Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-06-07
MENACE OF 'WHITE-CoAL' DAMS
AS AGAIN SHOWN At PUEBLO
Increasing Use Of Water Power to Create
Electric Power Requires Extraordinary
Vigilance to Protect River VAL

ley Towns
THE disaster at Pueblo, Col, Is likely to
l. bring about once more a careful inspec-
tion Of all dams in the country.
The city was flooded when dams twenty
and thirty miles away proved too weak to
sustain the sudden weight Of water poured
into the ponds back Of them and failed to
withstand the pressure.
No serious damage would have been done
by the normal flow of water over the dams
because the bed of the river is wide
and deep enough to accommodate it. The
dams were supposed to be strong enough to
hold back the water used for creating power
for various purposes. But fallible human
foresight failed to prepare adequately to
meet a sudden onslaught Of natural forces.
Condemnation of the engineers who built
the dams would be easy. but 1t would also
be futile at the present time. The emotion
which is stirred today is one of sympathy
for the bereaved families in the flooded dis
trict. They can accumulate more property.
but they cannot bring back the drowned.
The best way to express sympathy just
now is to contribute to the immediate needs
of the stricken city, as people in other parts
OF the country contributed to the relief Of
Johnstown when II was wrecked by more
disastrous food some years ago.
When the wreckage has been cleared away
expert engineers are expected TO discover
where the structural weakness in the dams
lay. They must do this not only in sup
port of the reputation of their profession,
but in order to prevent any check in the
development Of water power in other parts
of the country.
The use Of electric power is increasing
rapidly. 1t can be produced more cheaply
by water power than in any other known
way. This was true even when coal was
selling at a moderate price. All that was
necessary was to build dam and connect
1t with turbine wheel driving a dynamo,
The natural flow of water supplied all the
force needed. There were no freight bills for
fuel, no expense for unloading and storing
the coal and none for shoveling 1t into the
furnaces. Hundreds Of towns are lighted
by electricity thus generated and power is
provided both for manufacturing plants and
for operating street cars.
The power developed at Niagara Falls Is
sold as far away as Toronto at lower
figure than it can be produced by coal in
that city. The great rock cliff down which
the Niagara River pours its food will not
break away. But one Niagara Is not
enough for the demands OF country as big
as the United States.
There is not mountain stream within a
hundred miles of any large center of popu-
lation which has not been considered as a
source of power. The streams on the east
ern slope of the Appalachians in this State
have been surveyed by prospectors seeking
to discover how much power could be de-
veloped if they were damned.
There has been frequent talk of bringing
electric current to this city from the nearby
mountains because it can be done more
cheaply than it can be produced at the
power stations here, which have to be sup
piled with coal.
1t is possible to dam these streams so
well that the people living in the valley
towns need have no fear of foods. But
they will not be damned in this way if
spectators seeking only an immediate re-
turn are permitted to enter on the develop |
ment of the water power of the Common
wealth. Such men would scamp the work, |
just as jerry builders are content il the |
houses they erect will stand until they can |
sell them.
No great dam impoundng water which |
carries with it the possibility of such de-
struction and death as have overtaken |
Pueblo should be erected as though it were |
a private enterprise, in which no one but |
its owners had any interest. If it shall |
happen that the States shall employ eug-
ncers to draft standard specifications for
dams with an allowance Of a large margin |
for safety, such as is allowed in construct
ing bridges, it will be what those expect |
who wish the lives Of the people living in |
the river valleys to be protected.
1t can be left to the engineers to decide
what materials are TO be used They know |
that re-enforced concrete has given salts
faction in certain instances. They know
that in other instances stone has been used
and that such dams are still standing But
most OF such dams rest on bed rock to which |
they are cemented or bound with steel rods
and are re- enforced with buttresses extend. |
ing long way into the shores of the stream.
II the cost of constructing safe dams is too |
great in any instance, then that project !
should be abandoned. But unless the price |
OF coal comes down in the near future there |
VIII be profit in water power, no matter
how much the dam may cost The business |
OF every State is primarily to see that they |
mada safe