LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. GIFT OF PUBLIC BENEFITS DERIVED FROM WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC BENEFITS DERIVED FROM WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS IN CALIFORNIA By JOHN MARTIN SAN FRANCISCO Read at 17th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Gas Association, held in San Francisco, California, Sept. 21-23, 1909 PUBLIC BENEFITS DERIVED FROM WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. JOHN MARTIN, SAN FRANCISCO. Read at Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Gas Association, held in San Francisco, Cali- fornia, September 21-23, 1909. In the early days of California mining, the streams were utilized very generally to aid in the extraction of gold by ground sluicing, hydraulic mining and for power purposes in the develop- ment of quartz mines. During the progress of this industry the engineers were confronted with many problems in hydraulics which they were able to master satisfactorily. Owing to the climatic conditions of Cali- fornia with its well known wet and dry seasons, it became necessary for the mine owners to in- sure a continuous supply of water during the dry season, which resulted in the construction of a large number of reservoirs; the dams which im- pounded the water were many and of varied types, all of which are well known to the engi- neers of this day. The effect of hydraulic mining, particularly S g of Hydraulic in the northern portion of the State, resulted in 4 PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM the filling of the river beds with debris to such an extent as to threaten the agricultural interests throughout the great Sacramento and San Joa- quin Valleys. As the beds of these streams would rise it necessitated the construction of levees, in- volving the expenditure of many, many millions of dollars to protect the agricultural lands from inundation and finally resulted in national legis- lation, practically prohibiting this method of mining except under the most severe restrictions, involving the impounding of the debris. As a result, this industry ceased to be a factor in the State's production of wealth and left a number of these properties with their expensive hydraulic development almost valueless. use for irrigation After the cessation of hydraulic mining, the companies owning these reservoirs, flumes and ditches, were able to obtain a small revenue from a limited use of some of the water for irrigation purposes, and in time, as man became more con- versant with its proper application, this use be- came more general ; particularly in the irrigation of deciduous and citrus fruit trees. Shortly after the final cessation of hydraulic mining the development of the transmission of electrical energy for long distances was taken up very earnestly, and in some instances the hydrau- lic development made for mining purposes be- came available for this new enterprise. An im- petus was also given to this industry in sections where volumes of water were available under low heads or where small amounts of water were available continuously under high heads. WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS 5 On August 1 8, 1892, the very first alternating Dtve y ioKt" EIectric current power transmission plant began opera- tion ; this was at the Standard Consolidated Mine in Bodie, California, operating one I2o-kilowatt single-phase generator and transmitting the cur- rent thirteen miles to the mine where a motor of similar voltage received the current to operate the mining machinery. This was the pioneer electric power transmission installation in Cali- fornia, and I believe in the United States. In October, 1892, a transmission line of eighteen miles and twenty-eight miles was con- structed in Southern California by the San An- tonio Light & Power Co. to Pomona and San Bernardino, operating at 10,000 volts, and in the summer of 1893, the first plant near Red- lands began its operation with one i^oo-horse- power generator, transforming and transmitting at 11,000 volts to Riverside and Colton. This industry has grown until now in Septem- Total Development ber, 1909, over 380,000 horse-power has been de- veloped and is in operation in California. There were numerous difficulties to be over- come and problems to be solved in the develop- ment and perfection of long distance transmis- sion, and the particular items which materially affected progress were the lack of proper in- sulators, transformers and motors. In the San Antonio plant in order to obtain a line pressure of 10,000 volts, it was necessary to connect twenty transformers in series, each trans- former being wound to produce 500 volts, and when connected in series produced a total of 6 PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM 10,000 volts; a similar number of transformers were used to reduce the pressure to the operating voltage at the delivery end. These transformers were small and necessarily very inefficient. At the present time the art has progressed to such an extent that transformers are extremely effi- cient and are built of any size required in one unit stepping up from generator voltage as high as 75,000 volts and (when used in star connec- tion) will produce a pressure of 130,000 volts. of The very rapid development of the induction Rapid Growth motor which came on the market in 1895, has re- sulted in the production of a thoroughly suitable, reliable and efficient piece of apparatus, capable of operating 365 days in the year and twenty-four hours of each day, without any particular atten- tion. When the transmission of current for long dis- tances was undertaken, the most serious problem presented was the insulation on the lines to pre- vent leakage and short circuits, and after many experiments, satisfactory materials, types of manufacture and construction have been pro- duced so as to overcome the line difficulties, in so far as insulation is concerned. vSSS? for High Tne necessity for high voltage in long distance transmission was requisite to keep down the total plant cost to such a basis as to make the enter- prise financially possible. In the development and construction of hydro- electric plants there has been a large variance in the cost of the hydraulic development, in some cases making the installation unprofitable. The WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS J great initial incentive for the rapid development of hydro-electric power plants in California was due to the then existing high fuel costs ; practi- cally all of our coal for power purposes was im- ported from Australia and British Columbia, necessitating not only marine transportation but an import duty. At the time of the inception of this industry^ the production of oil in California was very limited. Before the true value of oil and proper methods of use were thoroughly known, the sell- ing price in Los Angeles was as low as 25 cents per barrel, which is equivalent to $1.00 per ton for the very best grade of bituminous coal, and as long as prices remained so low, the incentive for hydro-electric development was removed, be- cause the fuel costs were more than able to com- pete. As this price for oil meant loss to pro- ducers, it resulted in increased selling price until now the approximate selling price in Los Ang- eles is 75 cents per barrel, and in San Francisco, $1.00 per barrel. During the last few years immense tracts of conservation timber lands have been withdrawn from entry on the part of the Government for the purpose of conserving the timber for future generations and also for conserving the waters in the streams, upon the basis that Nature's gifts belong to the people, and that national restriction alone can affect beneficial results. During the past few months considerable pub- Publicity licity has been given to this matter and to such an extent as to indicate to the average mind that 8 PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM Early Efforts Favor- ing Irrigation of Arid Lands Limit of Appropriations some terrible injury has been inflicted upon the American people by developments which have taken place in hydro-electric transmission. These natural gifts can never be of service to the people until developed and the development is practically dependent upon private enterprise. If this development depended upon govern- mental action^ it would take twenty or more years to obtain the first results. Such was the case with the irrigation projects which have shown development for the first time during the last term of President Roosevelt. In the early Eighties, Senator John T. Morgan of Alabama began the agitation in Congress for appropriations looking toward the irrigation of arid lands, and each year he would promptly annex a rider to the Appropriation Bill, which rider was as promptly shelved. His persistency and his foresight in this work finally compelled recognition, which resulted in Congressional ap- propriations of a revolving fund now being used for this work. Unless this fund is materially in- creased, future developments will be very limited and only a tithe of the great scheme will have been accomplished in our day. Our National Government has apparently reached the limit beyond which our statesmen will not go in making appropriations looking to the forwarding of the irrigation of arid lands, forest reserve and re-forestation. If this be true, there could be no development beyond the lim- ited amounts available from year to year as re- turns upon the existing expenditures, and unless WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS private capital and enterprise takes hold the extension of this grand work will necessarily be limited. After years of investigation of the climatolog- ical, geological and forestry conditions in the mountainous sections of California, with relation to the conservation of water, I submit that THE QUANTITY OF RAINFALL PER SEA- SON IS NO GUIDE TO follow with relation to the MINIMUM FLOW OF THE STREAMS during the summer months. The geological formations in the various 'watersheds are solely responsible for the mini- mum flow, except where augmented by artificial conservation. In watersheds where numerous old river chan- nels or lava cappings exist, the minimum flow will be very uniform each summer, irrespective of the amount of rainfall during the preceding season. As an illustration: On the North Yuba River in the summer of 1898, the minimum flow at Bay Counties Power Company's dam was practically 250 second feet. The preceding rainy season^ 1897-8, was the lowest of record for fifty years. The minimum annual flow has not varied ten per cent during any of the succeeding years, although the rainfall has been from two to four times as great. The water which is stored in this watershed in the old river channels is of approximate equal capacity annually, and when the surplus run-off ceases, this "underground storage" (as I term it) Geology and Mininaum 10 PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM gives forth its normal quantity, except when re- stricted by the heating of the earth's surface dur- ing the summer, which results in evaporation to a greater or less degree ; and it is this degree of variation in summer temperatures annually which affects the minimum flow in such water- sheds and then only to a minor degree. Under * round Per contra, in watersheds where few or no old river channels abound because of the massive rock formations extant throughout, the oppor- tunities for underground storage are very re- stricted and the run-off is almost immediate, save for the saturation of the thin soils which cover these rock formations. In consequence the streams reach maximum flow shortly after the commencement of precipi- tation (save for frozen storage due to low tem- peratures following the rains) and reach low periods shortly after the melting of the frozen storage. In the case of frozen storage, this is frequently eliminated during some seasons in April, May and June, due to high temperatures and warm rains. As a result, such watersheds are of little value for minimum flow during the summer months. Land ti to MiJmum red Timbered lands in any of these watersheds af- Flow ford no water storage available during the very dry summer months, particularly July and August, and they also furnish less opportunity for the accumulation of frozen storage in the winter. WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS II The experience of mountaineers demonstrates that snow-fall does not accumulate as rapidly in growing timber as upon the open bare groundj and there is practically no opportunity for the pack of said snows and formation of ice (which alone will insure a longer term of supply) due to the warmth of the trees obtained from sun- shine and transmitted to the ground. The only advantage of timber and vegetation is to delay the gravitation of water by preventing quick run- off, but after the rain ceases, the constant increas- ing temperatures with the approach of the sum- mer months will finally melt and evaporate the moisture which is upon the ground and for some distance under the surface. The snow which is formed into ice on the barren soil will melt much more slowly and furnish a run-off for a much longer period. On many streams it is necessary to provide ^ t e c r e a s ^ y for from 1 80 to 210 days of conservation to insure uniform daily supply to the hydro-electric plant and provide for evaporation and leakage in tran- sit. As a result of the maintenance of a continuous flow throughout the year made necessary for the successful operation of hydro-electric transmis- sion, the waters so conserved are available and are used by the agriculturists for irrigation dur- ing the dry season and at the time when wanted, which would not be the case had not the waters been so conserved. The many early financial failures in California ^f**gy iSS?es nies of irrigation districts and companies were due to 12 PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM the fact, that the price which the agriculturist could afford to pay for his uses did not produce revenue enough to pay the costs of operation, maintenance, interest on the cost of installation, and depreciation. This has demonstrated that conservation of the waters for irrigation purposes (except a few isolated cases) will not prove a profitable venture. This condition is reversed, however, where the conservation is made for hydro-electric purposes and the uniform flow is made available for agri- cultural purposes. Little or no credit has been given to the pio- neers and capitalists who have assisted in the de- velopment of hydro-electric transmission, which is fraught with more permanent gain to the State than any similar expenditure of money in any other enterprise. The man who purchases real estate in a city personally accumulates wealth, due to the in- creased value thereof, resulting from increased population and necessarily increased producing capacity of said lands when buildings are erected. As a matter of fact this citizen has done nothing toward the upbuilding of the country or in the production of its wealth, and his entire profit is realized as a result of increased population, due to the effort of other citizens in the utilization of capital for industrial and agricultural develop- ment. Among those who have made this growth possible by the application of energy, brains and capital, and the assumption of all risks, are the pioneers and developers of hydro-electric trans- WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS 13 mission. If the amount of energy, brains and capital had been applied by these people in the purchase of real estate in the large cities of the Pacific Coast since 1892, and others had been found who would have made the developments in the various lines of industry which have been made, the profits accruing from such real estate investments would undoubtedly have been ten fold more than the profits which have been made in the development of the industries that have meant so much to the increasing population and necessarily increasing wealth production on the Pacific Coast during that period. And the mo- tives which prompt these developments are not always for financial gain only, many of the pioneers have felt greater initiative and reward in the fact that they were doing something toward the upbuilding of their State, in making two blades of grass grow where none or one grew be- fore, than in the sense of financial gain and the comforts and pleasures that would be obtained from the use thereof; and many and numerous are the sacrifices which have been made for the benefit of the communities in which these de- velopments were started for the purpose of as- sisting various new enterprises to become factors in the production of wealth. Many of these have been done at financial sacrifice and financial loss, and yet they were cheerfully done because of the sense of loyalty that was felt in the upbuilding of this great empire. The utilization of electric current for power Monopoly purposes has become general and the method of PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM Fuel Competition Stability of Investment production is not at all monopolistic. Power can be and is produced alike from wood, peat, coal and oil, and the owners of hydro-electric trans- mission plants have to meet competition with these fuels in their respective sections ; the selling price of the various commodities (particularly wood and coal) are regulated by the value of labor necessary to produce same, and yet we have many fluctuations in the selling price of these commodities, due to the law of supply and de- mand, but the great redeeming feature in this new development is the fact that when such plants are wisely and judiciously constructed with relation to the maximum output in connec- tion with the minimum supply of water, the in- stallation can be considered reliable enough to warrant the making of very long term contracts at uniform prices, thereby enabling industries to insure a permanent condition of cost, as far as fuel or power is concerned. This condition does not apply to any of the fuels which heretofore have been used. In consequence, investment in hydro-electric transmission is now looked upon as stable when properly and efficiently installed, and the in- vestor is satisfied with a smaller return than he would obtain from his investment in timber lands, or coal mines or oil wells, all of which necessitate not only an interest return upon the investment, but also a large annual return to re- place the original capital investment, owing to the short time limit of supply exhaustion. WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS 15 The National Government through its For- Restrictions by . . . Jborestry .Department estry Department is placing various restrictions upon the appropriations and use of water within the reservations. The only control which the Na- tional Government can exercise upon the waters within