ESAinfo Report: Hydro-Power Plants Attacked by our own US Fed
and State Agencies
August 03, 2003
ESAinfo is again discovering the startling reality in the ongoing
ruin of electric power production in the United States. The Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) Notice below came last week as a wakeup call
to those interested in helping save power production facilities (please
read below) in this country. Like General Custer’s last stand, Portland
General Electric is finally “raising the white flag” with regard to
closure of the Bull Run Power Plant in Oregon State. Federal and state
regulators there have worked to close the plant.
What is happening:
Many of our historic hydro-power plants are not being relicensed through
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) due to the pile-on
of more and more onerous Federal and State fish protection regulations.
After construction, and if allowed to operate with few regulations,
hydro-power is virtually free (at one half a cent per KWH), federal
and state agencies are now imposing such onerous regulations that
many power companies can not justify the required investment anymore.
“The power plant simply does not pencil out”, as Craig P. Johnson
of Pacificorp told ESAinfo earlier this year about closing of the
Naches Power Power Facility on the Naches River in Yakima County,
WA. The interesting parody is that these regulations were conjured
up, and are now being dictated, at a time when there are historic
levels of salmon returning to our nation’s rivers in the northwestern
United States.
The Bull Run Story:
The latest story in the growing list of hydro-dam fatalities is the
Bull Run Power Plant in Oregon. The plant produces 22 Megawatts of
electricity 24/7 (significant power production which could be increased
with new high-tech turbines), but due to mounting regulations being
dictated by two federal agencies and one state agency, the power plant
and its two upstream dams (the Marmot and Little Sandy River Dams)
are being scheduled for removal. Culprit agencies destroying this
American power facility using federal laws such as the NW Power Act
and the Endangered Species Act are:
1. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration or NOAA (formerly
known as the National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS)
2. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
3. The Oregon State Fish and Wildlife Service (ODFW).
These sorts of policy/regulations are of huge concern/consequence
since similar extreme regulations could actually halt the production
of automobiles in this country. We believe our Forefathers would have
liked us to maintain and operate the hydro-power plants that they
constructed and paid for, at least until other forms of power production
become available. As Mr. Al Caruba www.anxietycenter.com says, “a
country that removes its own power facilities will not stand”.
July 25, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 143)] Environmental Impact Statements;
Notice of Availability:
Responsible Agency: Office of Federal Activities, General
Information (202) 564-7167 or http://www.epa.gov/compliance/nepa/.
Weekly receipt of Environmental Impact Statements
Filed July 14, 2003 Through July 18, 2003
Pursuant to 40 CFR 1506.9.
EIS No. 030338, Draft EIS, FRC, OR, Bull Run Hydroelectric Project
(FERC No.477-024), Proposal to Decommission Bull Run Project, and
Remove Facilities Project, Including Marmot Dam, Little Sandy Diversion
Dam and Roslyn Lake, Application to Surrender its License), Sandy,
Little Sandy, Bull Run Rivers, Town of Sandy, Clackamas County, MS,
Comment Period Ends: September 8, 2003, Contact: Alan Mitchnick (202)
502-6074. This document is available on the Internet at: http://www.ferc.gov
.
If you know of any spending on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) due
to the salmon/trout species in the NW and northern California on public
or private projects (even $1.00), please submit your ESA Cost Data
stories at www.ESAinfo.org (or
review other stories)
Please Forward!!
Sincerely,
Gary Wiggins, PE
Mesa, AZ (previously Snohomish, WA)
Cell 425-750-9894
www.ESAinfo.org
Footnotes:
Craig P. Johnson's testimony: http://www.pacificorp.com/Regulatory_Testimony/Regulatory_Testimony21711.pdf