Checking the Waste: A Study in Conservation

by Mary Huston Gregory

In California 250,000 horse-power is now in operation, and 5,000,000 horse-power might easily be developed in that state alone, which at the price of coal would be worth a billion dollars a year.

New England has the oldest system of water-power control, because before the era of steam it was the chief manufacturing region of the country. The Merrimac, flowing through New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is the most carefully conserved river in the world, and Governor Dingley of Maine said that the water-power of Maine is equal to the working energy of 13,000,000 men.

The money value is counted at twenty dollars a year per horse power, but it frequently brings as high as one hundred or even one hundred and fifty dollars a year in a good manufacturing region, so that the value of our water-power facilities can hardly be computed.

An ideal picture of the harmonious development of our water resources for all purposes is one that is not too difficult to realize. It is the ideal that should be always before us in the improvement of our waterways, and we should bear in mind that although the expense will be heavy, it will not cost more than one-tenth as much to improve all the important waterways as to equip the railways to carry the traffic they will be called on to carry in the next ten years; and also that in the past, for every dollar that has been spent on waterways, almost twenty-five dollars has been spent on railways. The railways are a great and important part of our national development, but the waterways should not be neglected. Rather, the two should be so harmonized and adjusted as to make one great commercial system that will furnish cheap and abundant transportation for all our commerce.

The most complete plan for conserving our waters is as follows: First, build storage reservoirs along the upper stretches of the river to hold the overflow waters of the flood season which are to be turned into the main channel when the water becomes too low for ordinary navigation.

These storage reservoirs should be on the lowest grade of land, that which would be least productive. The reservoirs should be well stocked with the best varieties of fish to make them profitable. The banks should be planted with forest trees and made as attractive as they can be made to form public parks and pleasure grounds for the people, where boating, fishing and bathing may be enjoyed.

The next point is to remove all obstructions from the river, to canalize it at shallow places or rapids, so that the whole river will be navigable, and, if necessary, to deepen the channel so that it will carry large vessels between two important points.

Dams should be built to take advantage of every opportunity for water-power. One of the worst mistakes in the past has been the failure to use the power that might have been developed in improving the streams for navigation.

Rivers should be made profitable still further by stocking with fish and should be kept clear of factory refuse and sewage. Soil-wash should be lessened by planting trees and shrubs along the banks; and where overflow or erosion lowers the value of the land or repeatedly ruins the crops, dykes and levees should be built.

The rivers most important commercially should be improved first. Canals should be cut between waterways where large benefits will result; overflow and swamp land should be drained, and in arid regions every particle of water conserved for irrigation purposes.