White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1924-05-09
PRIEST RAPIDS DAM
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River are about $50 miles southeas,
of Seattle in an air line, and about
thirty-two miles east of Yakima
Part of the great project will be the
reclamation of about 100000 acres
of arid land in the Columbia Basin
adjacent to the new industrial city.
Mr.. Pierce announced that he has
returned to Seattle primarily to at
tend hearing that will be held here
on May IA on protests that have beer
filed by the salmon-fshing interests
Of the Columbia River against the
construction of the nineN-foot dam
his company proposes to build at
Priest Rapids. The United States
Bureau of Fisheries and the fish COM
missions of both Washington and
Oregon, as well as private fishery in
terests, will be represented at the
hearing.
"The protest of the salmon interests
is the only obstacle now remaining to
the granting of the fifty-year devel-
opmcnt license that we have asked
from the Federal Power Commission"
said Mr.. Pierce. "The protest is a le-
gitimate protest and the interests that
have made it are urging it in good
faith, but we have every reason to
believe that we will be able to con-
vince them at the hearing to be held
that we can construct our ninety-foot
dam in such a manner that it will not
prevent salmon from reaching their
spawning grounds on the headwaters
of the Columbia"
Will Be Worlds Biggest Dam
The Priest Rapids dam, Mr.. Pierce
said, will be more than two miles
long, the largest dam in 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 a year, was that he and
his associates have purchased the
American rights to use two new and
highly efficient European processes
for the fixation Of nitrogen from the
air and the manufacture of chemical
fertilizer, and will establish at Priest
Rapids, in connection with the initial
power development, an 100000 fac
tory that will turn out 10000 tons
OF phosphate annually This will be
the first Of the many electro-chemica1
plants the company expects to see es-
tabllshed in the new industrial city.
Many obstacles have been met and
overcome since I began work on the
Priest Rapids project fifteen 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
electro-cher1ical industries there,
with the result that we purchased the
American rights to use for the pro-
duct:on of fertilizer the Casale am
monia- nitrogen process, the invention
of an Italian scientist, that is the last
word in that line. These rights are
held by the Hydro Electric Company
that I Incorporated recently in New
York. In connection with the Ann
moaia Corporation Of America, which
holds the right to use the process
for other than fertilizer manufacture,
we are putting in plant at Niagara
Falls to give the process final COM
mercia1 test.
Fertilizer Plant Planned.
ITO complete the plans we had
formed for the use of the ammonia
purchased the American rights for
the Liljenrath phosphoric acid pro-
cess, the invention Of a Swedish chem
ist, F. G. Liljenrath, who was asso-
ciated with me in my European in
vestigation. This process we are now
testing in commercial way. Under
it, phosphate rock, of which there is
an abundance in Idaho, Montana and
Wyoming, will be converted into
phosphoric acid, hydrogen and nitro
gen by electric heat, and these three
products will be converted into am
monium phosphate, fertilizer that
is 50 per cent efficient, as compared
with the ordinary chemical fertilizers
that average only IL per cent.
"Plans for the utilization of these
two new processes at Priest Rapids
are nearing completion and we expect
to have these uses for our power
available soon after we obtain our de-
velopment license Then construc-
ton will begin"