SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff i 5/02/2008

Quote of Note: “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” - - Alexander Hamilton

Other Stuff: Can renewable energy make a dent in fossil fuels? April 25, 2008, C/Net News, Green Tech Blog, Posted by Michael Kanellos

4.2 billion. That's how many rooftops you'd have to cover with solar panels to displace a cubic mile of oil (CMO), a measure of energy consumption, according to Ripudaman Malhotra, who oversees research on fossil fuels at SRI International. The electricity captured in those hypothetical solar panels in a year (2.1 kilowatts each) would roughly equal the energy in a CMO. The world consumes a little over 1 CMO of oil a year right now and about 3 CMOs of energy from all sources. Put another way, we'd need to equip 250,000 roofs a day with solar panels for the next 50 years to have enough photovoltaic infrastructure to provide the world with a CMO's worth of solar- generated electricity for a year. We're nowhere close to that pace. But don't blame the solar industry. You'd also have to erect a 900-megawatt nuclear power plant every week for 50 years to get enough plants (2,500) to produce the same energy in a year to equal a CMO. Wind power? You need 3 million for a CMO, or 1,200 a week planted in the ground over the next 50 years. Demand for power also continues to escalate with economic development in the emerging world. "In 30 years we will need six CMOs, so where are we going to get that?" (Credit: SRI International) Malhotra said. "I'm trying to communicate the scale of the 1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu problem." The CMO is a figure you might begin to hear more as utilities and governments map out their renewable energy strategies. SRI's Hew Crane came up with the term as a way to normalize all the different measurements (kilowatt-hours, BTUs, million barrels of oil equivalents, cubic feet of gas, etc.) in the energy business. It's also a big enough measure to suit the global energy market without saddling everyone with a train of zeros. Many of these stats and a far lengthier discussion of the issue will be found in a book coming from Oxford University Press by Crane, Malhotra, and Ed Kinderman called A Cubic Meter of Oil. And judging by some of the stats Malhotra gave me, the book will alarm policy makers, environmentalists, and pretty much anyone else interested in weaning ourselves from fossil fuels. (To be honest, one of the truly great things about this job is getting the bejeezus scared out of you on a regular basis. One day, China is plunging into a water crisis. The next day, doctors report seeing malaria spreading to new regions because of climate change.) One of the more compelling aspects of Malhotra's research is how it highlights the amount of energy, particularly in the form of fossil fuels, that the world consumes. Oil provided about one-third of worldwide energy (1.06 CMO) in 2006 followed by coal (0.81) and natural gas (0.61). Together, the three fossil fuels accounted for 2.48 CMOs of the 3 CMOs consumed that year. The figures drop quickly after that. The fourth largest source of energy is biomass, mostly in the form of burning wood. Biomass, however, only provide 0.19 CMOs, while hydroelectric and nuclear provided, respectively, 0.17 and .015 CMOs. Wind and solar accounted for less than 0.005 CMOs.

The minuscule size of renewables, unfortunately, also means progress will come slowly. Some more comparisons: A large hydroelectric dam can generate about 18 gigawatts of power a year. To get an annual CMO from new hydroelectric dams, you'd need to build the equivalent of 200 Three Gorges Dams. There aren't that many available rivers in the world left to dam up. Solar thermal? 7,700 plants, or 150 a year for 50 years, required for an annual CMO. One plant went up last year, and it was the first in over 15 years. In his calculations, Malhotra takes into account the fact that solar, wind, hydroelectric, and even nuclear plants don't operate at optimal conditions 24-7; in other words, he has baked in real-world assumptions. If consumers worldwide could replace 1 billion incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents, it would save only 0.01 CMOs in a year. "What is truly humbling is that we aren't going to make any impact on CO2 emission levels for the next 20 to 30 years," Malhotra said. Much of the growth for energy demand will come from emerging markets. Still, North Americans will continue to consume far more energy per person than people in China and India, according to SRI's figures. Ultimately, the world will likely have to continue to burn fossil fuels and buy time with nuclear power and carbon capture technology, particularly capture technology that can pre-treat and clean fossil fuels before they get burned. GreatPoint Energy, GreenFuel Technologies, and others are looking at capture technology, but the whole field is in the embryonic state. If there's a bright spot here, it's that the world has a lot of fossil fuel, he claimed, so we won't be plunged into darkness yet. Oil reserves come to around 46 CMOs, while natural gas reserves total 42 CMOs. There are 121 CMOs of coal out there. These numbers all go up when difficult-to-extract energy such as tar sands are added. "It's been 30 years of (oil) reserves for the last 50 years," he joked. "It's like your pantry. Do you look at it and say 'Oh, no. I'm going to run out of flour in two weeks'? You go out and buy more."

(Since Congress can’t seem to come up with an Energy Plan, maybe this will help.)

Dams 2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

(The full article for the following excerpt is good reading and recommended for all. The article covers what needs to be done to fix levees and dams, the electric generation grid, bridges, ports, and navigation locks. Very Interesting! Here’s the web site for the full article: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4258053.html) (Excerpt on dams) Rebuilding America Special Report: How to Fix U.S. Infrastructure American infrastructure is in trouble, from collapsed bridges to leaking dams. In a yearlong investigation, Popular Mechanics uncovered the fresh ideas, smart engineering and new technology we need to fix it. Here’s the plan. By Erik Sofge and The Editors of Popular Mechanics Photographs by Christopher Griffith, Published in the May 2008 issue.

On March 14, 2006, Ka Loko Reservoir was full. Heavy rains had swamped the island of Kauai, Hawaii, since February, triggering flash floods and road closures. Shortly after 5 am, the dam breached and 400 million gal. of water exploded into Wailapa Stream, sweeping away trees, cars and two houses. Among the three bodies later identified was that of 22-year-old Christina MacNees, who was seven months pregnant. Four victims, including 2-year-old Rowan Fehring-Dingwall, have yet to be found.

There are more than 83,000 registered dams in the United States, and federal law requires them all to receive regular inspections. When the Ka Loko Dam breached, it had never been examined. A civil probe found that the dam’s owner had been uncooperative—inspectors made two attempts but never gained access. They may have been lulled by a bureaucratic blind spot: Years before, Hawaii had classified the dam as “low-hazard,” implying that even if it failed, lives wouldn’t be at risk. “It’s called hazard-classification creep,” says Dan Johnson, a civil engineer with GEI, a geotechnical consulting firm that specializes in water resources. “When a lot of dams were built, they were considered low hazard. If one failed, it would maybe wash out an antelope. But today, that’s a city.” In addition, the database of dams ignores some low-probability/high-consequence events, according to Victor Saouma, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “If a dam were to collapse following an earthquake in California, we’re talking about thousands of people dying,” Saouma says. Researchers haven’t determined which dams are in greatest danger, let alone how to fix the problem.

