‘byt Les DREW , es
- Prince Rupert Deily, News .

Prince Rupert’s founding fathers envisaged a bustl-

# seaport city of 50,000 population. They were, as
tybady knows, too fast on the drawingboards. ~

Only now, 60 years later, is this being made. possible
Imost instantly if desired—by B.C. Hydro.

m Peace River. power;‘coming here:in the early: 1970s,

Mil pack the. kind of punch demanded today to lift a

wn of 15,000 into. metropolitan leagues, For the first

Rime Prince Rupert will beable to. offer big. blocks of

ower at the beck of industry. - : ;

The same can ‘ba sald for other! j for new industry te

ces ‘along the Peace power] “McDougall speaks of. rahe joy

eam, But. to Prince Rupert, of being in an integrated system,
ger to grow into the huge port] and while this is highly technical

Ss railway empire builders. ine] abd modern’as a laser beam, |.

dd there ‘are. Simple’ illustrations,
sotene the dee: volimited power ‘For instance,” through © the
In their pltch to investors thel Peace power tie-in, if a new in«
ty's -. industrial development) dustry-in Prince Rupert saya st
0 sultants, Stothert Engineer-| ¥ will neéd 10 megawatts, a com
g af Vancouver tell of the m-| puter in Vancouver will figure

anged virtues: .a trans-continej Whete 10 megs would best be

tal railway. terminus, | a har-|

drawn from, either the Peace or

br capable of taking the biggest| Kemano, Then presto, The pow-

rgo carriers | being built’ to-l

by, the Canadian port closest to
ne Orient, To these they add
W power factor; power for b
bading, power for cranes, pow-
for grain elevators,
; Pete Lester, Prince Rupart’s
pugh mayor who leads the figh
RT fort expansion, is thé first
p admit that before Hydro took
er here. four years ago, in-
stxy was discouraged by lack
pover. Several manufacturers
poked, then left,
“Today we can bidseriously,’
@ mayor says.

Jack McDougall, Hydro’s ac
Bc north coast area manager
'S Peace power will reno

ro limitations. on industry here
Bamount and hazard, ©
Until 1965 the supplier - wa
prthern B.C. Power whose
purces were purely local — and
molated, Hydro bought out NBC 5
hd began linking Prince Ruper}
mmes, businesses, fish proces
Me plants and pulp mills wi
@onger, more reliable sources,
MNow power flows into Rupe:
mer a brand new 287,000 volt
me running from Kitimat -
mrrace andthen west, the source
Ming Alcan’s giant Kemano plz
m the first year of operation it
a been as near to fail-safe as
mransmission line through rug-
a! terrain could ever be, Whe
mdro completes its 600,000 vol
me from Prince George the fu
to Terrace, the two lines w.
@ linked and-Prince Rupert wi
a the proyince-wide erid,.
wa'se of electricity, meanwhile,
m risen steadily in Prince’ Rus
t. Last year the city. and ‘its
fhboring Columbia ‘Cellulose
» mills pulled a peak load
megawatts which is like light-
a 100-watt Hght bulb inevery
1@ in greater Vancouver, This
IY the peak is expected togoup
p2 megawatts.
orty per cent of new housing,
Prince Rupert adopts all-elec-|
w: heating, Domestic conver-
ans increase every Week,
Miseholders like the cleanli-
ws and versatility. The mod-
te climate, is. another rea=

ii What's a

mm. In winter Prince Rupert
men has the highest temper
re readings in Canada, an
mping heat down in homes
Bmore of a problem than flr
m up.
miydro seems not the least wor
md 6either «about competitio
mam the natural pas pipeline no
gue strung from Prince George
m°rince Rupert,
hough thelr officials don’t sa
geil] indications are that Hydro
mes Will be cheaper, especial:
view of the Public Utilities!
nmission ruling which grant:
three per cent of gross sales
as to municipalitles along the
e and at the same time more
lass Invited the gas compan
levy the charge against its
mers.
‘dro is pleased with the: rise
Plectriclty consumption" inl
ance Rupert; but it’s a lot hap-
me over having an assured and]
mst boundiess SUPPLY of power,

er Is made available,. :
“Perhaps. the most promising

qj feature of the transmigsion line
| west. from the Peace is its very

siza -— the same: size as the
feeder to the south of the prove
ince, at 600,000 volts the biggest
in British Columbia and among
the highest voltage. lines in the
world,

Why a Line of such immense ca-
pacity to west-central B,C,?
What's about to. happen here?

