Evening Post carried an article "The White Elephant Comes Into Its Own" by Frank J. Taylor. He saw the value of the two dams in terms of enabling the production of aluminum for war equipment needs. He maintained building the dams and power lines was "one of the best investments Uncle Sam has ever made." Planning Paid Dividends. The Cascade rapids in the Columbia River Gorge were a serious navigational barrier until Bonneville Dam was completed in 1938. Starting in 1850, various individuals and groups had built tramways, portage roads, and railroads on both sides of the river to bypass the rapids and later Celilo Falls near The Dalles. Portage facilities invariably fell into the hands of the navigation companies. In 1874 Congress authorized the Cascade Canal and Locks, which the Corps of Engineers completed in 1896 at a cost of $3.8 million. Its use was limited. The need to improve navigation was the incentive for early advocates of Bonneville Dam. The need for irrigation was the impetus for building Grand Coulee Dam. Columbia Basin farmers had learned dry land farming methods would not work when annual precipitation fell to 10 inches or less. In 1885 the governor of the Washington Territory envisioned the need for an irrigation system in the Columbia Basin. In 1903 the U.S. Reclamation Service reconnoitered the area from the Pend Oreille River to the Columbia Basin. It proposed a "gravity plan," comprised of a canal to carry water for irrigation purposes. Many other studies were made. The concept of building a high dam at Grand Coulee and pumping water 290 feet above the reservoir for irrigation use was brought to public attention in the July 18, 1918, Wenatchee Daily World. In the next 15 years the "pumping plan" gradually gained popularity over the gravity plan. Numerous studies and foundation drilling by the Bureau of Reclamation and Washington State prompted publicity and legislative hearings. By 1931 the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers agreed on the pumping plan and recommended Grand Coulee Dam. The tradition of planning for Grand Coulee Dam was derived from the conservation heritage and Powell's Arid Lands Report. Congress Looks Ahead. River basin development and the Corps of Engineers received a boost when Congress adopted the River and Harbor Act of 1925, directing: "Sect. 3. The Secretary of War, through the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army, and the Federal Power Commission are jointly hereby authorized and directed to prepare and submit to Congress an estimate of The drawing depicting a multiple purpared for the 1950 report of the Presi pose river basin development was predent's Water Policy Commission of which Morris L. Cooke was Chairman. A MULTIPLE-PURPOSE 1. Recreation 2. Multiple purpose reservoir 4. Wildlife 5. Transmission line 6. Municipal water 8. Beaver dam 9. Erosion control 10. Well 11. Equalizing reservoir 12. City and industrial waste treatment plant 13. Diversion dam 14. Levee flood control 17. Wildlife refuge 20. Sprinkler irrigation 21. Low line canal 22. Gravity irrigation 24. Contour plowing 25. Canal 26. Fish ladder 27. Community treatment plant 29. Re-regulating reservoir Workers installing one of the Bonneville Dam turbines pose for posterity. the cost of making such examinations, surveys or other investigations as, in their opinion, may be required of those navigable streams of the United States, and their tributaries, whereon power development appears feasible and practicable with a view to the formulation of general plans for the most effective improvement of such streams for the purposes of navigation and the prosecution of such improvement in combination with the most efficient development of the potential water power, the control of floods, and the needs of irrigation: Provided, that no consideration of the Colorado River and its problems shall be included in the consideration or estimate provided herein." On April 12, 1926 the Secretary of War submitted cost estimates and recommended comprehensive surveys. Congress published the report as House Document No. 308-69/1 (hence the name "308 reports" for all subsequent studies). The River and Harbor Act of January 21, 1927 authorized the surveys which resulted in the monumental 308 reports on the Columbia, Tennessee, Missouri, and other rivers. On March 29, 1932 Congress received the 1,845-page report, Columbia River and Minor Tributaries (H. Doc. 103-73/1): "...containing a general plan for the improvement of the Columbia River and minor tributaries for the purposes of navigation and efficient development of water-power, the control of floods, and the needs of irrigation." The report proposed 8 dams on the Columbia River, including Grand Coulee and Bonneville, and also proposed upstream storage reservoirs such as a dam at the Hungry Horse site and raising the levels of Flathead and Pend Oreille Lakes. In 1933 the project planning paid off. At the Washington D.C. level the Board of Engineers changed the 8-dam plan to 10 dams. An early scheme had also considered a high dam at The Dalles to create a reservoir extending to Rock Island Dam. The chief debate within the Corps was whether to endorse the Grand Coulee Dam recommendation of Major John S. Butler, Seattle District Engineer. He defended his findings with courage and competence, but at the end of a week of questioning and open hostility to Grand Coulee Dam, he concluded "That is my report." He made it stick. It hurt his career. The year 1933 marked the beginning of the enormous Columbia River development and a change in the Pacific Northwest economy. Roosevelt's August 3, 1934, prediction of navigation to Idaho became reality 41 years later in 1975, with completion of eight navigation dams. By 1980, a third powerhouse was nearly complete and in partial operation at Grand Coulee. The two dams became the baseline for one of the world's largest transmission systems. All this involved planning and the planning paid dividends in navigation, irrigation, and power. In turn the experience with the Bonneville and Grand Coulee projects fostered strong recognition of the value of planning. While many economic and political factors came to a junction in the President's decisions, not the least of them John S. Butler was his personal interest in electric power and his enthusiasm gained from his Pacific Northwest visits of 1920 and 1932. The availability of the Army's plan for Columbia River development enabled President Roosevelt to give the go ahead signal in 1933 to put people to work building those dams that the shortsighted magazine pundits questioned. |
