may be judged from the description in the printed report, were made with some degree of care, from measurements of the cross section of the valley at the points selected for dams. The type of dam is described (in table 15, page 174 of State Engineer's report of 1895) as "in general, earth dams with masonry cores and provided with waste ways over natural rock at the side," but in the case of the larger dam for Tumblehead Falls and Indian Lake, massive masonry structures were proposed and the cost of the dams themselves appears to have been estimated in some little detail. The actual cost of construction at Indian Lake came very close to this preliminary estimate. The type proposed at that time for the great dam at Tumblehead Falls was a loose rock fill, to be made water tight by an asphalt-concrete facing. This is a type of construction which would hardly be accepted to-day. HUDSON STORAGE REPORT OF 1896. In his report of the previous year, Mr. Rafter plainly stated that his data were incomplete and reserved the right upon obtaining further data, to change his figures upon storage volumes and cost and a continuation of his studies of 1895 is reported under date of February 1, 1897, upon pages 803-858 of the State Engineer's report for the year 1896. This reports additional surveys at the site of the proposed dam at Tumblehead Falls, at the Hadley Dam site, and for dam sites at Tahawus, Lake Henderson, Boreas River and at Newcomb. The survey had been completed for the Indian Lake dam site to the point where it was said, that if desirable an appropriation could be made for its construction. The test pits at Tumblehead Falls failed to reach ledge at thirty-five feet below the surface on the south side; and owing to the lack of sufficient appropriation, borings for completely determining the character of the sub-strata could not be made. The report says that "hard material" was in general found from ten to twenty-four feet below the bed of the river. Presumably this means compact sand, hard-pan or boulders not solid ledge. A topographic map of the Tumblehead site on a scale of 100 feet to an inch was prepared but not published. At the Hadley site, the probable cost was found greater than estimated the year before, because it was now found that more of the houses in the village would be included within the flow line, and that the river at the dam site was much deeper than had been supposed. The topographical work was not extended over the Hadley reservoir, and therefore no accurate figures on its storage volume were presented. A further study of rainfall and runoff of the upper Hudson region was reported, and a compilation of many monthly rainfall records and temperature records was presented. Considerable space was given to the recurrence of years of exceptional small stream flow. Except for the small amount of new survey and test pit work mentioned above, the report of this year 1896 upon Hudson river storage was mainly made up of a compilation and discussion of such data as are to be found in the library, rather than by a presentation of the data that could be had only through additional field work and at larger cost. INVESTIGATIONS BY WATER STORAGE COMMISSION OF 1902. Under Chapter 406, Laws of 1902, a Commission was appointed to investigate causes of floods and overflows of rivers and water courses and make recommendations for preventing the same. The members served without salary, and an appropriation of only $5,000 was made to cover salary of secretary traveling expenses, printing and the service of an engineer and assistants to be detailed from the office of the State Engineer. The Commission resolved itself into four committees for greater facility of work, and the State was correspondingly subdivided into four districts for investigation. Circulars were sent out calling for statistics of injurious floods, and the Commission recognizing the insufficiency of the appropriation, confined its work for that year mainly to "the preliminary work of collecting general information concerning the distribution and extent of floods throughout the State to the ascertainment of the general character and extent of the injury sustained thereby and to the general type and character of the remedial measures available." "It was expected that the preliminary investigation of the first year would show just what problems existed and what further special investigations and surveys were needed before actually undertaking the work of flood prevention or stream measurement in the various portions of the State." "The conclusion was reached that State supervision and control is the only safe method of intelligently initiating, constructing and maintaining an adequate study of river improvement for this State." "The central idea should be that the entire cost of the execution and maintenance of each of the various works comprising such a study, should be borne by the beneficiaries in proportion to the benefits they derive from it." Attention was particularly called in