CLASSIFICATIOK IN BELATION TO WATER EESOURCBS. 161 



flow of the nonirrigation season in order to render it available for 

 the irrigation of crops in the following growing season. The practi- 

 cability of such storage and redistribution of flow will depend on 

 local topography and must be determined for each locality. The con- 

 ditions which affect the present and future practicable utilization of 

 water are therefore very complicated, and the classification of land 

 as regards its water resources is correspondingly difficult. 



In general the development and use of valuable power sites involves 

 the construction of expensive systems for transmitting the power to 

 distant markets and distributing it among small customers. A water- 

 power development can be most fully utilized and therefore has its 

 greatest value when connected into a system containing other hydro- 

 electric or steam-power plants, because a large system will generally 

 have relatively uniform power requirements on account of the varied 

 use of the power and also a relatively flexible power output on ac- 

 count of the steam plants and of the storage capacity which may be 

 available in connection with some or all of the water-power plants. 

 In view of these conditions the combination of power plants into big 

 systems is natural and tends to more economical and more complete 

 utilization of the power resources. As a duplication of such a power 

 system in any territory is uneconomical and in general is impracti- 

 cable, a monopoly of the power market results, and such monopoly, if 

 subject to proper public control, should be encouraged. Monopolistic 

 tendencies in the control of water resources entail difficulties and dan- 

 gers that have been recognized by Congress, as manifested by the 

 laws governing rights of way, especially for the purpose of develop- 

 ing and transmitting power, on or across the public lands. 



The protection of the people against the possible bad effects of 

 monopoly and the retention of control of the use of this important 

 source of power, which may be expected to increase in value with the 

 decrease in available fuels, is at present accomplished by the United 

 States through ownership of the land which is required for the use 

 of the water resources. Congress has provided no means for the 

 alienation of power lands as such and has sanctioned their use for 

 commercial purposes only under a limited permit revocable by the 

 secretary of the department having jurisdiction. It provided for 

 rights of way for power-transmission lines under the same law but 

 by a later act has authorized a fixed tenure for a period not exceed- 

 ing 50 years. 



CLASSIFICATION OF WATBH-POWEB, SITES. 

 PRELIMINAET WITHDRAWALS. 



The classification of lands as water-power sites and their reserva- 

 tion under the acts authorizing withdrawals is in general first made 

 in the absence of detailed examination to detemine power value and 

 78894°— BuU. 537—13 ^11 



