The inadequacy of the Snoqualmie Falls power plant to meet the demand
for power for municipal and industrial purposes at TACOMA, prompted its
owners to undertake a much larger enterprise, which will result in the
construction of still another mammoth power plant within ten miles of the
city of TACOMA.
The plan which is being carried out by what is known as the White River
Power Company, is to divert the White River about half a mile above the
town of Buckley into a canal, beginning at this point and extending a
distance of about five miles across the tableland to Lake Tapps. The
canal is being excavated like an ordinary railway cut out of the solid
gravel, hardpan or earth or whatever the geological formation happens to
be. It will be thirty feet in width on the bottom and fifty-five feet
wide at the top and eight feet deep. Dams are to be constructed at the
low points on the northerly side of Lake Tapps so that the lake can be
raised to a level thirty-five feet higher than the present, which will
cause the lake to overflow and merge with Kirtley Lake, Crawford Lake
and Kelly Lake, covering all the intervening bottom lands and valleys so
that the total area thus submerged and overflowed will exceed 4,000 acres
of land. This lake may be drawn down thirty feet. This reservoir will be
supplied by the flood waters of White River and will be drawn out through
the water wheels during the season of low water, and by thus equalizing
the flow of the river will make the power plant capable of a continuous
development of 100,000-horse power. The reservoir will permit the plant
to run at full load for several months, even if White River were to run
dry or the use of the supply canal were to be discontinued for that
length of time.
[Illustration:
1—Puget Sound Flouring Mills.
2—Pacific Brewing Company’s Plant.
3—Dry Dock at Quartermaster Harbor.
4—Power House of White River Power Company.
]
The water from this enlarged lake reservoir will be led through a channel
into a masonry penstock whence pressure pipes will conduct it down a
declivity to the site of the power house, within ten miles of TACOMA,
giving a fall of 485 feet. At the foot of these pipes the power house,
105×250 feet, will be constructed, as shown on the opposite page, and the
water will thence be released into the Stuck River. A short transmission
line will conduct the power to the Tacoma Cataract Company building in
this city, whence a large share of the present output of the Snoqualmie
Falls power plant is now distributed to consumers, public and private, in
TACOMA.
[Illustration: Nisqually River at Its Source in a Glacier.]