To find the answer, a maphel

the whole vast northwesterncor=

J ner of B,C, into a chunk of Can-

ada where New Brunswick; Nova

4 Scotia and PEL could he fitted

quite comfortably,
Here mineral, forest and hydro

oj Wealth lies waiting tobe unlocked,

The Taku, Liard, Skeena and Nasa
Rivers all hold power potentiai,
A tajor power terminal leading
toward this rich realm makes
sense for the futurea, =; .
Whether {t's Prince Rupert

grasping a alice of Pacifle Rim}

trade or amine opening near
Dease Lake, each has the promisa
of power to perform to the full-

HOO-HOO?

! A HOO-HOO-ts a member of a

f unique organization of the Indus-

trial world — a society whose
I membership comes from the Ca-

nadian and: Americantorest-pro-

ducts: industry; “".

‘The'traternal order ‘originated
in 1892 when a group of lumber-
men.on their way home from a
convention were held up by a
raltroad wreck in Arkansas, The
restless lumbermen found time
hanging heavily until B,A, John-
son came up with an idea for
forming a fraternal club ani f:
“saught on,”

. Bolling Johnson was anadmir-
er. of Lewis Carroll’s stories
and it evolved that the topafficer
of the elub would ba called “Snark
of the universe,"

Salvage
Important

Underwater log salvage is be-
coming an important: phase of
the Canadian lumbering industry
in certain areas, Until recent
years. ‘‘sinkers’? .or ‘‘dead-
heads", as-sunken logs are cal-
led, were recovered from shal-
Jow water only, This was done
with a pike pole which literally
speared logs lying on the bot-
tom,

However, since the perfection
of Scientifically Controlled Un«
derwater Breathing Apparatus
SCUBA), recovery of sunken logs
in deep water has become prace.
tical and profitable, =:

For. many years itwas believed
fhat sunken logs were not ¢ Worth
recovering,

Converting the turbulent ener-
ey of the angry river into con-
trolled electrle power has beena

PA} mammoth undertaking,
You glance. beyond the route, tol.

First three diversion tunnels,
each as wide as a four-lane high
way and aS high as a five-
storey building, rerouted the
river’s flow around a half-mile
section of riverbed, Over the next] e
threa years, the huge W.A.c,
Bennett Dam gradually filled the
canyon to the top of its “400-
foot-high wall, then reached up-
ward for another 200 feet, spill-
ing acrossthe Peace River Valley
to a total width of 11/4 miles,

TO HALIFAX
The amount of material requir-
ed to build this enormous struc-
ture would be sufficient to erect
a Wall 15 feet high and 6 feet

‘| wide from Vancouver to Halifax,

This great dam controls the run-
off from 27,000 square miles in

.| north-central British Columbia

and creates a lake covering 640
square miles — flve times the
size of Lake Okanagan and‘ by
fax the largest lake in B.C,

More thati half the water from

August, the. months ‘of: lowest
power consumption, Commencing
this year, this. runoff is blocked
by. the Bennett Dam so that itcan
be released as required through-
out the year to. spin. the largest
turbines and generators in the
western world before continuing
dts Journey downstream to. the
Mackenzie River and eventually
to the Arctic Ocean,

‘GLACIER HELPED

Ten to twenty thousand years
ago, a glacier closed the origin-
al channel of the Peace River
about a mile upstream from the
site of the dam, forcing the

| river's flow to find a new route

through the steep rock-walled
reach now known as Peace River
Canyon... 'The glacier net only cre-
ated in this fashion one of the
world’s finest sites for a. large
power dam butalso deposited just
four miles to the east abundant
construction mater lals with
which to build it,

For three whole years, ariver
of sand and gravel flowed to the
damsite irom this glacial deposit,
The world’s longest conveyor,
three miles long and 51/2 feet
wide, carried 12,000 tons of ma=
terial per hour towards thedam-
site, At this rate, it would take
only 41/2 -hours to fill a- box
the size of Vancouver's Burrard

| Building. ‘The 100 million tons af

materials: which the conveyor
transported. by the. time the dam

-| Was completed would f111 600,000

‘melting snowfields in the-Peace} -
‘annually . “escapes |.
} dowriatream “between: May™ and

-jother “machines . got’ to work a
spreading, levelling, Grading a and};

Gathering conveyers at moraine, four mites from site of W. A.C. Bennett Dam, fed main conveyer which delivered
construction materials ta processing plant near damsite.

