but fish interests and mining companies are so strongly opposed that the outlook is dim.

"The Only Way." To solve their power problems, many Northwest powermen think that eventually the Government will have to form a huge federal corporation to bring all the warring interests together. Such a Columbia River development commission would work much like the joint operation of the New York State Power Authority and the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway, use its authority to get low-cost financing for dams without controlling their actual operation. Says Puget Sound's President McLaughlin: "We've got to get working, and the only way is to work together. The day of large federal appropriations is gone. Obstructionism--kicking each other in the pants--is too costly for the region and for the country."

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