This is an age in which banks track millions of accounts on a second-by-second basis. Ordinary people can call up satellite images of every corner of the globe in seconds, day or night. So it’s remarkable that the victims of Ka Loko Dam died—and more people could die—because engineers lack up-to-date data. (And it’s not just dams. Three years after Hurricane Katrina, there’s no central registry of the nation’s levees. It’s unknown how many thousands of miles of earthen walls may be on the verge of collapse.) There is a better way. Hawaii is working with the Pacific Disaster Center to develop computer models for predicting the consequences if a dam were to fail. Such models, which incorporate weather and mapping data, should be employed nationwide. New technology can help—the Army Corps of Engineers has begun using remotely operated vehicles to inspect underwater structures. Other tools have been developed but aren’t yet in use as broadly as they could be. These include GPS sensors to detect subtle shifting of a dam’s structure, and geographic information systems to make it easier for officials—and perhaps concerned citizens—to access the data. Fixing the country’s dams will also take a sense of urgency. Kentucky’s Wolf Creek Dam, upstream from Nashville, Tenn., is considered one of the most dangerous in the country. In 2005, the Army Corps of Engineers noticed an alarming amount of seepage under and around the dam, despite major repairs in the 1960s and ’70s. A permeable limestone foundation supports the structure; it dates from 1952, and engineers say the design wouldn’t be approved today. Crews have begun adding concrete grout to the foundation (about 500,000 gal. by early 2008) and installing an additional concrete wall. However, it remains an open question whether the dam can hold out until the project is completed in 2012.

(Wonder what the land around this little lake is worth now?) Hominy Branch dam break dries up Moon Valley Lake By KATIE UNDERHILL, April 23, 2008, The Missourian

COLUMBIA, MO — Moon Valley Lake was once part of the charm of the neighborhood, providing recreation for residents who fished and canoed its waters and a home for an array of wildlife. But the 17- acre lake has gone dry, leaving just a large mud flat and a trickle of the Hominy Branch, a tributary of Hinkson Creek. Sometime during the week of March 17, the dam on Hominy Branch that made the lake broke, and within a couple of days, the lake was gone. Heavy rainfall was likely the cause of the dam failure, and what will happen to the property is uncertain. Since the failure, owner Margaret Rogers has 3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu been looking into donating the land for preservation, but its location in the Hinkson Creek watershed is making the parcel a hard sell, said Scott Hamilton, an urban conservationist for Show-Me Clean Streams who’s involved with the Hinkson Watershed Restoration Projection. “Although the land is free, it comes with a price tag to repair it,” Hamilton said. Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe said the city sought Hamilton’s advice on how to restore that stretch of Hominy Branch after the dam failure. The goal is to stabilize Hominy Branch and the surrounding area because every time the stream changes course, it releases sediment into the creek, Hamilton said. The sediment could be an issue because the state Department of Natural Resources has listed the creek as an impaired waterway since 1998. Hamilton said he met with city parks officials and the Greenbelt Land Trust about taking the acreage, but the liability if sediment washed into the creek and the potential for fines from the state were too much of a drawback, he said.

“I think once people get over their initial fears of potential erosion, they’ll warm up to the idea of acquiring the land as a green space,” Hamilton said. Hoppe said the first priority should be restoring the stream and natural vegetation — not restoring the lake itself. Although the area is privately owned, Hominy Branch’s effect on Hinkson Creek makes it a public matter, she said. Simply restoring the stream would involve restoring the dam as well; an endeavor Hamilton estimates could cost $20,000 to $60,000. It would involve installing a temporary dam made of large rock, then gradually lowering the dam in intervals until the stream system above it has a chance to adjust. The new dam would be installed downstream from the broken one, which would be removed, he said. The previous dam was unregulated, meaning it did not meet the 35-foot height requirement to have regular inspections under the state Dam Safety Program, said Kerry Cordray, division information officer for the Department of Natural Resources. Rogers, who owns the dam and area where the lake used to be, will not be held responsible for any sort of negligence because the resources agency considers this a natural disaster-like situation, Cordray said. Mark Ryan, director of the MU School of Natural Resources and a 17-year resident of the Moon Valley Heights neighborhood, said he remembers coming home one night after a big rain expecting to see the lake higher. Instead, it was lower. By the next evening, the lake, which abuts his back yard, had practically disappeared. Ryan said his family has recently begun to feel the loss of the lake, especially after spending part of the weekend outside working in the yard. “We’re all realizing we’re missing the lake a lot more than we expected to,” he said. Ryan said he didn’t foresee a problem with the dam, though he knew a failure was possible. “It was wonderful living on the lake,” he said, recalling the times his family went canoeing or watched the animals living there. “We miss seeing the birds. As a wildlife biologist, this was heaven.” Another neighborhood resident, Al Vogt, said the lake was one of the things that attracted him to buy his house. “I’d like to see it restored,” he said. Both Ryan and Vogt said they don’t know how the loss of the lake might affect property values. “I just don’t know where to see this going,” Ryan said. “The aesthetics could have some impact on the value of the house.” Bob Smith, Rogers’ attorney, said it’s still too soon to make a decision about the property because several factors are still unknown, including cost. That means a time frame for action is not yet known, but construction officials have been out to look at the property, he said. Rogers couldn’t be reached for comment. Hamilton said he was also interested in the lake situation because he manages a $10,000 grant that’s earmarked for bank stabilization and thought the area might be a good candidate. The money would come from a cost-share program, meaning the amount would need to be matched by another source such as the city. Hamilton also said that in addition to the short-term financial help under the grant program, there might be some long-term funding available through the statewide Stream Stewardship Trust Fund, which could possibly pay for putting in trees or the rock dam. “You can do development now and pay into the statewide fund, and I think this would be an appropriate area for that,” Hamilton said. “It would be nice to get the money back into the community.” Hamilton said a timeline for stream restoration can’t be made until the property owner, whether it be Rogers or eventually another entity, agrees on a plan of action and has appropriate financial resources. And even without human involvement, the area will continue changing itself naturally, he said. “It’s anybody’s guess as to what it’s going to look like,” Hamilton said. “In a matter of a couple weeks, we’ll be seeing weedy species and in a couple months, cottonwoods.”

