Mr. HATTON. A hundred million gallons.
Mr. POWELL. What is your population?
Mr. HATTON. The present population, 450,000; we are building a plant
to provide for a population of 800,000.
Mr. MIGNAULT. What is the per capita cost?
Mr. HATTON. I have not worked it out.
Mr. POWELL. Does the cost decrease relatively in larger plants?
Mr. HATTON. Quite so; yes, sir.
Mr. POWELL. It is not adding simply a unit?
Mr. HATTON. No. Of course, the cost of this plant largely depends
upon the cost of the air. The larger the air plant the less the cost
of air. We figure our cost of air based upon a cost of electricity
of seventy-seven one-hundredths per cent per kilowatt hour, which is
the rate fixed by the Wisconsin Railway Commission for that sort of
power; so that that rate is actually fixed.
Mr. POWELL. Is that power quite an item in the cost?
Mr. HATTON. Quite an item; the biggest item in the cost; the cost of
power for compressing the air--that and the overhead charges, such as
the interest on the money invested.
Mr. MIGNAULT. Are you aware whether power is more expensive in
Milwaukee than in Detroit?
Mr. HATTON. I am not; I do not know what the cost of power is in
Detroit.
Mr. POWELL. About what is the cost of horsepower? What is the cost to
you people?
Mr. HATTON. I say it costs us seventy-seven one-hundredths of a
cent per kilowatt hour, and horsepower is about three-quarters of a
kilowatt in round numbers--six-tenths of a cent, I should say.
Mr. MIGNAULT. Is there any nuisance resulting from the drying process?
Mr. HATTON. No. The gases must be washed, and then after passing
through the washer are taken into the plant itself--into the liquor,
and the liquor is a deodorizer; so there is no odor arises from the
cooking of the sludge, as we call it.
Mr. MIGNAULT. That is the drying of the sludge?
Mr. HATTON. Well, that is what we call cooking.
Mr. POWELL. This is not the same principle of the two tanks where
the material is taken into one tank and has a certain bacterial
operation, and then passes into another tank, and then finally into
beds?
Mr. HATTON. No.
Mr. POWELL. You know the system to which I refer; they had it in
England in one place, and then started it in Canada, and it was not a
success?