Evening star., 1938-11-17
]. Y. A. Navigation
Costs Too High,
Engineer Says
Believes $92,000,000
Would Be Fair Figure,
He Tells Committee
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
A utility engineer declared today
that the Tennessee Valley Authority
had set figure far too high for
the cost Of its navigation improve
ments.
Edward L. Moreland, representing
the Commonwealth and Southern
Corp, told the T. v. A. Investigat-
ing Committee he believed an esti-
mate of ss2,OOOOOo for navigation
would be fair, whereas, he said, T. v.
A. used s15O,OOO,OOO.
The total cost of T. v. A. was
broken down among navigation,
flood control and power for the pur-
pose of fixing T. v. AS "yardstick"
electric rates.
Army Engineers Set Figures.
The 100000 figure was arrived
at by Maj. Rufus Putnam of Chi
cago, former Army engineer, in a
plan for constructing 80 low dams
which Maj. Putnam contended
would provide 9-foot channel on
the Tennessee River
The T. v. A., on the other hand.
| figured approximately S150,000000
would be needed to construct sys-
tenn of intermediate" dams to con-
troll navigation, if the T. v. AS
| high dams. combining navigation,
flood control and power, had not
been built.
1T doesn't seem to me fair to de-
duct the cost of any navigation sys-
tenn more expensive than the cheap
est system which would be practical
for navigation control" Mr.. More
land asserted. He is dean of engl-
neering at the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology.
The witness contended the high
allowance for navigation costs had
enabled the T. V. A to place it's
power cost so low that it could fix
electric rates damaging to private
! competition.
High Dams Superior.
Questioning Mr.. Moreland. Fran
els Biddle, committee counsel,
| brought out that three judge Fed
eral court, sitting at Chattanooga
Tenn, had ruled that the T. V. A
high dams would be substantially
superior" to Maj. Putnam's proposed
system of low dams for navigation
control.
Mr.. Moreland said he still was ir-
clined to accept the Putnam plan
being workable.
Therefore" Mr. Biddle cha
lenged. you are accepting as fac
the evidence that Maj Putnam gave
the court and which the court re-
! jected."
Wolverton Objects.
I Representative Wolverton, Repub-
lican. of New Jersey, committee
member. objected. meanwhile, to the
absence of the committees engineer
and the lack of a report from him
while expert witnesses for private
utilities testified.
more intelligently if we had our
own engineers and data available to
clear up these disputed points" Mr.
Wolverton said.
Mr.. Biddle had elected from Mr.
Moreland yesterday statements that
he knew Of no privately -owned util-
tiles which suffered such an extensive
waste of the power as he estimated
T. V. A. would; that he knew of no
pubic utility which sold power at the
low rates he attributed to T. V. A.
and that an examination of T. v. A. S
contracts had convinced him that
they contained nothing unfair.
Estimates s24,135,s7s Revenue.
Mr.. Moreland contended that when
the T. V. A. system is complete it
will be able to produce a total of
8,Ol9.800 900 kilowatt hours.
OF this total. Mr.. Moreland esti-
mated that 5000 900 kilowatt hours
would necessarily be lost in trans
mission, leaving a total of 1908, ,7O0.-
600 kiloWatt hours that could be de-
livered to T. v. AS customers.
He estimated this production would
bring T. V. A. an annual revenue of
S24,135 878. The total of his figures
on costs, although still to be pre-
sented to the committee. had been
made available to the press as some
s10,000,000 greater.