(We’re fortunate that vandalism hasn’t caused more serious problems at dams. Vandalism is a National problem.) Vandals damage Forge Pond dam Gannett News Service • April 23, 2008

PARSIPPANY, NJ -- Vandals used planks to raise the height of the dam and the water level at the historic spillway and dam at Forge Pond. An employee of Forge Pond Developers called police on Sunday afternoon to say that planks had been used to dam the flow of water out of the pond, increasing 4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu the water level and damaging wildlife and vegetation around the pond. As a result, the historic spillway and dam had degraded, fractured and leaked due to increased water pressure. A number of fish also were killed. Employees of the developer removed the planks and called police. "No Trespassing" signs are posted around the property. Dating to 1735, the dam powered a forge that purified the iron used to make cannon balls and other armaments for Gen. George Washington's army during the Revolutionary War. It also powered a tannery and sawmill along Troy Brook, as well as a grist mill in use into the 20th century.

County Water Authority OKs project to raise dam level at San Vicente Reservoir by Anne Krueger, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE, April 24, 2008

SAN DIEGO – A $568-million project to raise the level of the dam at the San Vicente Reservoir by 117 feet was approved Thursday by the San Diego County Water Authority. Water authority officials said the higher dam level at the reservoir near Lakeside will increase the county's water storage capacity if a disaster such as an earthquake struck, and provide more capacity to store rain water. The water authority had already gotten permits to raise the dam by 54 feet for emergency water storage, but decided to raise the dam another 63 feet to increase the storage capacity during dry years. The project has aroused little controversy. During a public comment period, the water authority received only 25 letters, and only three people spoke during Thursday's meeting. The environmental impact report for the project was approved without comment Thursday by the water authority board. The reservoir, owned by the city of San Diego, now has a 220-foot-high dam and holds about 90,000 acre-feet of water. The higher dam can store more than 152,000 additional acre-feet of water. An acre-foot equals more than 325,000 gallons of water. Kelly Gage, an environmental project manager for the water authority, said construction will begin after the authority receives state and federal permits expected by October. The work, which will be going on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will take about 18 months. The reservoir will be closed to water sports during construction, but officials say a new marina will be installed when the work is complete.

(Does it look like the failure of this dam will cause a problem? The locals say it can be fixed for $4,500 because it’s not the dam – it’s a rock wall along the left abutment.) Future of the Mantorville Dam in Question

(KAALTV.com, 04/29/2008)--- The city of Mantorville, MN has a long, rich history. The old brick buildings downtown were built in the early 1900's. But one piece of the town's history could end up in the cross hairs of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: the Mantorville dam. This dam has been here near downtown Mantorville since the 1860's. John Olive is a 4th generation Mantorville resident. His dad was one of the people who made the most recent repairs back in the mid 1950's. The dam was built to provide waterpower to feed mills, to help grind flour and later to create electricity. But Olive and Mantorville city councilman Jamie Jencks say the DNR is trying to get rid of dams like it across Minnesota. They say the DNR wants to take out dams to improve safety for communities who could be damaged by floods if the dams were to break. They also want to return rivers to their natural habitat and improve water quality. But Jencks and Olive don't think the Mantorville dam is a safety threat, and say it's important to preserve it. The city needs to pay for any fix up costs. Jencks says it could cost $160,000 to replace a damaged wall. It's a move he feels is a bad idea because it would replace the original rock, most of which is in good shape. John Olive says he could fix the problem for a lot less than that. Time will tell what the city does to keep the dam in place.

5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Hydro (This takes big to another dimension. The Grand Inga dam would be nine miles long and 670 feet high. The average river flow is over 1.5 million cfs. The installed capacity would be about 40 GW, which is about one-half of the total U.S. capacity excluding pumped storage. Total cost of project is estimated at $80 billion. The article should state that the electricity production is 320 terawatt-hours.) World’s largest dam planned for Africa Thursday, Apr 24, 2008, The Tide Online

The world’s biggest hydro-electric dam will be in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), if financing for the 80 billion dollars (N9.3 trillion) project can be secured, its promoters say. “If built, the Grand Inga project on the Congo River would generate twice as much power as the Three Gorges dam in China, providing power to half-billion Africans without electricity”, the BBC reported. The report, which was monitored by news men in New York, came on the heels of two-day meeting of the World Energy Council in London. The meeting, the newsmen learnt, will try to entice financiers to back the “immense project”. “We have to raise the level of access to commercial energy all through Africa and other parts of the world”, where this poverty is faced”, the council’s secretary-General Geraid Doucet told the British network. “We can’t do it without building these projects, but of course, on a sustainable basis that takes into account the social, civil and environmental issues”, he noted. The BBC also reported that, “the goal to start construction in 2014, with power eventually transmitted to other African nations through a new distribution system”. It also said that the council wanted to have a feasibility study done soon. “It would be 670 feet high, more than nine miles long and produce 320 terawatts of electricity each year, boosting Africa’s current output by a third”, the BBC said.

(Excerpts) River power plants touted Hydrokinetics harnesses water power By GARY PERILLOUX, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA, Apr. 24, 2008

Imagine nine new electric power plants built from Donaldsonville to the Mississippi line in the next decade. And they’re all under water. Hydrokinetics, the science of harnessing electric power from moving water currents, is poised for a renaissance, and the science behind building small-scale power plants in the Mississippi River is not all wet, a Massachusetts energy executive said Wednesday at the 2008 LSU Alternative Energy Conference. Because of a complex five-year application process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, such river-based plants won’t come on line until about 2012 or 2013 for Free Flow Power Corp., said Christopher Williams, the firm’s chief technology officer. The company is less than a year into that process and is deploying the first of its 2-meter-diameter turbine generators in a Massachusetts canal test. In the Mississippi River, Free Flow plans to place about 150 such generators in each linked system on the river bed, transmit the hydropower through an onshore converter and sell the power to captive customers like large industrial users. “We believe flowing water is complementary to wind, solar, biomass and other areas of (alternative) energy,” Williams said. Free Flow has applied for more than 100 river-based power plants nationwide, about half of them between St. Louis and the mouth of the Mississippi River. Three hydropower plants would be located from roughly Southern University to Morganza moving north and another half-dozen between Brusly and Donaldsonville moving south. The plants would have about a 200-square-foot pad onshore for the converter, Williams said. For a $20 million investment, Free Flow could generate 10 megawatts of power with each system. If all the river-based plants were permitted — including Ohio and Missouri River-based systems — Free Flow eventually could generate about a tenth of the total power produced by Entergy Corp., for example. It’s just a small piece of the energy supply puzzle, but the establishment of green — or non-carbon-producing energy solutions, things that don’t burn fossil fuels and pollute the air — is what the annual conference staged by LSU’s Center for Energy Studies is all about. “It’s that kind of planning that needs to be done,” said Charles Reith, a former Tulane University professor who directs carbon management for Pace Global Energy Services LLC, a Fairfax, Va., consultant. With the election of a new president, the United States likely will see its new leader sign a bill from Congress that raises the stakes tremendously on reducing the impact of greenhouse emissions, he said. ------.

