UTILITIES: Decision on the Snake

Decision on the Snake For seven years, private-and public-power advocates have been battling over rival plans to tame the Northwest's tortuous, turbulent Snake River, one of the last great U.S. valleys still unharnessed.

In 1948 Secretary of the Interior Julius A. Krug proposed a high-level (602-ft.) federal dam with initial capacity of 800,000 kilowatts. Idaho Power Co. wanted to build three smaller, privately financed hydroelectric dams (initial capacity: 783,400 kw.) at Oxbow. Brownlee and Hell's Canyon sites, all of which would have been flooded by the Government project.

Last week the Federal Power Commission broke the deadlock. The winner: Idaho...

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