cities and crowded communities is impossible, unless a substitute is devised." The future welfare of the nation requires that all practicable means be employed for the conservation of the supply of coal. Power derived from water is utilizing energy otherwise wasted. It is an increment to our assets which entails no loss of other resources. After all is said, the water-power resources of New York are limited, when consideration is given to the astonishingly rapid rate of increase in population. To insure the preservation of the water powers and to se subjects for serious thought on the part of the people and the lawmakers of the State. Succinctly stated, the wise conservation of the water supply means: water-works. He called attention to the cure the maximum practical utilization are necessity of providing comprehensive plans for water storage and just regulation for the public benefit. The legislature responded by directing the commission to "devise plans for the progressive development of the water powers of the State under State ownership, control, and maintenance for the public use and benefit, and for the increase of the public revenue." By this legislation, the State of New York originated an unique experiment in the annals of American commonwealths. REASONS FOR UNDERTAKING THE WORK There is no issue of more vital importance before the American people to-day than that of conserving our natural resources, and no phase of this question more directly concerns the present and future economic and industrial development of New York than the proper conservation of the water resources of that State. One of the most valuable assets of the State is the water flowing in her streams. Their complete regulation and utilization will be fundamentally beneficial, not alone to the State, but to the whole country as well, for it provides for an enlargement of the industrial and commercial activities and increase of individual opportunity for employment, and a corresponding increase in human happiness. Someone has said, "Without coal our domestic and industrial life are 1. Water power developed in every region. where people live, such development increasing largely the output of plants now in operation, creating opportunities for the establishment of many others, giving employment to thousands of skilled and unskilled laborers. 2. Indefinite postponement of the coalless inconceivable and our existence in great AN UNDEVELOPED WATER POWER ON THE RAQUETTE A VIEW NEAR AVON, SHOWING EFFECT OF THE 1909 FLOOD ON THE GENESEE RIVER of families and add millions to the taxable property of the State. 5. The restoration of healthful conditions in the valleys. 6. The transformation of unsightly swamps into beautiful lakes in the scenic playground of the people. 7. By increasing the low water flow of the polluted streams a dilution will result which will improve sanitary conditions. 8. Navigation will be benefited on the streams and transportation facilities will be extended on the reservoirs. 9. The water supply of growing communities will be increased and improved. THE ESTHETIC SIDE OF In the formulation of its plans for constructing large reservoirs in the Adirondack parks and other scenic regions of the State, the commission has been mindful of the attitude of the people towards any proposed change in the natural appearance. Due consideration, therefore, has been given to the preservation of all the natural beauty and charm and the plans pro posed will change ugliness into beauty, and solitary swamps into sanitary places. The great storage reservoirs will become attractive lakes, whose margins will be cleared of all growth, leaving clean sandy beaches or bold rocky slopes instead of a tangled mass of decaying vegetable matter, such as is found on other reservoir systems constructed without consideration of either health or appearance. These reservoirs, so far from impairing the healthfulness or STATE LAND, NEITHER BEAUTIFUL NCR VALUABLE, TO BE FLOODED BY THE RESERVOIRS THE PIERCEFIELD DAM, RAQUETTE RIVER (The mill shut down on account of lack of water. Had the floods been stored the water would have operated the mill throughout the dry season) report, the legislature made provisions for the continuance of the investigation. The commission at once increased its force of engineers and began investigations of the water powers of all of the larger rivers of the State, developed and undeveloped. Carefully prepared plans were made for the development of storage on the headwaters of the Raquette, Genesee, and the upper Hudson, and a reconnaissance made on the Black, Oswegatchie, St. Regis, Salmon, Delaware, Susquehanna, and other smaller streams. The plans and estimates for storage on the Hudson, Genesee, and Raquette have been carried to the point where definite recommendations can be submitted to the the scenery of the region, will enhance legislature and construction commenced. the beauty of the forests and increase One of the duties imposed upon the comthe attractiveness of the lakes as summer mission by the legislature is the recom resorts. WORK OF THE COMMISSION The scope of the investigation which the commission was directed to undertake was broad, the interests