Total expenditures, according to purpose and nature, on Leasburg diversion to June 30, 1907.

NORTH DAKOTA.

WILLISTON PROJECT.

GENERAL STATEMENT.

The general features of the Williston project are summarized below:

Summary of principal data relating to Williston project.

County: Williams.

Townships: 153, 154, 155 north, ranges 100, 101 west, fifth principal meridian. Latitude: 48° 10′.

Longitude: 103° 30'.

Altitude: 1,875 feet.

Railway connections: Main line Great Northern Railway.

Principal markets: St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth, and Chicago.

Land office for district: Williston.

Irrigable area: Bench and cleared bottoms, 8,000 acres; brush bottoms, 4,000

acres.

Ownership of lands: Public, 1,000 acres; State and school, 200 acres; private, 10,800 acres.

Average elevation: 1,850 to 1,900 feet.

Character of soil: Benches, sandy loam; cleared bottoms, heavy clay; brush bottoms, sandy.

Range of temperature: Maximum, 107°; minimum, —54°.

Average rainfall: 15 inches.

Average rainfall during three summer months: 7.5 inches.

Size of farm unit: 160 acres.

Principal products: Present, wheat, flax, oats, vegetables; under irrigation, alfalfa, sugar beets, small fruits.

Duty of water: 2 acre-feet per acre per annum.

Source of supply: Missouri River.

Minimum discharge: 10,000 second-feet.

Canals and laterals: 60 miles.

Power development: 1,500 horsepower.

Generating station building: 90 feet by 90 feet.

Steam boilers: 6 water-tube Stirling, 250 horsepower each.

Furnaces: Dutch-oven, with rocking grates and forced draft.

Stacks: Three steel stacks, each 54 inches diameter and 135 feet high.
Fuel: Lignite coal from mine owned and operated by United States.

Number and size of generating units: 2 of 300 kilowatts capacity each.
Type of prime movers: Condensing horizontal steam turbines.

Type of generators: 3-phase, 2,200 volts and 60 cycles.

Number and size of transformers: 3 of 250 kilowatts capacity.

Type of transformer: Water cooled, 2,200 to 22,000 volts.

Transmission line: 4 miles built, 14 miles required.

Pumping stations: 4; one combined with steam-generating plant.

Type of buildings: 1 concrete, 2 brick, and 1 floating barge.

Type of pumping units: 8 centrifugal pumps, 2 steam turbines, 6 motors.
Capacity of pumps: 185 second-feet; pumping lifts 25 to 55 feet.
Rated power of 2 steam turbines: 450 horsepower.

Rated power of 6 motors: 725 horsepower.

The Buford-Trenton, Williston, and Nesson projects, comprising the Williston district, are located in Williams County, on the left bank of Missouri River. It is proposed to pump water from Missouri River into canals crossing the valley and bench lands. Lignite

coal, mined on Government lands adjacent to the pumping plants, will be used as fuel. General descriptions of these projects may be found in preceding annual reports.

The Buford-Trenton and Williston projects, which are now under construction, involve the use of electrically operated pumps, all of which are supplied with electric power from the main generating station, situated about 3 miles north of the city of Williston. The Nesson project will also require the installation of electrical pumping machinery, and the main generating plant for this project will be located close to the lignite-coal mine, which will furnish the fuel required.

Preliminary examination of the Williston project was begun in September, 1904, and consisted chiefly of investigations for lignite coal. Detailed surveys and coal borings were made during the season of 1905. An outline of the project, with plans and estimates, was considered by a board of engineers, which met at Williston, September 22, 1905, and recommendation made that $1,000,000 be set aside for this project, based on a contemplated total area of 40,000 acres. The board recommended that the initial work consist in developing the smallest fractional part that would demonstrate the feasibility of this pumping project.

The portion of these amounts to be spent on the Williston project was left for future adjustment. The estimates of cost considered by the board of engineers was based upon the unit prices on contracts then in progress on other projects, and was approximately $25 per

acre.

The initial unit now under consideration for construction will provide water for about 12,000 acres of land.

On May 5, 1906, the Williston Water Users' Association voted to enter into a contract with the Secretary of the Interior to return to the reclamation fund the cost of the irrigation works for the Williston project. The contract was executed May 23, 1906.

The portion of the Williston project selected for initial development includes about 12,000 acres of irrigable land situated north, east, and west of the city of Williston. About 7,000 acres, lying north of the Great Northern Railway tracks and extending up the valley of the Little Muddy about 10 miles, are covered by the canal system now under construction. The larger part of this area consists of bench lands, but some creek bottom lands are included. The remaining 5,000 acres are situated in the river bottoms, which are now largely covered with brush and timber. The canal system for the bottom lands has not yet been commenced. Contracts now in force are shown in the following table:

Contracts Williston project, June 30, 1907.

All the water for this project will be pumped from Missouri River and power for the purpose will be developed in a main power plant situated about 3 miles north of Williston and close to the lignite coal mine owned and operated by the United States. Construction work under contracts now in force is being done on the main power plant and three electrically-operated pumping plants.

The main power plant contains a steam-boiler equipment of 1,500 rated horsepower in Sterling water-tube boilers, provided with furnaces designed especially for using the low-grade North Dakota lignite for fuel. This power plant will furnish also the power required for operating the pumping plants on the Buford-Trenton project, for which purpose its capacity will have to be increased eventually about 50 or 75 per cent.

The pumping station which takes the water from the river and discharges it into a settling basin on the bank consists of a flat bottom scow or barge, 60 feet long and 24 feet wide. By the use of flexible metallic ball-and-socket joints the discharge pipes which carry the water from the barge to the bank are so supported that the barge is free to rise and fall with fluctuations in river level. The three centrifugal pumps on this barge have a combined capacity of 90 secondfeet sufficient for the 7,000 acres now covered by the canal system. Additional intake pumping stations will be required for each of the bottoms, to be provided for later.

At all pumping stations located on Missouri River itself the pumping lifts vary from about 15 feet at high water to about 30 feet at low water. To provide for this fluctuation in the pumping lift the speed of the centrifugal pumps will be controlled by changing the rate of alternations of the electric power current. In order to provide for this the electric generating units at the power plant are equipped with adjustable speed governors on the steam turbines.

Two small pumping stations, one having a capacity of 35 second feet, the other a capacity of 20 second-feet, and each having a pumping lift of 30 feet, raise water from the main canal to higher canals for the bench lands north of the city of Williston. The pumps in these stations are driven by motors of 75 and 100 horsepower capacity.

In connection with the main power plant there are two steam-turbine pumping units, each with a capacity of 20 second-feet under a pumping lift of 60 feet. These pumps supply water to the high line canal, which extends up the Little Muddy Valley a distance of about 7 miles. The maximum height above lowest river level to which water is pumped on this project at present is about 90 feet.

It was anticipated when the present contracts were made that all the machinery would be installed and ready for operation early in July, 1907. Owing, however, to the severe winter of 1907, which interfered with railroad transportation, and to the unusually cold, late spring, which seriously interfered with the hauling of material, the placing of concrete, etc., the power and pumping system will not be ready for operation until about the middle of September. The machinery will then be tested in the manner prescribed by the various contracts. It is expected that regular operation of the system will begin at the opening of the irrigation season in 1908.

H. Doc. 63, 60—1——11

The following are the bids received for pumping machinery:

Bids opened August 14, 1906, for power and pumping system, Williston project, North Dakota.

[ Specifications No. 100.]