Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1927-05-20
SHpsr-Powsr PIant PIanned.

Application for three-year preliminary
permit for a $60,000,000 hydro-electric
dam project on the Potomac River. de-
signed to supply electricity to Baltimore.
Washington and adjacent territory, was
filed with the Federal Power Commission. in
Washington. last Friday by corporation
backed by Cleveland interests.
The request for the permit was made
for the purpose Of obtaining priority rights
Of application for the Potomac River Cor
porstion, Of which Robert J. Buckley. a
Cleveland attorney. is president James
K. Lloyd. contractor, is vice president.
The company proposes to spend about
100000 during the next three years
completing its design for the project. The
present plans call for the building Of two
dams 100 feet high above Washington,
backing up the Potomac for forty miles.
Stations at these dams would generate
$4,000 horsepower each. according to the
proposal.
Charles Keller Of Chicago. representing
n. N. Byllesby G. Co.. financial house
with large interests in hydro-electric de-
velopment, filed the application. The
Byllesby company will have a half inter.
est in the enterprise. the other half to be
held by the Cleveland group.
II is planned to build the two sets Of
dams and power houses at Chain Bridge.
on the outskirts Of Washington. and Great
Fslls, ten miles farther up These would
impound the water in lake-a mile wide
in places nearly to Brunswick.
Rapids which travellers see from the Bal
timore and Ohio Railroad would be drown
ed out.
The application stated that the Poto-
macs flow below Harper's Ferry would be
regulated to not less than $500 cubic
feet Of water second. against the 1000
feet occasionally reached in low water and
the $4,000 feet in the disastrous food of
1889.
This will be done, according to the pro.
posals. by building series of storage reser.
voirs In the hills Of West Virginia and Viz
elnia. One Of them. ii is said, would be
on the Shenandoah River, running from
Chaflestown, W. Va. twenty-five miles into
Virginia. Another would be up the fork Of
the Shenandoah. near Broadway, Va, 100
miles from the power plant at Great Falls
This. it was added. would take three years
TO FILL
The third and fourth would be on the
Great Cacapon River on the South Branch
OF the Potomac. The one planned for the
south branch would be fifteen miles long
and two miles wide in places and would
have capacity Of $4,000 acre feet.
Total storage in the four reservoirs would
be l,65O,000 acre feet" Of water. which
amounts to 537. 1917 100000 gallons
1t is further proposed to erect smalle
power plants in several places along tn,
rivers. but their locations were not given
The corps OF engineers which has beer
working in the region has so far spen
about 100000. Options are said to have
been obtained on the land needed. The
power is not expected to be available fol-
five to eight years yet
The Potomac and the Shenandoah are
the last Of the large rivers of the East
with water-power possibilities not yet de.
veloped. their floods and great variation in
their flow having defeated previous efforts
Since under its charter the territory Of
the State of Maryland extends to the low.
water mark on the south bank Of the Pc.
romac River the new company would BE-
operating in Maryland and would have tC
obtain the permission Of the Public Ser.
wee Commission to extend its lines int
this State, Harold E. West, chairman o.
the commission. says.