involved extensive, valuable, and complex, and the information to be obtained great in amount and technical in nature. At the outset the commission recognized the impossibility of devising plans in the limited period of eighteen months for the complete development of the water resources of the State which properly might be considered under the provisions of the law. The first year's work was, therefore, confined largely to a critical survey of a few of the most promising sites for power development, and a report was submitted to the Governor and the Legislature in February, 1908. This important engineering work was instrusted to Mr. John R. Freeman, one of the most eminent hydraulic engineers of the country. Under his direction, in 1908, studies were made of reservoir sites of two important streams; the Sacandaga, a tributary of the Hudson, at Conklingville, and the Genesee River at Portageville. After due consideration of the preliminary THE PIERCEFIELD DAM IN FLOOD (Showing waste water in the spring. which will be stored by the State reservoirs) mendation of specific projects, the construc- the construction of reservoirs, and also tion of which was to be undertaken first, authorizing the commission, with the apwith estimates of cost and plans for con- proval of the Governor, to proceed with the struction. construction of the reservoirs. According to In considering the selection of the first the Constitution of the State of New York, projects for development, there are several general considerations which will necessarily be taken into account: 1. A project will be selected which is desired by the owners of the property on the river and for which they have made a request and have expressed a willingness to bear the financial requirements, in accordance with the terms of the new bill to be introduced at the next session of the legislature. 2. There should be companies, individuals, or municipalities benefited by the project of sufficient financial importance to carry the financial load. 3. As large a population as possible should be benefited by the project. 4. The fact that many new water powers would be made available and valuable would be important. 5. The creation or improvement of inland navigation either by the lake area or by increased depth of the river. 6. The flooding of marshes, lowlands and stagnant water. 7. The general effect upon the scenic conditions and upon villages, camps, and country homes. The this bill cannot become a law until approved by a general vote of the people of the State, in view of the fact that it appropriates an amount greater than one million dollars. It is not the purpose of this bill that the State shall permanently bear the expenses of the construction of these reservoirs, but rather that the State shall advance the money for construction, and this money shall be returned gradually in the form of assessments upon those benefited by the storage. State will issue bonds (perhaps to run forty years) to the amount required for the construction of the first projects. Benefits will be assessed upon the various water-power owners on the river below the reservoir for the advantages received by them from the regulated flow. Individual landholders and corporations, including municipalities, will be assessed in proportion to their benefits from this storage due to the prevention of floods, sanitation, or otherwise. The State is to own perpetually in fee the reservoirs, and is to control the regulation. The assessments for benefits will be of such amounts that the interest on the State bonds with proper sinking fund will be taken care of, so that at the end of the bond 8. The effect upon highways and railroads period the State will own the regulating must be taken into account. 9. The absolute avoidance of the creation of new marshes and large areas of marsh lands alternately flooded and dried. 10. Considerations of State land unlawful to flood under the present Constitution. 11. Local conditions making delay in certain proposition desirable. basins, and will have the cost of the construction of same with interest returned to the State Treasury. The primary object of the construction of the State reservoirs is the regulation of the flow of the river throughout its course, a thereby increasing the values of water powers and reducing the destruction by 12. Cost of project in relation to benefits floods, benefiting navigation, improving derived. 13. Possibility of establishment of new industries and new communities on account of increased power developed at the State dam, or at other sites along the river. 