OCR

Taum Sauk Pumped Storage Facility High on a hogback summit of the Ozark highlands ninety miles south of St. Louis, a giant footprint-shaped lake has become a landmark to the air traveler crossing this sparsely populated area. Although it might at first lend credence to the Paul Bunyan-John Henry legends so prevalent in this region, the excavation is in fact brand-new, and is one of the out- standing engineering feats of modern days . The man-made lake atop 900-foot-high Proffit Mountain is the upper reservoir for the $50 million Taum Sauk pumped storage project, a novel power development recently completed for the Union Electric Company of St. Louis, Missouri. The immense reservoir, which has an 84-foot-high rock-fill embankment more than a mile in circumference, has a paved floor, 4 inches thick, which embodies more than 47, 000 tons of asphalt concrerete. The Taum Sauk project differs from most hydro-electric schemes in that it is quite independent of rainfall and subsequent river force to supply the water to generate electricity. By using the same water over and over again, drought does not create a problem, and only a small amount of water is lost through evaporation and leakage. The project's giant generators, humming at full capacity during daylight peak hours, supply 350,000 kilowatts of electricity to the rapidly growing industrial complex around St. Louis. At night, and on weekends, when the demand for electricity is generally low, the process is reversed. Low-cost power from otherwise- idle steam equipment operates pump-generators to pump the same water from the lower storage area through a tunnel back to the large upper reservoir, ready to be used again at the next peak period. Project Climaxes Extensive Research The Taum Sauk project was authorized at the end of 1959 after officials of the Union Electric Company had made an exhaustive search of various sources of new power. The requirements were critical; a body of water of sufficient, size had to be located high enough on a hillside to provide a head of water to drive the huge turbines. Various sites were explored and rejected, for several reasons. One promising location had to be written off after it was discovered that a national highway was slated to pass through the lower reservoir area, while another had so much, fertile farmland in the reservoir area that costs would have been prohibitive. Finally the Proffit mountain site was chosen, and the project was named "Tecum Sauk" after the highest peak in Missouri, some five miles away.