The Comerford Development at Fifteen Mile Falls

The Connecticut River flows 380 miles from the International Boundary to the Atlantic Ocean and falls 1,640 feet along its course. In 1928, the New England Power Association began a two-year project to build one of the largest hydro-electric developments in the country at Fifteen Mile Falls. The dam, located in the towns of Monroe, New Hampshire, and Barnet, Vermont, stands 275 miles above the river's mouth. When it was dedicated on September 30, 1930, President Herbert Hoover pressed a button at the White House to start the first of four generating units. The dam includes earth embankments, a concrete gravity spillway and intake section, steel penstocks, and a powerhouse. Its reservoir covers 1,093 acres at an elevation of 650 feet above sea level and extends seven miles upstream. The dam is 2,253 feet long and reaches a maximum height of 170 feet. It can pass flows through hydraulically operated sluice gates, flash boards, and stanchion bays as well as through the turbines, with a discharge capacity at full pond of 99,000 cubic feet of water per second. The powerhouse contains four turbines with a combined rating of 216,800 horsepower, and its 162,300 kilowatts is enough to power 162,300 homes. Hydroelectricity accounts for five percent of New England's power needs.

Barnet, Vermont · United States