Tri-City Electricity Rates Go Down While Americans Across the Country See Increases April 30, 2008, KNDO/KNDU TV 6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

TRI-CITIES, Wash. - If you live in the Tri-Cities your electricity rates could be going down despite the fact Americans across the country are seeing an increase. Benton PUD said hydropower is saving people in Washington money. Snowstorms and heavy rains have caused coal shortages around the world which could effect electricity rates for those who use coal as a main source, but in Washington we use hydropower. Benton PUD leaders say local customers have actually seen their bills go down and they're getting credit on their bills starting June first. The Manager of Communication for Benton PUD Karen Miller said for the next year the average customer will receive about 70 dollars in credit because of an overpayment to Bonneville Power. Miller said, "Benton PUD gets about 87 percent of it's electricity from hydropower and this power is inexpensive, clean, renewable power that we are very proud of and lowers rates are pushed to our customers." In Franklin County, the PUD Board of Commissioners recently approved a four percent rate decrease effective May first.

(Was this the beginning of pumped storage hydro?) Tidal power and Henry Ford’s cold feet Fundy proposal would have built plant at Cape Split By ED COLEMAN, Apr 27, Halifax, NS, The Chronicle Herald Nova Scotian

IN 1916, automotive giant Henry Ford was a whisker away from financing an enormous pioneer project in the Bay of Fundy. The project would have generated enough electricity to light up the entire Maritimes and make Nova Scotia a world leader as a tidal power pioneer. Ford was just about "ready to sign on the dotted line, but at the last moment he drew back," Dr. William L. Archibald used to relate. Archibald was secretary and a founder of the Cape Split Development Company, which formed early in 1916 to assess establishing a tidal power project in the Bay of Fundy. As chief fundraiser, Archibald had sought out Ford when only a handful of local supporters stepped up to invest in the project.

The plan to harness the Bay of Fundy to generate electricity, which the Halifax Herald said in 1917 was an "enormous project, and one that cannot be given enough attention," certainly appeared possible. In a nutshell, the plan was to build a structure at the base of the cliffs at Cape Split, which would house power generating tidal motors. Activated by tidal movement, the motors would run generators that pumped seawater into storage tanks stationed on cliffs some 91 metres above sea level where in turn, it would be used to drive generating turbines at a lower level. This Artist’s conception of how turbines might have been installed at unique scheme to harness Fundy was the the foot of Cape Split to generate electricity from the Fundy brainchild of a group of professors at Acadia tides flowing through the area. (Acadia University archives) University. The enormous power potential in the Bay of Fundy had long been talked about, and apparently had caught the attention of Dr. George B. Cutten, a Nova Scotia native who graduated from Acadia in 1896. When Dr. Cutten returned from the United States to assume the presidency of Acadia University in 1910, he found that the institution’s recently appointed professor of engineering, Ralph P. Clarkson, was obsessed as well with the potential of the Fundy tides. Clarkson was an electrical engineer who had taught in university. For a time he was an electrical engineering expert for the United States government and had worked in the U.S. patent office in Washington. With this background he was ideally suited to find a practical method of realizing Fundy’s hydroelectric potential. Within three years of arriving at Acadia, Clarkson came up with what he dubbed the Clarkson current motor; an invention he hoped would solve the problem of harnessing the Fundy tides. Once the current motor was patented, Cutten and Clarkson formed the Cape Split Development Company. Joining them was Dr. William L. Archibald, principal of Acadia Collegiate and Business Academy, Professor Alexander Sutherland of the university’s engineering department, and former Wolfville mayor T. L. Harvey, who was treasurer of the new company. Cutten and Clarkson were the prime movers in the enterprise. In a prospectus widely circulated at the time, they spelled out their four-fold purpose: To examine the economic viability of developing a hydroelectric power plant at Cape Split; to obtain an engineer’s report; to carry out experimental work; and to raise the capital necessary to complete the project.

7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

The last aim proved the most difficult, but the fledgling group eventually raised about $31,000 from the sale of shares and then proceeded with the next steps. The company hired the services of the New York consulting engineer, Bogart and Pohl, to conduct an engineering survey of Cape Split. Assisted by a party of Acadia students under Sutherland, the engineers of Bogart and Pohl began a survey of Cape Split in the summer of 1916. On its completion, the firm reported that Cape Split, where the tides race by at the speed of about 18 kilometres per hour, was suitable for hydroelectric power and the project was technically feasible. There was still the question of whether the hydraulic current motor would efficiently handle the task Cutten and Clarkson had in mind for it — powering the generators that would pump sea water into 200-million-litre holding tanks at the top of Cape Split. Consulting engineer Charles M. Allen was hired to find out. Allen tested a five-metre prototype of the motor, first in Pennsylvania where it had been manufactured, and later in the Gaspereau River a few kilometres south of Wolfville. Both tests proved the motor highly efficient; the engineer’s report noted that the motor, of which four would be used at Cape Split, was more than capable of doing the job. With the survey and tests completed, the company proceeded to buy the land needed for the storage reservoirs and the site of the generating facilities. The company sought and was granted a charter as the Bay of Fundy Tide Power Company, which authorized it to proceed at Cape Split. Everything was now ready for construction except for the all-important capital. Only the financing stood in the way. The initial $31,000 the company had raised by selling shares was a drop in the bucket. Cutten and Clarkson determined that the project needed $2.5 million. Potential investors such as Henry Ford were assured that the capital cost would quickly be retired by earnings. Unfortunately, those assurances fell on deaf ears and the $31,000 would be all the capital the company would raise. The project fell through, perhaps because the idea of generating hydroelectric power from the tides was too ahead of its time. The First World War was raging in Europe at the time; and we can only speculate that with the entire western world geared up to fight the Boche, the last thing on anyone’s mind was venturing into a risky, futuristic scheme to harness Bay of Fundy tides. After failing to raise the money, the Cape Split Development Company quickly became inactive. In the fall of 1917, Ralph Clarkson returned to New York to work for the U.S. government. A few years later, in 1922, George Cutten left Acadia to become president of Colgate University. With their departure from Acadia the idea of harnessing the Fundy tides appears to have been dropped. The Cape Split Development Company wound up in 1929, sold its assets, and paid shareholders $4.41 for each $50 share they had bought in 1916.