the State of California, is due to its right of ownership of land upon which and over which the water travels in its downward course to the ocean, and by placing the restrictions and impos- ing financial burdens upon the proposed use of said water, the Government is thereby increasing the cost of the power produced and placing the development of said water at a serious financial disadvantage in competition with other plants which are already installed and in operation. As a matter of wisdom on the part of the levefoTmente Early pioneers, it is safe to assert that the most economi- cal developments available in this State, in re- lation to the total cost of the plant, have already been developed or are in possession of the exist- ing companies, and that condition of itself will tend to retard the development of other available sources to the extent of the ability of the new developments to compete with the established plants and the profits insured from the new in- stallations must necessarily be less when entering into competition. All water rights in California, (except on pub- M n oTo u P r o a iy ing lie lands,) are State property, and laws have been established for their appropriation and use, over which the National Government has no control. // the plans of conservation of the waters on Government lands prohibit future development i6 PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM Restriction of Development Public Benefits Cement Industry by private enterprise, the result will be the en- couragement of the formation of a monopoly of the existing interests, but even this will be very remote, due to the many conflicting interests in- volved throughout the State of California. The plan of procedure with relation to the utilization of water in the forest reserve for power development, will also restrict the invest- ment of private capital, due to the limit of time for which the rights are granted. The Department has apparently lost sight of the value resulting from private development, in that the water which is being used by the various power plants to-day is not absorbed or consumed, but the waters continue to flow on for man's uses equally as much as if developed specifically for those purposes. There are many industries in this State now producing and materially assisting in the State's wealth production, which otherwise would not be a factor except for the developments which have been made in hydro-electric transmission. A notable example is the cement industry, en- tirely new in California within the past ten years. They are very large users of power for driving the machinery and for fuel for burning the ma- terial. Owing to the conditions existing with hydro-electric plants, these companies are able to and have made very long term contracts at uni- form low prices for all their electric power, and in most cases when these contracts were made, oil was selling in their districts at from 25 cents to 40 cents per barrel, and it was in competition WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS 17 with oil at those prices that the owners deter- mined the rate to be paid for its electric current supply; these prices have not been raised and cannot be raised, thereby insuring a low cost of production so far as power is concerned. On the other hand, the price of oil to-day is more than double the price at which their con- tracts were initially made, and if they could not have made those long term contracts for cur- rent at a uniform low cost this industry would not have been financed initially, because of an absence of insurance against increased cost of production whereby their plants might become idle in competition with foreign production, which heretofore supplied the entire market. Another very large industry might be men- Gold Dred * in * tioned in this connection; that is the recovery of gold by the use of dredges in lands adjacent to the streams of Northern California whereby the material is elevated from a depth in some cases of sixty to seventy feet below the surface of the ground, the material being then washed and passed over riffles to obtain the gold and re- turn the material immediately upon the ground which had been excavated, and as a result assist- ing in the wealth production of this State. More than one-third of the total production of gold in California in the year 1908 was produced by these dredges. The use of hydro-electric transmission is par- ticularly valuable in agricultural sections, where thousands of motors are now in use in the pump- ing of water to the surface for irrigation which otherwise would not have been permissible. 1 8 PUBLIC BENEFITS FROM The sources of water supply available for hydro-electric development are in the mountains of this State, and it is the aim, where possible, to obtain the use of this water under as high a head or pressure as physical conditions will permit, thereby usually minimizing the cost of development. These supplies of water are available from the ordinary flow in the streams for many months of the year, but owing to our wet and dry seasons many of the hydro-electric plants are dependent upon the conservation of water in reservoirs where the underground stor- age or the melting of frozen conservation is not sufficient for a minimum flow equal to the maxi- mum requirement of the plant during the sum- mer months, and as a result these waters are im- pounded during the rainy season at a time when the conservation of this surplus water is of no disadvantage to any users below. On the other hand, by the conservation of this water in the winter and the use of same uniformly through the summer months, the various streams, partic- Fio g " ularly the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, have had their minimum flow augmented to such an extent as to make river transportation to many points possible, which would other- wise not be reached during the dry months of the summer by steamer, owing to the formation of bars in the streams at low water. Additional Agncui- Without this added flow at low water, the tural Lands Available .. . , , . ' , area of agricultural production in many of the rich bottom lands of this State would be cur- tailed, due to restriction of transportation and irrigation facilities. WATER POWER DEVELOPMENTS 19 The companies operating in the forests and p tecti