WATER 119 



some time after Congress withdrew from entry water-power 

 sites on government land, it created the Federal Power Commis- 

 sion which took over control of water-power sites on all streams 

 where power dams might affect the navigability of streams 

 under federal control. Today the federal government is pro 

 ducing and selling electric power at Boulder Dam and in the 

 Tennessee Valley. This sale of power will be increased when 

 Grand Coulee and Bonneville Dams on the Columbia River 

 are completed. 



Many people think that flood control and power produc 

 tion can be accomplished by the same thing, a big dam. Un 

 fortunately, this is only partially true. The first requirement 

 of a power dam is that it have a full supply of water in it all 

 the time. Flood control storage dams, on the other hand, should 

 be empty as much of the time as possible so they will have room 

 to accommodate the flood waters when they come. To have a 

 successful power and flood control system combined, it is fre 

 quently necessary to have a series of alternating power and 

 storage dams such as those in the Tennessee Valley. 



The source of most of the streams in the East is in the moun 

 tain watersheds in either the Appalachians or the glaciated 

 lake districts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. In most instances 

 these watersheds were, or still are, covered with forests. A 

 large percentage of this forest land is now either owned by the 

 federal or state governments. This means that it is controlled 

 by the state or federal Forest Services. To control the flow of 

 water from these watersheds two things must be done. The 

 trees must be protected from fire and disease. Where the forest 

 has been cut, trees must be replanted. So far, no system of con 

 trol beyond fire protection has been worked out for the re 

 maining watershed forest land, although the federal govern 

 ment is considering means of establishing public regulation to 

 prevent destructive over-cutting in these forests. 



