that has been established among the power producers in the Northwest, to add each piece at the proper time.

FEDERAL POWER PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES

Mr. KERR. Is it not a fact that this Pacific Northwest has more completed power than any other area in the United States?

Colonel POTTER. Except for TVA the Pacific Northwest has at this time a larger Federal power system than any other area. Eventually the Northwest system will be the largest in the country.

As you probably know, the Pacific Northwest is somewhat isolated by mountains on the east and mountains on the south. All of the power-private, public, and municipal-in the Pacific Northwest is operated in what they call the Northwest power pool. During the war an organization was formed, which sits in Portland, which takes account of the power that can be generated by all the plants in this one big pool and provides for the best generation and the best distribution for optimum benefit of the entire region. In effect, you have one distribution system and one generating system in the Pacific Northwest, with all of the producers as common producers and the power allocated out and the method of generation determined according to the needs almost day by day.

As an example, one of the dams may remain off the line for a week in order to conserve water, while the demand can be met by other generating units in that area, and then, as the high-demand peaks come from about November through February-the highest peaks come in the winter months-all of the hydroplants utilize the large part of their water during that season.

Mr. KERR. Will you put in the record for us the amount of power you presently obtain from Government activities in the Northwest compared with the total area of the country?

Colonel POTTER. Yes, sir.

(The information is as follows:)

Mr. KERR. Can you give us some understanding about the status of your planning? I notice you allot $820,000 to planning. Have you expended it and, if so, how did you expend it?

Colonel POTTER. The hydrographic and topographic surveys have been completed. They are the basis upon which we make our design. The geologic and the soils investigations and the hydrographic model tests have been initiated.

On an important dam like this, we make models of the spillway and put through it model floods, model operation schedules, to obtain the different design factors necessary. The design studies have been initiated and carried to the point where construction can be initiated as soon as we have the appropriation.

A continuing contract with an engineering firm for the design of the powerhouse hase been initiated, but in view of the fact that we received no money last year we had to hold that contract in abeyance. Nevertheless, the initial design for the powerhouse has been completed. Mr. KERR. The contract for the powerhouse has not been let, though; has it?

Colonel POTTER. Only for the design of the powerhouse, and we have let the contract for the design of the turbines and the generators. There was left remaining at the time my table was made up $6,000 of that $820,000. We had to stop work on the design, as we ran out of money.

Mr. KERR. Does that contemplate any borings would have to be made in the construction of this proposed dam?

Colonel POTTER. Most of the borings have been completed. The basis for the design is complete. We, of course, have not opened up the foundations to see what the little intimacies of the rock are, but we know the general picture of the foundation very well. This project has been under close study for at least 3 years.

Mr. KERR. The making of borings is the first activity?

Colonel POTTER. We do some of that in the survey report stage, and we have done a lot in this case; but, when we get into the design stage, a much higher percentage of the area is covered by borings to find out the details of the foundation conditions.

FISH LADDERS

Mr. KERR. Are you contemplating any fish ladders?

Colonel POTTER. Yes; fish ladders are to be provided in this dam. The subject of fish passing this dam has been the source of considerable discussion among all agencies, and the early construction of this dam has been agreed on by the Interagency Committee in the Pacific Northwest.

Mr. KERR. The Snake River is tributary to what river?

Colonel POTTER. The Snake feeds into the Columbia at Pasco, Wash. It is the largest tributary of the Columbia.

Mr. KERR. In what respect is this project tied to the three projects proposed on the Snake River?

Colonel POTTER. This is the lowest downstream of the four. It is about 10 miles above the mouth of Snake River, and the three above it take the navigation to Lewiston, Idaho.

Mr. KERR. Assuming this will be built, will the others have to be built?

Colonel POTTER. In order to take navigation to Lewiston, yes; but to produce this power, no. The addition of the ultimate power units at Ice Harbor depends on the control of the river above, but the three units

proposed for the initial installation will generate an important block of power with the water that is now available, without the upstream projects.

Mr. RABAUT. You spoke about fish ladders. That seemed to be a controversy in a lot of these projects before.

Colonel POTTER. Yes.

Mr. RABAUT. And we found there was a controversy between the departments. Do I understand from your statement that has all been settled and is agreeable to everybody now?

Colonel POTTER. Everybody does not agree fully as yet. Whether or not fish will go up several fish ladders as they proceed up the river has not yet been agreed on by everybody.

Mr. RABAUT. Is there anything comparable to this any place else? Colonel POTTER. There are fish ladders at Bonneville and ladders are going in at McNary.

Mr. RABAUT. Is it as high as this?

Colonel POTTER. McNary is not quite as high as Ice Harbor. Depending on the height of the dam, the fish ladder is just longer. Mr. TABER. How high is this?

Colonel POTTER. It is 100 feet from lower pool to upper pool. Mr. TABER. McNary is how high?

Colonel POTTER. About 90 feet from lower to upper pool.

Mr. RABAUT. This is higher than McNary?

Colonel POTTER. Yes, by a few feet.

Mr. RABAUT. Do fish go up McNary?

Colonel POTTER. McNary is not finished. But they go up the ladders at Bonneville. Bonneville has been in operation a number of years, and we have kept track of the fish that go up Bonneville. We make a complete study of that and report on it every year.

Mr. TABER. How high is that?

Mr. BEARD. At low water and normal pool level, the lift is 66 feet at Bonneville.

Mr. RABAUT. They go up 70 feet at Bonneville?

Colonel POTTER. A little less than 70 feet. There are two methods, Mr. Rabaut, for getting salmon over the dam. One of them is a system of step pools, where they can jump up from pool to pool; another is an elevator system, where they go into a tank and are lifted up to the higher pool.

