Bucolic Bonneville

Ever since the U. S. Government began building big Bonneville Dam (potential capacity: 518,400 kilowatts) and bigger Grand Coulee Dam (1,890,000 kilowatts) on the nonindustrialized Columbia River, Northwesterners have wondered who was going to buy the power. Last Christmas they got an initial answer: Aluminum Co. of America contracted to build a $3,000,000 plant near Portland, buy 32,500 kilowatts of Bonneville juice.

Last week Northwesterners rejoiced again when they heard that bucolic Bonneville had got another customer: a new firm named Sierra Iron Co. of Nevada, which planned a $600,000 pig iron plant at Vancouver, Wash., using 6,000 kilowatts the first year (1940-41), 30,000 thereafter. That hiked Bonneville's power contracts (fattened by agreements with municipalities) to 75% of present, 13% of ultimate capacity. Ready for the dotted line last week was a third industrial power user: a chemical maker with a hankering for an initial 2,000 kilowatts.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.