There’s more to this harness-the-Fundy-tides saga, however. Most of the records of the defunct company, which had been left in the care of William Archibald, were turned over to Acadia in 1942. In 1955, the Nova Scotia Power Commission decided to study the records with the view of reviving the project. The commission obtained the records held at Acadia and additional documents Archibald still possessed. But after analyzing the records the commission decided the Fundy project wasn’t feasible. All the documents the power commission had obtained were returned to Acadia in 1989. They rest in Acadia’s archives today. Ed Coleman has been writing about Annapolis Valley history for over 20 years. He is the author of All the Old Apples.

Water (It never rains where you want it, or when you want it.) East Bay water managers plan for drought Kelly Zito, San Francisco Chronicle, April 24, 2008

East Bay water managers are mulling a slew of measures - from ordinary bans on car washing to drastic water bill increases - to protect their critically low reservoirs. Other Bay Area water districts haven't reached that point. Yet. But amid concerns about changing weather patterns and the ailing Sacramento- San Joaquin River Delta, many consumers and businesses in the region could see changes over coming years in where they get their water, how it gets to them and what they will be permitted to use it for. One 8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu element isn't likely change: Water users will be asked to do less with less. "All the research around the impact of climate change in California shows potential prolonged droughts, drier winters, more wild swings between drier years and wet years," said Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which provides water to residents of the city as well as communities on the Peninsula. "As water agencies and as consumers, we need to manage our water more wisely. There will never again be a period in California where we don't have to think about water conservation." Winnicker and officials from 10 other regional water agencies met Wednesday to renew a campaign urging consumers to use less water. The meeting came one day after the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which provides water to 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, announced that its board is examining mandatory water restrictions, price increases and even water allotments in an effort to stretch its dwindling supply. Unless rains soak the Bay Area in the next several weeks, the district expects to have about 425,000 acre-feet of water by early fall - 175,000 acre-feet below its optimal 600,000 acre-feet. The board will vote on whether to impose rationing May 13. One acre-foot is the amount of water it would take to flood an acre to a level of one foot. One acre-foot of water equals about 325,000 gallons, which can supply a household of four for one year. "The danger is, if we don't protect our water supply now, it could be dry again next year and that 175,000 could turn into 300,000, and then you start to devastate the area," said Charles Hardy, spokesman for East Bay MUD. He is convinced his district's stepped-up measures will preserve its supply until its reservoirs can refill.

Growth not to blame Hardy discounts population growth as a factor in the water shortage: He said the district uses the same amount of water - about 230 million gallons a year - as it did nearly four decades ago when the population was two-thirds what it is today. Currently, the snowpack feeding into the Mokelumne River, which in turn flows into the district's large Pardee and Camanche reservoirs, is about 50 percent below average. Last winter also yielded meager water; and this March and April are among the driest in the district's 85 year-history. The agency does face some quirks and limits that others do not, Hardy said. For one, the Mokelumne River watershed is fairly small in relation to others; second, this year's winter storms dumped more rain south of the river basin. So far, agencies in the North Bay, San Francisco and the Santa Clara Valley have escaped with only voluntary water reductions - on the order of about 10 percent. But even with some comparatively flush reservoirs in the region - Marin's are at 101 percent of capacity - experts say consumers may see more restrictions. "This is a wake-up call that's been a long time coming, and it's not going to be confined" to East Bay MUD, said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Oakland. "This is going to be a challenge for water districts throughout the state." Gleick said water planners have largely tackled the low-hanging fruit of conservation - helping pay for low-flow toilets and the like. Now they must set more ambitious goals, such as recharging aquifers and reusing treated wastewater to flush toilets and to irrigate lawns and golf courses. "Currently we dump a lot of it in the ocean," he said, speaking of treated wastewater. Let's put it to use where we need it."

Erratic rainfall The Bay Area has enjoyed a run of relatively wet years, following a drought from 1987 to 1993. In the last few years, however, rainfall has become more erratic, making water planning difficult. The 2006-07 winter was particularly tough. "That winter was so dry we had to release water from reservoirs to meet demand in the summer," said Don Strickland, spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources. "And we haven't had much since then to put back in - so the reservoirs are getting really low." Strickland spoke recently with a Central Valley pistachio farmer who is only getting 35 percent of his request from the state's water project. He's now digging a 2,000-foot-deep well. In the Bay Area, water supplies pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have fluctuated due to a court battle over protecting endangered fish. The Santa Clara Valley Water District, for instance, said its flows from the delta are down by nearly one-third, forcing the agency to rely more heavily on its reservoirs. "We're still in good shape now, but with water you never know what's around the corner," said Susan Siravo, agency spokeswoman. "With the uncertainty in the delta right now, we don't know what's going to happen." Unlike other districts that aim for a four-year supply of water, the Marin Municipal Water District system is built to handle only half that. General Manager Paul Helliker said Marin is "always two years away from a drought." To forestall that, Marin supervisors are planning a desalination plant on the San Quentin peninsula that would pump about 5 million gallons out of the bay each day, satisfying about one-sixth of the county's annual water needs. East Bay MUD is working on a large-scale project of its own: a $690 million cooperative system with Sacramento that would siphon water from the Sacramento River at Freeport, a town south of Sacramento on Highway 5. If completed as planned, the project could pump tens of millions of gallons a day to consumers during dry times. "We knew a drought was coming, and that's why we do the work on conservation," Hardy said. "When Mother Nature shuts that spigot off, your planning has to take in more than that." 9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

(Wasn’t too long ago that we saw reports of the Colorado River being over drawn? Where’s the water?) Officials discuss S. Utah pipeline Residents learn about plan to bring water from Lake Powell By Mark Havnes, The Salt Lake Tribune, 04/24/2008