Giant Conveyor Belt —
Snakes Toward Dam |

gaidola cars and make up atrain|> .-

3,100 miles long,
ATE MOUNTAIN —

Loading this conveyor when it|:

Was operating at full capacity re«

quired the sustained efforts of 14| 2-25 200,
of the largest tractors made’—|' °°).
385-horsepower DIG. units |-.-

equipped with speciatly-built-U~|-':

shaped blades 15 feet wide and i

seven feet high,

These machines gradually took 7
apart the mountain of gravel left);
behind by the glacier and pushed |: ”.
the construction materials onto}

a serles of gathering conveyors.
which fed the main conveyor,

Before this material. was
Placed on the dam, it passed
through 2 complex processing
plant covering 13 acres above the
damsite,. Here. It was segregated,
washed andreblended as required

for placement on’ the various|\

zones of the dam,

From ‘the processing plant, |:
twin conveyors carried the pre-|-
pared construction materlal|*:
down the canyon wall to the dame | -

site where {i was fed Into two
large loading hoppers,

DWARF DINOSAURS ©

the fill to the. different zones.ot

the dam, Pulled by 600-horse-|°

power HP Cat 660 tractors, these

huge’ bottom-dump . vehicles fone
would dwarf the giant dinosaurs | - -
that populated the area a few]:

Million years ago, Fourteen of

the wagons, largest ever made in|
Canada, handled all the hauling |:

at the damsite,
-As the material, was. dumped,

compacting.

Hardwood,
Softwood ©

Of the hundreds of species of
trees that grow on the continent

there are approximately. 35 that] ’.
are commonly manufactured into

Jumbe r,

These are almost evenly divid- :

ed between two basically differant
kinds of woods — softwoods and
hardweods,

Confusion is introduced by the} °
fact that relative hardness is not|‘ ~
the differentiating characteristic] | .

in listing the two, Some soitwoods
paradoxically, are harder than
some hardwoods, .

Generally, softwoods are ‘the
coniferous or needle~bearing
trees such as the spruce, pine,
fir or hemlock,

A civil engineer with wide exe
perience on’ major power davel-

opments across the continent was .

in charge of design activities for

the Peace River power. project,
H. K, Pratt, now manager. of.

B.C, Hydro's production and sup. .
ply division, came to. B,.C,:to |
supervise inspection of the pro- ~
ject for International Power and -

Engineering Consultants in 1964,
He joined Hydro in April 1967,

He was head’ hydraulic’ engine |

eer for two years on the St. Law~

rence Seaway. and power project

previous..to coming to B, C.

A graduate of the University of
Minnesota with a great deal of
post-graduate study tohis credit,
he Was a Member of the U. Si.
Army's corps of engineers from
1934 to 1956, when he Joinad the
Bechtel Corporation of San Fran-
cisco and was in charge of des
sign for the huge Oroville. =
Wyandotte South Fork hydro and
{rrigaticn project in California,

In 1961 he joined Stanley En-

PRATT

related to the Mount Coffee hydro
project in Liberia,
From’ 1963 until coming to B,C,

gineering Co. of Muscating, lowa|he was with RW. Beck and As-
‘as: chief civil-engineer, He di-|sociates, of Seattle, as head of
rected foundation | investigation| their design and construction de-
surveys and feasibilty studies [Partment,

‘These in turn loaded. 106-ton- :
eapacity hauling units which ‘sped |.

-_RG.E.is moving
| things | along bin

Head Oflon: 1 1085 West Pender St, Vancou ver, Bc. ;

wid wt