the report of this Water Storage Commission to the possibilities of large additional water power development upon the Genesee, Hudson and the Black rivers by means of the storage of flood waters. The Commissioners reporting for the eastern division, Mr. Elnathan Sweet of Albany and Mr. George R. Finch of Glens Falls, in their statements about the Hudson river region above Troy, p. 148, present the following interesting notes: On the Hoosic about one mile above its mouth, a reservoir of five billion cubic feet could be located but would be costly above $200 per million cubic feet. On the Battenkill, about five billion cubic feet of storage could be secured by dams of Battenkill and Shusan, both located above the principal water powers. This storage would cost probably not more than $100 per million cubic feet. On Fish Creek, the outlet of Saratoga Lake, about three billion cubic feet of storage could be secured, costing probably not more than $100 per million cubic feet, but the Commissioners state clearly that additional surveys are needed to determine the facts with more precision. They further state (p. 149) that the surveys of the Hudson River Electric Company indicates that a storage reservoir holding, say, 8,000 million cubic feet can be made at Conklingville by raising the surface of the mill pond there about 24 feet, at a cost not to exceed $75 per million cubic feet, that is, $600,000. On the west branch of the Sacandaga, the Water Storage Commission caused a reservoir site to be surveyed half a mile above the Little Falls, where a dam 62 feet high would store 7.5 billion cubic feet at a cost not exceeding $40 per million cubic feet. On the east branch of the Sacandaga, a reconnoissance indicates 3.5 billion cubic feet can be stored at the Griffin and Oregon and at the outlet of Lake Pleasant, all at moderate cost. These three reservoirs aggregating 19 billion cubic feet were deemed sufficient for the regulation of the Sacandaga. (See p. 149 Rept. Water Storage Com. 1903). On the Schroon River, Messrs. Sweet and Finch reported recommending a modification from Mr. Rafter's plan of a single large dam at Tumblehead Falls, which would flood and connect Schroon, Paradox and Brant lakes, because of the said plan providing more storage than consistent with utilizing the full water power of the Schroon, and because it would have to be executed all at one time and would necessitate too radical a change at Schroon Lake. They suggested instead of the dam at the Tumblehead site, a dam about a mile and a half above Starbuckville, which would raise Schroon Lake to elevation 817 above sea level, and which would supply three billion cubic feet of storage. They also recommended four other dams, viz., at the foot of Brant Lake, to provide 1.8 billion cubic feet of storage; Paradox Lake, 2.2 billion cubic feet; at Blue Ridge 1.5 billion cubic feet; at Loon Lake and Hammond Lake, 1 billion cubic feet, a total of 6.5 billion cubic feet. The whole Schroón River system of reservoirs thus planned would aggregate 9.5 billion cubic feet, which Messrs. Sweet and Finch believe could be provided at a cost of less than $70 per million cubic feet. For the upper Hudson River, they suggested: 1. Fully developing the storage of Indian River by a dam at the head of Indian River Falls about four miles below the recent new Indian Lake dam, providing four billion cubic feet of storage. 2. By dams on tributaries above Indian River to provide 3.5 billion cubic feet; and on Boreas River at the outlet of Cheney Pond, providing 1.5 billion cubic feet, the whole aggregating with the present Indian Lake dam 14 billion cubic feet on that division of the watershed. The cost of the Indian River storage was estimated at only $5 per million cubic feet, and that of the other reservoirs on this division at $75 per million cubic feet. They further recommended securing four billion cubic feet of storage at the reservoir recommended previously on the Hudson River at Hadley (our later surveys indicated this reservoir would contain only about half this quantity) and four billion cubic feet additional by a reservoir to be created by raising the State canal feeder dam located two miles above Glens Falls about 45 feet or to elevation 333 above sea level and stated that the costs of these two reservoirs may approximate $100 per million cubic feet. The total for Sacandaga, Conklinville was. Total... S. 7.5 52.0 In conclusion, they stated that this study of regulating reservoirs for the upper Hudson "would not only secure the desired regulation of the lower Hudson, but would provide a like regulation to all its upper tributaries, thus serving in the highest degree the potential energy in the stored water for the development on the tributaries as well as on the main stream and would benefit navigation by providing ample feed water for the proposed enlargement of the Champlain Canal and by raising the minimum low water stage of the Hudson River in the shallow portion below Troy, more than one foot." |