ST. GEORGE - Money. Drought. Growth. Those issues and more surfaced this week as dozens of Washington County residents debated the pros and cons of a proposed water pipeline to Lake Powell. The residents showed up Tuesday night at the Dixie Center in St. George to hear officials talk about plans for the pipeline, which they claim will be needed by 2020 to meet projected water demands. The pipeline would distribute 100,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water from Lake Powell to water conservancy districts in Washington, Kane and Iron counties. Larry Millis, deputy director of the state's Division of Water Resources, reported on the status of permits to build and to operate the pipeline and hydroelectric stations planned along the route. He and consulting engineers said the project's price tag - once pegged at more than $800 million - still is being finalized. He said the state would pay for it and then be reimbursed by the water districts. The lead agency on whether to approve the project likely will be the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission because of the proposed hydroelectric generation. That agency needs to follow all federal environmental laws and would issue the environmental impact statement for the project. FERC officials tentatively plan to take public comment June 10-12 in Kanab, St. George and Cedar City, Millis said. Bob Routsong, who moved to St. George four years ago, worries the water will bring growth and erode the lifestyle he came to enjoy. "Nine out of 10 people I talk to do not want to see the growth and congestion it brings," he said.

Low river flow sapping utilities 2008 could be third-lowest year in past 15 for hydropower, corps says Terry Woster, April 27, 2008, Argus Leader

PIERRE, SD - Electric companies and their power customers are paying the cost of continued low flows on the Missouri River, reservoir managers warn. The Army Corps of Engineers, noting the likelihood of a ninth successive year of below-average flows through the dams along the upper Missouri River, predicts power generated by those dams to produce 5.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2008. That's up from barely 5 billion kilowatt hours but still 40 percent off the average annual production of 10 billion kilowatt hours, said Jody Farhat, the corps' team leader for power production. "Last year was a record low," Farhat said.

If the forecast for 2008 materializes, it would be the third-lowest hydropower year for the Missouri River dams in the past 15 years. Data from the Corps of Engineers show a record high of well above 14 billion kilowatt hours of power in 1997. That year also saw record water levels on some reservoirs. Power suppliers that rely on the river dams for hydroelectricity will need to supplement the shortfall from the river with power generated from other sources, such as coal-fired plants, Farhat said. "They have to go out on the market to buy energy," she said. During the past three years, Western Area Power Administration's (WAPA) Upper Great Plains region has had to buy an average of $180 million of additional power to meet obligations, Jen Neville, public affairs specialist for the agency, said in an e- mail. The cost of that power has increased from 2005 to 2007 because of the drought, she said. The difference in cost between river power and purchased power on the market is stark. Neville said the composite rate for power from the Pick-Sloan projects of the Missouri is about $25 per megawatt hour. That compares, she said, to market purchases that can range from $65 to $70 per megawatt hour on Mondays to as much as $90 or more on poor-weather days. Power wholesalers such as East River Electric Power Cooperative are aware that rising costs probably will continue. The company warned in September that drought-related costs were prompting WAPA to propose a 25 percent bump in its bulk power rate for this year. Jeff Nelson, general manager of East River, said WAPA is beginning a rate process that could result in an additional 10 percent to 15 percent increase on top of the 25 percent in place. Two decades ago, East River got as much as 50 percent of its electricity from hydropower, Nelson said. Today, it's 25 percent to 30 percent of the mix.

10 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Environment

Sea lion trapping at dam starts today by Lisa Stiffler, April 24, 2008, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Up to 20 sea lions could be trapped and shipped to zoos and aquariums beginning today and over coming weeks in an effort to cull the herd that's eating diminished Columbia River salmon runs. State officials with Washington and Oregon got permission last month from the National Marine Fisheries Service to remove up to 85 of the California sea lions annually. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco Wednesday put a temporary stay on the killing of the marine mammals, pending action on a lawsuit. Homes in captivity are lined up for 20 of the animals. The Humane Society of the United States, Wild Fish Conservancy and two individual citizens filed the lawsuit to save the sea lions. Arguments in the case should start early next month. The enviros said that the government's case for killing the sea lions that nosh on fish at the base of the Bonneville Dam doesn't hold water: "Blaming sea lions is nothing but a distraction," said Kurt Beardslee, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. "The National Marine Fisheries Service needs to look objectively at dam operation and over-harvest, which together kill significantly more salmon and prevent them from reaching high-quality spawning habitat." Regulators for fish harvests recently shutdown chinook fishing off the coast of Oregon and California. In Washington waters, tribal, commercial and recreational fishermen will be able to catch 122,500 coho and chinook this year. The government offers this rationale for removing the sea lions: Despite three years of efforts to deter them, sea lions consumed more than 4 percent of the returning spring chinook salmon run last year, in just the area visible to observers on the dam. As of this week, approximately 50 sea lions were observed feeding on salmon and steelhead immediately below the dam. -Intelligencer

i This compilation of articles and other information is provided at no cost for those interested in hydropower, dams, and water resources issues and development, and should not be used for any commercial or other purpose. Any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

11 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff i 5/09/2008

Quote of Note: “We would all like to vote for the best man but he is never a candidate.” - - Kin Hubbard

Factoid: “There are only three countries in the world that do not use the metric system— Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.”

Dams Flood Survivors Talk About Possibly Rebuilding the Teton Dam April 29, 2008, By: Bridget Shanahan, LocalNews8.com

As talk of rebuilding the Teton Dam is filtering throughout the valley, some of those hit hardest haven't forgotten the tragedy the first dam brought to the Teton basin but the need for more water storage is weighing on the Idaho Water Resources Department. There are several dam sights being considered for storage across the state, including Galloway, Minidoka and Twin Springs but only one in Eastern Idaho. A new $400,000 study will look at the cost and feasibility of reconstructing a new Teton Dam at the sight that failed back in 1976, killing 11 people and destroying more than 1500 homes. The water traveled one hundred miles in 72 hours. "I don't want to go through that again. I don't want to go through another Teton flood. I've still got land here that has been disrupted and has not been repaired because there isn't the top soil to repair it," Representative Raybould said.

