384 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



THE LIMIT OF MINIMUM FLOWS. 



The Hudson River gagings show that the extreme minimum of 0.29 of a cubic foot 

 per second per square mile has only occurred for two periods, one of six days and the 

 other of five days — a total of eleven days for the whole period covered by the gagings. 

 For the month of July, 1888, the mean flow may be taken at 0.37 of a cubic foot per 

 second per square mile, and for October, 1891, the mean flow was 0.36 of a cubic foot 

 per second per square mile. In July, 1890, the mean flow for the month was 0.43 of 

 a cubic foot per second per square mile, and in several other months, as July, 1893; 

 July, 1895 ; and September, 1895, the mean monthly flow varied from about 0.59 

 cubic feet per second per square mile to about 0.61 cubic feet per second per square 

 mile. As a practical proposition it may be said, therefore, that while Hudson River 

 remains in its present state — for any business where it is not absolutely indispensable 

 to have permanent power — water-power may be developed up to the limit of about 

 0.4 of a cubic foot per second per square mile, with a fair prospect of not being stopped 

 on account of low water more than a few days in each year. But for electric power, or 

 any other application of water-power requiring an absolutely permanent power every 

 day in the year, the development ought not to be based, under present conditions, on 

 more than about 0.24 to 0.25 of a cubic foot per second per square mile, these latter 

 figures relating specially to that portion of the river from which water is diverted for 

 the supply of Champlain Canal. * At points above Glens Falls Feeder the indications 

 are that permanent power developments may be made up to about 0.3 of a cubic foot 

 per second per square mile. As a matter of fact, nearly every water-power on Hudson 

 River is developed far beyond these figures, but under these conditions, some portion 

 necessarily stands idle more or less during the low water period of each year. On 

 Black River, due to the compensation storage, developments may be safely made up to 

 about 0.40 of a cubic foot per second per square mile. If that river were more 

 nearly in its natural state, the indications of the rainfall and run-off data are that the 

 safe measure of development would be substantially the same as on Hudson. 



WHAT A STORAGE PROPOSITION INVOLVES. 



Broadly, a storage proposition involves the construction of large reservoirs in 

 which the flood flows of what we distinctively call the storage period, which includes 

 the months from December to May, inclusive, may be held back, to ue fed out in such 

 manner as to maintain an equable flow during the entire year. As already shown by 



* During the early part of August, 1899, the flow has been somewhat lower than given in the 

 foregoing. Without having the gaging record at hand the extreme observed minimum maybe placed 

 at about 0.20 of a cubic foot per square mile per second. The figures in the text relate to the 

 observed minimum of the gaging period from October, 1887, to November, 1898, inclusive. 