Mr. RABAUT. They do not like the elevator system?

Colonel POTTER. We feel it will operate fine. There is a ladder at

Bonneville also.

Mr. BEARD. There are both at Bonneville, but the fish ladders themselves have been so successful that the elevator system is not being used.

Mr. RABAUT. If they go up 70 feet, is there any reason why they would not go up 90 feet?

Colonel POTTER. No reason that I know of, sir. Above Bonneville there is a natural falls called Celilo Falls, and I have seen moving pictures of the fish jumping those falls. If they go up Celilo Falls successfully—and they have since time immemorial-then they can surely go up the much easier ascent of the fish ladders. These ladders are to assure that the fish potential on the river will not fail.

Mr. TABER. How high is that?

Colonel POTTER. The highest jump they have to make at Celilo Falls is 15 or 20 feet in torrential waters.

Mr. TABER. How high are any of the fish ladders?

Colonel POTTER. The difference in water levels at any one weir in the ladders is adjustable within certain limits and operates best when adjusted between 1 foot and 12 feet. The greater number of fish use bypass openings in the weir and do not have to jump between levels. The history of Bonneville is that just as many fish get up as they will allow to go by the fish nets down below. The normal operation of the fishery is that a certain number of fish are permitted to go through before anybody starts fishing, and they are counted. After that, the fishermen are allowed to net them, and the lucky fish get through.

Mr. RABAUT. In these fish ladders there are little places like pools, and the water comes down in the pools?

Colonel POTTER. Yes, sir. There is circulating water in those pools of the ladders. The fish will go forward toward where the water is in motion; they won't go toward where the water is still.

Mr. RABAUT. That is because where the water is in motion they know there is something above that?

Colonel POTTER. They know there is something above that that makes the water come down.

Mr. RABAUT. How deep are the pools in those ladders?

Colonel POTTER. These pools are from 6 to 7 feet deep, each succeeding pool being at about 1 foot higher elevation.

Mr. TABER. How about coming down; do they go over the falls? Colonel POTTER. No, sir. They come down fingerling bypasses and over the ladders. A great many of them go through the water wheels. It is not known for certain whether an untoward number of them are killed going through the wheels. As I say, if the fish's life cycle is 4 or 5 years-and everybody seems to think it is no more than 4 or 5 years and Bonneville has been in operation over 5 years, then Bonneville has not hurt the fish run in the Columbia River.

Mr. BEARD. We are constantly working with the fish people of the Federal Government and also of the States to improve these methods.

Mr. TABER. You mean it takes 5 or 6 years for the fish to grow; is that the idea?

Colonel POTTER. They go out to sea shortly after they are hatched— a few months-and then 4 or 5 years later they come back to spawn and die.

Mr. TABER. But not more than 5 percent of the fingerlings that go out ever come back?

Colonel POTTER. I do not know that there are any figures on that at all. All I know is that the ones that have come back through Bonneville do not show any diminution over what they used to be going up the river before Bonneville was built. The hazard to the salmon is considerable all of his life. I mean many of them never hatch; many of them die when they are fingerlings; and many of them are eaten by parasites and other fish that prey on them. Those that get back are stalwarts.

UTILIZATION OF POWER IN THE NORTHWEST

Mr. TABER. You said there is a 3,600,000-kilowatt capacity in the Northwest now.

Colonel POTTER. The installed capacity is 3.6 million.

Mr. TABER. How much of that belongs to the Government?

Colonel POTTER. It is half or a little more than half, about 1.8 or 2 billion kilowatts. In answer to that question and your former question, which I have not yet answered, as to what is the percentage of capacity normally used, where I said it was very close to the potential, I would like to furnish this for your information.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

As an example, in the month of December 1949, the output delivered to the Bonneville Power Administration from the Grand Coulee and Bonneville plants was 1,232,903,000 kilowatt-hours. This was an average hourly rate of 1,660,000 kilowatt-hours. The installed generating capacity in these two plants was 1,525,000 kilowatts at that time. The capacity utilized during this month was therefore in excess of the name-plate rating of the generating equipment. A similar examination for other months would also reveal a high utilization of the installed generating capacity.

Mr. TABER. How much capacity is involved in the dams that are presently under construction, for each one?

Colonel POTTER. For the Corps of Engineers, NcNary, and Chief Joseph are now under construction.

Mr. TABER. Give me the capacity of each one as you go along and put it in table form.

Colonel POTTER. The first is Bonneville, which is a going concern.
Mr. TABER. That is part of the 3.6 million?
Colonel POTTER. Yes, sir.

That is the present plan, 195,000, with an ultimate of five units. Mr. TABER. That means another 130,000 that you expect to put in there. How soon do you expect to do that?

Colonel POTTER. Those are not planned to be put in at the present time. As I understand it, they will not be put in until the upper dams are finished.

Mr. BEARD. They won't have water to utilize their full capacity to best advantage.

Mr. TABER. You mean you will have more water

Colonel POTTER. With the other three dams above it and storage reservoirs farther upstream, we will have more control of the water. Mr. TABER. What else?

Colonel POTTER. Those are the only ones we have under construction at the present time.

Mr. TABER. Anywhere?

Colonel POTTER. Throughout the Northwest except for two dams in the Willamette-Detroit Dam which will have 100,000 kilowatts and Big Cliff to have 18,000 kilowatts.

Mr. TABER. What is involved in the Government set-up at the present time?

Colonel POTTER. I do not understand your question, Mr. Taber. Mr. TABER. What makes up the Government capacity in the Northwest of 1.8 billion kilowatts?

Colonel POTTER. You have Grand Coulee