Del Raybould is a lawmaker, but also a flood survivor and most importantly a farmer. He can still point out where the flood tore apart his Rexburg fields; 30 acres have never been restored. The force of the floodwaters is etched in hollowed out pits and gravel-mounded hills haphazardly formed. Gravel and trees stand where crops used to grow. In 1976 he said, "Once the topsoil is gone from it, it is virtually worthless. You see what's taken centuries and centuries to build in the way of fertile topsoil, and then to look at it like this is and see that it's gone." Today Raybould understands the need to prepare for a drought and keep pace with one of the fastest growing regions in the country, and for him that means water storage is a must. 1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

"Water would be shut off to businesses or manufacturing all of that. Look at the chaos that it would present," he explained. Raybould believes a new dam could be the solution, if it's built right. Those thoughts resonate with Mel Bean. "Everybody says, ‘No we really don't want it,' but I can understand where there's probably a need and a use for one. And I wouldn't be all that opposed to it, if they did it right," Bean said. Bean runs Sugar City Furniture and Hardware. His building's been here for close to 90 years and flood lines are now part of his antique décor. "We're really fortunate that we didn't lose a lot of people, we lost a lot of other things...First impression was why don’t we leave? But, if we leave, where would we go? And what we do when we get there? So we just went back at it," Bean explained. Although things are back in order, no one's forgotten the chaos and damage ten feet of rushing water can cause. "It was an experience, and I've said it was an experience and something that happens in your life. But I would not want to have another one of that same thing. I've always said if we're going to have this thing why don't we go for fire or earthquake just for variety? I don't want any more of those floods," Bean said.

(Is this a good idea?) Pott Co. may reverse amendment Times News Service, Manhattan Mercury, Kansas, 5/1/08

A year-old zoning amendment restricting construction of habitable structures in Breach Impact Areas below watershed dams faces probable reversal by the Pottawatomie County Commission. The commission tabled the issue Monday, but indicated a likelihood to rescind the amendment after hearing from several property owners and receiving that recommendation from the county planning commission. The commission approved the amendment in January of 2007, as a safety measure and to preclude watershed boards from possible state-mandated upgrades to their dams. At the time, commissioners believed the measure would impose little threat to the rights of downstream property owners. The subsequent development of BIA maps, however, indicated thousands of acres countywide were affected. "We couldn't have dreamed it would impact that much area or I'd have never gone along with it," said Commissioner Stan Hartwich. "I apologize if we've caused some people some grief and I know we have. It was presented to us in a hurry-up manner and we just acted too quickly."

Several property owners were present to urge the commission to rescind the amendment. "You're taking away a lot of rights for a little bit of good for the watershed boards," said Lance Rezac, who said he has six watershed dams on his property. "I think it's just wrong to take this much ground for something (a dam breach) that has such a remote chance of happening." Mark McAtarian said the move was an attempt by watershed districts to relieve themselves of liability. "What the watershed districts are doing is saying, 'We don't want to have to upgrade our dams, so don't let people downstream build," McAtarian said. "My main objection to this is it was all done to remove the liability from the watershed districts. Once your land is condemned, it's condemned. It's going to be for all of eternity and you can't build on it." James Bradley, a member of the Rock Creek Watershed Board, opposed rescinding the amendment as an issue of safety. Bradley said his primary concern was for properties below the dams and who was responsible in the event of a dam breach. If watershed districts were sued into insolvency, the county commission may bear responsibility, he said. Currently, there are 26 watershed dams in Pott County, with one under construction and another on the drawing board. In tabling the issue, commissioners asked zoning administrator Gregg Webster to meet with watershed boards to determine possible ramifications of rescinding the amendment. "Maybe before we undo this we should determine what difficulties it creates if we do undo it," said Commission Chairman Corwin Seamans.

Region's Reservoirs Under Increased Scrutiny April 30, 2008, WJACTV.com

Dubois, PA - They are massive walls of soil that hold back millions of gallons of water. As the citizens of Johnstown learned in 1889, these dams aren't always perfect. Channel Six News took a closer look at the region's largest reservoirs and how workers maintain the dams. In Elk County, the East Branch Dam was built by the Army Corps of Engineers to control flooding on the Clarion River. Shortly after the dam was completed, a seepage problem developed. That problem was one of the reasons the East Branch Dam was placed on a watch list earlier this year. But Army Corps officials are quick to point out, that doesn't mean the 2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu dam isn't safe. "We've heard there are rumors that there is a massive crack in the dam," said Gary Froelich. "That is simply not true." Many people in the communities of Johnsonburg and Ridgway aren't convinced. They claim any problem at the dam could influence the area's economy.

"The paper mill in Johnsonburg uses water from the Clarion River," said Bob Imhof, of the Lumber Heritage Region. "There is a concern that problems at the dam could cause them to curtail their operations." The East Branch Dam isn't the only reservoir in the Alleghenies under increased scrutiny. The Army Corps of Engineers is taking a close look at each of their reservoirs in the country. Four of those dams are here in our region. In Clearfield County, the Curwensville Dam was created in the 1960s. Army Corps of Engineers officials said they've never had a problem at the dam. Workers at Curwensville Lake praised the Army Corps for their work there. In Centre County, Foster Joseph Sayers Reservoir is surrounded by Bald Eagle State Park. Officials said that dam has been in operation for almost 40 years, but they've never experienced problems. Raystown Lake, in Huntingdon County, is the largest man-make lake in the state. Workers keep a close eye on the dam, but officials said there has never been a problem. Overall, the dams we looked into have a good safety record. We also looked into a couple dams that aren't operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. The city of DuBois is looking into safety concerns at the DuBois Municipal Reservoir. They're working with the DEP and the Army Corps of Engineers on the project. In Centre County, officials said the Cold Stream dam and spillway are in need of repair.

High-hazard dam needs fix TUNKHANNOCK, PA - Nearly $2 million will be needed to repair a high-hazard dam owned by the state at Stevens Lake, north of Tunkhannock, according to commissioners on Tuesday. BY JOSH MROZINSKI, Wyoming County Press Examiner, 04/30/2008

Commissioners noted that they received a letter from Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Deputy Director Brian Barner that stated that it will cost $1.8 million to replace and widen the structure's concrete spillway. "We now have a unique opportunity to repair Stevens Lake and we would like to enlist your assistance and leadership in getting this accomplished," Barner said. He added that the fish and boat commission will work jointly with state and local officials to prioritize repairs, which depends "heavily on local participation and the commitment of local funds." Potential failure and immediacy of needed repairs will be other factors considered by the fish and boat commission. Commissioner Tony Litwin said that the county could not afford to provide financial assistance. The Stevens Lake dam, which is located in Lemon Township, is one of 16 state-owned dams that were classified as high-hazards last year. Gov. Ed Rendell has set aside $37 million in the 2008-09 budget to repair or remove the 16 dams. According to Barner, an additional $78 million will be needed to complete all repairs and removals. High-hazard dams have the potential to cause significant damage to property or loss of life in the event of a failure, Barner noted.

