Omaha daily bee., 1912-07-23
LOCAL STATION TO BE KEPT UP
Will Be Used During Four Months
of Year of Low Water.
OLD THEORY NOW ABANDONED
Giant Reservoirs no Longer Enl'
ployed During Dry Season.
WATER RIGHTS ARE SECURED
Power Plant is Be Located Near
Fremont ant G<1Al Will BE
Twenty-six Miles In
Length.

The estimated power that is to be de-
veloped through the construction OF tne
Platte river canal and power plant near
Fremont when converted from kiiowatts
to horsepower is to be approxima'eis
ss.0oo horsepower. The plan, as Fred A.
Nash. president Of the Omaha Electric
/ Light and Power company. gives IT, is
that eventually this plant shall furnisn .he
power for the lighting Of Omaha ana Ao'
the driving of trolley cars. The plan ~
to sell power to the various concerns 'hd'
! use it here" he says.
! The Omaha Electric Light ana rover
company will maintain its power piah' IN
Omaha lust as it has. before, put VIII
get its power during the greater yart OF
the wear from the canal power plant az
Fremont. The plant In Omaha woulo oe
maintained as an auxiliary plant tnat
would be operated to furnish power
during the four months Of the year IN
which the Platte river cannot De oe-
pended upon to furnish water enough
for the canal plant THE proposition.
SAYS Mr. Nash, has long been whether
the interest on great amount OF capltal
invested In such a project would be less
than the amount Of money annually ex-
pended in the city for coal to generate
electricity. We have decided in f1Nor OF
the canal plant"
Rights Are Secured.
Mr.. Nash says that the days when the
matter was merely talked OF are over,
as the water rights have been secured and
the law of the state requires that the
company break ground and actually 90
to work on the project within six months
after the filing of the rights.
The water is to be led from the Platte
river into the canal ssorlae three and one
half miles southeast Of Schuyler. From
there the canal Is to cross the branch
line of the Northwestern which runs from
Fremont to Hastings, and is To follow this
line pretty closely toward Fremont BY
the time the canal reaches point directly
south of Fremont it is to be pretty well
On the summit of the bluffs that skirt
the south side of the river there. Here
the power plant is to be located, where
the water will have fall OF 120 feet to
reach the river below, turning the
gigantic water turbines as 1t makes the
drop. The canal will be twenty-six miles
in length.
No Storage Reservoirs.
The old theory Of building giant reser-
voirs to store up water to be used for
power during the dry seasons when the
river Is low has been given up. The dan
ger to the adjacent country from possible
breaks of reservoirs caused the theory to
be abandoned, and besides it was con-
cluded that by maintaining the power
plants in Omaha power could be devel-
oped in the old way during the months
when the water is low to supplement the
plant at Fremont.
Some of the very highest skilled hy-
draulic engineers in the country have
been employed and have been on the
ground almost constantly during the last
six months mapping out the course of the
canal laying the plans Of construction Of
canal and plant and calculating the OBJ
stacles. They were on the ground during
some Of the floods of last spring, and
thus discovered methods of avoiding the
danger to the canal that would be in
CURED If 1t were built according to for
mer plans and theories. The canal is to
be ninety feet wide, twenty-six miles
long, with a minimum depth Of ten feet.
and with fall at the outlet Of 120 feet
to the river below.
Charles T. Kountze, president of the
First National bank, who with his brother,
Luther l.. Kountze, is to be heavily in
terested in the project. said the plans of
the formation of the company were not
quite complete. Luther L. kountze is out
of the city at present taking his vacation.