14. Increased healthfulness owing to greater minimum flow or decrease of swamp area. At the same time that the recommendations of the commission are presented to the legislature, a new bill will be introduced providing for the issuing of bonds to an amount not exceeding twenty million dollars, the proceeds of these bonds to be utilized in the purchase of land for reservoir sites and sanitary conditions, etc. Incidentally, at most of the State dams there will be the possibility of creating water powers of immense size, as on the Sacandaga, where 75,oco horse power can be developed. It is planned that this power in the form of water discharged from the reservoir shall be leased to the highest bidder, especial preference being given to the bidder who will use such power for the creation of new enterprises and the employment of men. It has been suggested that the State might install at such a dam-site a power-house with waterwheels and generators and transmit the power electrically to some city where there is Then, too, many of the reservoirs for the regulation of New York streams will be constructed in the Adirondack Mountains, in which every citizen of the State, in fact, every American, has the deepest concern that there shall be no destruction of beauty or healthfulness in this region and that it may be always retained as a play-ground and health-seeking region for all. FLOODING NEED NOT BE INJURIOUS The method of creating storage reservoirs used almost universally by private corporations or associations is to purchase the land for the reservoir, construct as cheap a dam as possible at the outlet, and to fill the reservoir with water without clearing the reservoir site of its trees and underbrush, or preparing in the slightest degree the new shore line. It is the purpose of the State, however, to see to it that all trees are removed from the reservoir and that the shore line is carefully prepared in such a way as to add to the beauty of the region and to do away with all low and marshy places. a ready market, the State thereby entering preventing the possibility of the breaking of into competition with other electric plants, the dam and the consequent loss of life, and and by selling power at a reasonable price, destruction of property in the valley below. in a general way regulate the price for power in that immediate vicinity. It is not the purpose of the State, however, to enter into the field of producing electric power, but rather to lease the water to individuals who may install their own generating plants and utilize power for general manufacturing purposes. This has been done for many years by the general Government at dams built for the benefit of navigation and more recently has been taken up in precisely the same way by the United States Reclamation Service, at sites where large amounts of water would otherwise have been wasted at dams constructed primarily for irrigation. WHY THE STATE SHOULD DO THIS WORK The reasons for the State undertaking this important work, rather than an individual or association, will be clear when it is appreciated how widespread and important the results will be to an immense number of individuals and corporations whose interests are varied and occasionally somewhat antagonistic. By means of a comprehensive policy, taking into consideration present and future development of all parts of every stream, the State can control hydraulic development as conditions demand and eventually realize the most complete and economic utilization possible. Development by private enterprise would involve limitations and wasteful methods. Individuals or corporations cannot exercise the necessary power of condemnation required for the creation of water storage. Co-operation between a number of mill owners for the purpose of river control has been shown to be peculiarly difficult to arrange, the benefits hard to apportion to the satisfaction of all, and with such control there is always danger of only partial development in such a way as to preclude the possibility of complete utilization of either the storage or power. The State, however, having the financial ability to make great expenditures and to wait many years, if necessary, for the return on its outlay, could lay out comprehensive plans for the complete utilization of the river resources, building, if desirable, these works in sections as required, but all in accordance with the plan that will eventually utilize every resource of the river. The State would also see to it that all dams and reservoirs should be well constructed, thereby Mr. William T. Donnelly, a consulting engineer in New York City, has recently visited most of the sites chosen for reservoirs, representing the Manufacturers' Association of New York. In his report he states "that there is not the least danger that the flooding will injure the forest or other lands. The work is more in the nature of restoring former lake levels which have been lowered by the bearing down of the barriers which formed them. Wherever deposits were made below the surface of original lake levels there now exist marshes and swamps which cannot be drained and are very unsightly and impossible to use for pleasure or other purposes. The restoration of the original lake levels, in my judgment, can be made to add much to the beauty and attractiveness of the whole region." The State of New York now owns in the Adirondacks 1,322,736 acres, known as the Adirondack Park. If all of the reservoirs now planned by the commission were constructed, it would involve about 20,109 acres of State holdings, which represents barely 12 per cent. of the State lands.. At least one-half of this land is now worthless swamp and large areas are at the present time subject to intermittent flooding for lumbering purposes, and of this 20,109 acres, |