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Poughkeepsie Journal The Dand for Hydro Power

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nyru 2004-12-12 16:08:42 Publish:

I thought some of you might be intersed in this. The article that i wrote is last.

Dear Mr. Carpenter,

Thank you very much for agreeing to help with the 1904 project. I'm sure our readers will be very happy to know what the state of hydropower is today. Below is the article from the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, a predecessor of the Poughkeepsie Journal:

THE DEMAND FOR WATER POWER.

How Waterfalls Enable the World, While Increasing Its Machinery to Spare Its Coal Supplies.
(Garrett P. Serviss in Success Magazine)

Every day sees more and more of the wasted power of waterfalls, which lies at man's disposal
in every hilly or mountainous country, turned to use in furnishing electric energy. The power
of waterfalls is driving the greatest of all tunnells, the double Simplon bore through the
Alps; it is sending another tunnel, by devious ways, behind precipices and under glaciers to
the summit of the snowy lungfrau and a plan is now being perfected for constructing once more
with the aid of watrfalls and to be run by them, when finished, a rival to the Simplon road,
which shall cross the Alps between Turin and Martigny.

Everybody knows what Niagara is doing, and how the waterfalls of California, and of other
mountainous states, are being harnessed.

A. A. Campbell Swinton, at the recent meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, presented accurate statistics which he had personally taken less than
one million, five-hundred thousand horse-power derived from waterfalls is now being utilized
in various parts of the world for the development of electric energy. Of this great total,
which he believed did not represent the full truth, for he thought it probable that the real
aggregate is two million horsepower, nearly one third must be credited to the United States.

There is one feature for this utilization of water power in place of steam power, which Mr.
Swinton brought out and which is seldom thought of and that is the saving of coal which it
effects. On the basis of two million horsepower derived from waterfalls, this saving amounts
to nearly twelve million tons of coal per year.

But the maximum amount of waterpower that is available has not yet begun to be approached
in actual utilization, so that the annual saving of coal must become larger and larger every
year. This, in vew of the increasing difficulty of working many coal mines owing to the great
depths to which they have penetrated, and in view of the approaching exahustion of some of the
most famous fields becomes a highly important consideration. Every little while the world is
reminded, more or less sensationaly, of a coming coal famine. The fact is that coal, of the
betters grades, possesses so many advantages and convenience as a fuel that the earth's
supplies of it should be conserved for human use as long as possible. Men of science have more
than once sounded a warning against the waste of coal, for coal is the gift of a geological
age which can not be renewed. Thus waterfalls, by enabling us to spare coal, are performing an
indirect service only less important their direct service supplying electric power. But for
them the growing use of electricity would soon make a drain upon the coal mines of the most
serious character.

The era of waterfalls seems certainly to have dawned. Every great cataract will become a
focus of industry just as every great river valley has always been a center of population, and
Professor Brigham's prediction that Niagara is to be the industrial center of American may be
fulfilled within a generation.

If you could write something between 300-400 words and send it by Dec. 13, I'd really appreciate it.

Best regards,
Kathleen Dijamco

------------------------------
Kathleen Dijamco
Assistant news editor
Poughkeepsie Journal
85 Civic Center Plaza
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

Kathleen, Here is what I have written. I hope that it proves useful to you. Thank you for the opportunity.
Bruce Carpenter

Our Energy Needs

The New Effort to Balance Hydro Energy With Environmental and Social Needs of Rivers and Communities

(Bruce R. Carpenter, Executive Director New York Rivers United)

A hundred years ago we rushed to fill our energy needs from every available source, and hydropower, the power of our rivers, seemed to be a godsend. Falling water was clean, renewable and abundant everywhere. We rushed to harness this source and fuel our ever-growing industrial world. The potential seemed limitless.

Now, a hundred years later, lessons have been learned. Just as fossil fuels have caused major environmental issues and nuclear was not the answer, hydropower also had its downside. In order to obtain hydropower, rivers had to be controlled, dams built. In order to maximize the potential, the water had to drop as far as possible. Penstocks to transport our rivers and streams were built to transport our once free-flowing waters to generation plants.

The effects were not quickly understood but are now evident. We had segmented our rivers, turning them into ponds. Fish had been blocked from natural habitats for reproduction. Once beautiful waterfalls were now dry much of the time. Life-giving nutrients were trapped behind dams. Peaking flows for energy played havoc on the biology and those people who would enjoy the waters. Temperatures were changed as water was stopped and then released, changing its very fabric. Recreational opportunities were gone, scenic vistas destroyed.

Again, though, we moved forward. A new framework of environmental law was established; new science and technology were created. We began to examine what we had done and sought ways to correct it. The Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Federal Power Act laid the groundwork for new efforts to balance our river resource needs with those of energy production.

Now, most hydro plants operate in a “run-of-river” mode, maintaining the flow of the river in its natural state. By-pass reaches - those dry river reaches where the water flowed through penstocks or canals instead of its natural channel - once again have water flowing in them. Fish ladders for upstream passage, screening from turbines and downstream fish passage have been installed on many facilities. Scenic flows once again flow, creating the beauty of our natural waterfalls. Recreational access to points on the river plus flows for white water recreation have been established. Watershed lands have been protected, conserving buffers that protect water quality. And, finally, guidelines for building new facilities and a process to truly evaluates the project’s overall impacts are now the standard.

We are not rushing to remove dams, yet we are making them more environmentally friendly. Most sites that can and should produce hydropower are developed. There are sites where this balancing shows clearly that environmental needs outweigh our needs for the power. They are some existing dams that, due to their impacts on our rivers, are being removed and the natural river restored.

We have come a long way, some of it in a circle: from seeing rivers in the greatest beauty to destroying the very things that made us see their greatness. And now, once again, working with our natural resources, our framework of law and seeing that the next generation will have the same opportunity to use and enjoy the river resources that our grandparents once did.

We live and learn.
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