The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1924-05-08
Henry j. Pierce Confirms
Reports of the Priest
Rapids Project
COMPANY PURCHASES
FOREIGN PATENTS
Mammoth Fertilizer Plants
to be Important Part Of
Development

Henry j. Pierce, president Of the
Washington Irrigation e. Develop
ment company, who returned this
week to his home in Seattle from
New York after an absence Of ton
months, brought confirmation of the
report that construction work on the
Priest Rapids power project will be-
gin within the year unless there is
some unforeseen delay. The project
he says, will involve the ultimate
expenditure of $100,000,000.
Mr.. Pierce confirmed the news that
the federal power commission was
expected to grant his company de-
velopment license in the very near
future, and made the definite state
ment that the company has virtual
ly completed plans to begin the de-
velopment work as soon as the gov
ernment commission gives the word.
The company, which is holding corr
poration for financial interests rep
resented by the big General Electric
Company Of Schenectady, N. Y, Mr..
Pierce said, will make an initial ex-
penditure of between 35,000,000 and
$40,000,000 completing within three
years after the work is started
hydroelectric plant that will develop
from 250,000 to $4,000 horse power,
depending upon the stage of the wat
er in the river. -
Mr.. Pierce also confirmed unoffi-
cial reports published in Pacific
Northwest newspapers in recent
months to the effect that it is the
intention of his company and its af-
filiated interests to create at Priest
Rapids an industrial city where vir-
tually all the year around power
developed will be used in electro
chemical plants producing basic pro-
ducts for use in various manufac-
turing industries, making the new
Central Washington city source of
supply for such products for the en-
tire West. =
Mr.. Pierce announced that he has
returned to Seattle primarily to at
tending hearings that will be held
there on May Ia on protests that
have been filed by the salmon-fish-
ing industries of the Columbia River
against the construction Of the 90
foot dam his company proposes to
build at Priest Rapids. The United
States Bureau Of Fisheries and the
fish commissions Of both Washing
ton and Oregon, as well as private
fishery interests, will be represented
at the hearing.
"The protest Of the salmon inter-
ests is the only obstacle now remain
ing to the granting of the 50-year
development license that we have
asked from the federal power COM
mission" said Mr.. Pierce.
The Priest Rapids dam, Mr.. Pierce
said, will be more than two miles
long, the largest dam the world
when it is completed, taking the dis
tinction now held by the famous As
souan dam in Egypt.
The most important announcement
made by Mr.. Pierce, other than that
the company expected to start the
big work within year, was that he
and his associates have purchased
the American rights to use two new
and highly efficient European pro-
cesses for the fixation Of nitrogen
from the air and the manufacture
of chemical fertilizer, and will es-
tablish at Priest Rapids, in connec-
ton with the initial power develop
ment, an $8,000,000 factory that will
turn out 10000 tons of phosphate
annually. This will be the first Of
the many electro-chemical plants the
company expects to see established in
and overcome since / began work on
the new industrial city.
"Many obstacles have been met
the Priest Rapids project Is years
ago." said Mr.. Pierce, "but the one
that has taken the most thought and
study was to find use for the enor-
nous power that we know could be
developed. In 1922 i went to Europe
and spent year in studying the cleo
tro-chemical industries there, with
the result that we purchased the
American rights to use for the pro-
duction Of fertilizer the Casale am
monia-nitrogen process, the inven-
tion of an Italian scientist, that is
the last word in the line. These rights
are held by the Hydro Electric Com
pany that / Incorporated recently in
New York. In connection with the
Ammonia Corporation of America;
lCont;r,,od on ,,a,so f;,,ol