The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-11-12

OA tAC 6tVOVtVVV PSOPAO HI PeAh Io of seven states that make up the Tennessee Valley watershed.
 UNCOVERING HIDDEN RICHES
 That is land rich in mineral resources. Yet those resources had scarcely been touched, because power and freight rates were too high. Most of the farm homes were lit by kerosene lamps. The top soil of the once-productive land was fast washing into the streams, aud fertilizer to restore it's useful ness cost too much.
 Down through the heart of this potentially-rich valley flows the yellow Tennessee River. It pro- duced no electric power to light farm homes or turn the wheels of mills or factories. 1t was not nav igable. It only carried millions of tons of good soil out to sea.
 The job of the IVA came on the scene, in June of 1883, it found on its hands 0ne dam in good condi- ton, Army Engineers plans for other dams, and $50,000,000.
 At the head of the IVA was and is-the socially-minded en- gineer, Arthur E. Morgan. An OlucT Ot lIlC LuISC ulI CCLOIS 1S power-minded David E. Lilenthal, who wants to lose no time in deliv- ering cheap power. The third di- court A. Morgan.
 TO WORK AS UNIT
 Together they mapped out pro- gram that would result in an in- ter-connected power system to serve the whole valley, make the Tennessee River navigable the full $50 miles of it's length, and curb destructive floods.
 As starter IVA, had Wilson Dam at Muscle Shoals, built by the government during the World War to make nitrates for explo- sives. The dam was build to pro- duce 1S4,000 kilowatts of power with room for an additional 260,- 900 kilowatts. But the irregular flow of the river, with high water part of the year and low the other, held its prime, or year-round, pow CT down to 30,000 kilowatts.
 There was a way to change that; and long before the IVA, army en- gineers had found it. Up through eastern Tennessee flows the Clinch River, one of the bigger tributaries of the Tennessee. Eighty miles up the Clinch from where 1t emptieS into the Tennessee the army found a site for a high power and storage dam. It was in the foothills of the Cumberland mountains, 25 miles north of Knoxville.
 The site was 390 miles by river from Wilson Dam, but so much water could be stored behind a high dam at this point that, by opening the spillway gates during the dry seasons, the flow of wa ter in the Tennessee could be maintained at high level the year around.
 A NEW LAKE MICHIGAN
 IVA was directed in the law that created it to build it's first dam there on the Clinch River, and it was named Norris Dam to honor the senator from Nebraska.
 U. s. Reclamation Bureau en- gineers headed by John L.. Savage, who designed Boulder Dam, work ed with IVA experts and the re- suit was al new design that called for a dam 253 feet high, more than a quarter of a mile long, with two 50, 1000 kilowatt generating units in the power house. The dam will form a lake covering 80 square miles with a shore line of more than 800 miles, or approximately the same as that of Lake Michi- gan.
 The plan called for the town of Loyston to- be covered with 200 feet of water, and for the flood ling of thousands of farm homes, churches and cemeteries. Buying all this land and property and building new highways, railroad tracks and bridges to replace those covered by the lake will cost all most as much as the dam itself.
 The total cost of the project is now estimated at $28,2S6,000.
 Work on the Norris Dam began little more. than year ago. Now it is more than a third complete and should be finished early in DAMS HELP EACH OTHER IVA engineers estimate that Nor ris and Wilson dams together will produce 100000 kilowatts of power the year arounds Norris Dam will ing back the water during the rainy season, it will greatly reduce flood waters below the dam, and by feeding water into the streams below the dam during the dry sea- son it will aid navigation. Norris Dam was hardly under way when President Roosevelt asked the IVA to build what was known in the army engineers sur vey as Dam No. 8, 15 1-2 miles above Wilson Dam. Army engin-