84 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



Government Control 

 OF Water Power. 



The question of what kind of control 

 the National Government should exer- 

 cise over water power companies bids 



fair to become of very great importance in California. At pres- 

 ent only a small fraction of the available water power of the 

 State is utilized, although within the last two years surveys and 

 estimates for further development have been undertaken on a 

 very large scale. The utilization of water power, especially its 

 future utilization, is of such vital importance to all the people 

 that some restrictions for insuring a wise and fair use of it seem 

 to be demanded. It will enter very largely into questions of 

 transportation, lighting, heating, pumping, and innumerable other 

 mechanical uses. The more it is developed the greater will be 

 the saving in other natural resources, such as coal and. wood. 



The Forest Service is concerned with this matter because it 

 expends money to protect the cover of the watersheds from 

 destruction by fire, excessive cutting of timber, and overgrazing, 

 thus assuring a steady flow of clean water; and it has direct 

 charge of the government land necessary for reservoir sites, 

 power-house sites, and rights of way for conduits and trans- 

 mission lines. The configuration of this government land, more- 

 over, gives the fall, without which any amount of water would 

 be quite useless for power purposes. 



On these grounds, therefore, the Forest Service believes that 

 the power companies should pay to the people a reasonable 

 return for value received whenever they make use of these 

 natural resources belonging to all the people. The present policy, 

 to which vigorous objection is made by some of the power 

 companies, is to require the fullest possible utilization of water 

 power opportunities, consideration of local industries, a contract 

 involving a thirty- or forty-year lease of the land, and a charge 

 of from two to ten cents per thousand kilowatt hours on the 

 power developed. 



The power companies have attempted, and may again attempt, 

 to obtain such legislation as would give them absolute patent to 

 the necessary lands, in which event they might be wholly removed 

 from any government control. [F. E. O.] 