About 21 people would be in harm's way if the dam at Stevens Lake fails. The lake, formerly known as Mud Pond, is a 62-acre impoundment. The dam is nine feet high and 99 feet long and located off Route 29. In the letter, Barner said that the fish and boat commission hopes to hold a meeting about the dam with municipal, county and state officials between May 19 and June 20. "To ensure that all funding opportunities and local support options are fully explored, we plan to hold a meeting with interested local officials designed to ascertain levels of interest and financial support," Barner said. County clerk Bill Gaylord said that the county has not responded to Barner's letter. Also on Tuesday, commissioners noted that free cards that give an average discount of 20 percent on prescriptions not covered by insurance can be found at area pharmacies, the county courthouse, Tunkhannock Public Library and Tyler Memorial Hospital, among other places, starting on Thursday. In another matter, Litwin noted that the Wyoming County Correctional Facility has scored 100 percent on a recent state inspection. "We certainly appreciate all that you do," Litwin said, speaking to jail employees who were recognized as part of Corrections Employee Week. ------.

(Whether it’s 600 or 6000 dams, a staff of 4 is ridiculous to oversee that many dams. The Taum Sauk dam has nothing to do with the status of dam safety in MO; it’s the special interests, mostly the farming community, who don’t want the oversight!) Missouri's dam inspection program raises concerns about downstream safety by Steve Grant, KY3 News

Three years ago, Taney County was gearing up to put in a Reverse 911 emergency notification system. Using the system, with the push of a button, everybody below Table Rock Dam could be warned of something catastrophic. Short of going door to door to notify people about a dam break or the opening of Table Rock Dam’s floodgates, Taney County has no notification system except through media. The cost of 3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu the Reverse 911 system, along with too many cell phones that wouldn’t be part of it, put that plan on hold. Missouri is the most dammed up state in the nation. Jim Alexander, the state's chief dam inspector, tries to hold back the serious risk for people living below hundreds of dams, if they failed. In 2005, Missouri had two inspectors keeping an eye on its dams. It’s now doubled the manpower to four.

Missouri has about 6,000 dams but the four inspectors have to watch over only 600 because the state’s safety standards are so low. Despite a push by the governor, after the Taum Sauk reservoir disaster in December 2005, legislation to regulate the rest of the dams and add inspectors is apparently low priority. Like Taum Sauk, Springfield’s Fellows Lake stores a billion gallons of water. Its spillway is breaking up because of age and heavy spring rains. A City Utilities of Springfield representative says it’s a situation that needs to be addressed. CU is confident the spillway is fine until it’s fixed. If the dam ever failed, however, listen to who gets notified last: CU notifies the federal government. It notifies the state and the state notifies residents downstream. Black Bass Dam in Eureka Springs, Ark., is 125 years old. It’s one of 1,000 unregulated dams in Arkansas. It leaks and the spillway can't handle heavy overflow. Unlike Missouri, town council member Rae Hahn says Eureka Springs needs state loans for repairs, in a county that declined flood insurance a generation ago. As with many things in Eureka Springs, this antique lake is on the National Registry of Historic Places. Most locals want to keep it and build walking trails around its little lake. In Rockaway Beach, Mo., one property owner has sunk $70,000 into a dam problem he inherited. Alexander, the chief dam inspector, remembers it well. He calls it a disaster waiting to happen. Once eroding fast and turning into a trash dump, Silver Creek Dam can now withstand a 500-year flood. Jerry Dickey says it’s time for the state to strengthen its standards, including adding some financial backup. “They just don't want the liability, and I wasn't looking for somebody to sue.” State Rep. John Kuessner, D-Eminence, calls the legislation that would upgrade Missouri’s dam safety standards an overreaction to the Taum Sauk disaster. Kuessner helped kill the bill last year. He says it would only add costs that private dam owners can’t pay and more regulations that will be hard to enforce.

(There are numerous articles on this audit and NONE state the fact that it is very out-of-date and behind the times and does not accurately portray the current status of the PA dam safety program. The bottom line is that accountants shouldn’t be auditing dam safety programs – that’s a job for experienced engineers. For some current facts, read the response to the report at: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi- bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-01-2008/0004804581&EDATE=) Auditor General: Some state dams unsafe 02 May 2008, By ROBERT SWIFT, Standard Speaker

HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania’s fiscal watchdog called on state officials Thursday to do more to fix unsafe dams and make sure nearby residents know where to evacuate in case of an emergency. State Auditor General Jack Wagner released an audit identifying more than 60 high-hazard dams across Pennsylvania considered unsafe because of structural problems such as inadequate spillways. Twenty-one of these dams are located in eight Northeast Pennsylvania counties, including Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming. Of these counties, Schuylkill and Wayne counties have the greatest number of unsafe dams. There is only one each in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.

At a press conference, Wagner presented a slide show of unsafe conditions at Pennsylvania dams, including Upper Owl Creek Reservoir in Schuylkill County. The spillway at that dam is too narrow and engineers say it’s incapable of handling excessive rains, said Wagner. Wagner also called on the Department of Environmental Protection to make sure emergency action plans are drawn up to cover a broader category of almost 800 dams that are classified high-hazard because their failure, even if considered unlikely, could result in deaths. He said it’s especially important that officials in schools, day care centers and nursing homes know if they are in a flood-prone area in case of a dam collapse. “What the audit found is not enough is being done to safeguard Pennsylvanians and their property,” said Wagner. “We think some serious situations exist in this Commonwealth that need immediate attention.” Wagner described his audit of dam safety regulatory activities from 2002 to 2006 as a first, but the issue has received sporadic attention since the Thornburgh administration in the 1980s. Wagner’s audit appears as Gov. Ed Rendell has 4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu proposed borrowing $37 million to repair unsafe state-owned dams and to make $6 million in state aid available through PennVEST to help county and local governments repair dams they own. Wagner urged lawmakers to appropriate even more money for dam repairs than Rendell asked for when they approve the state budget later this spring. He pointed out that DEP officials have put a total $1 billion price tag on needed safety upgrades to Pennsylvania dams. Acknowledging that the state’s fiscal problems make that kind of spending difficult, Wagner said it’s important that DEP give even greater priority to making sure high-hazard dams are inspected annually and dam owners have emergency plans that the public is aware of. In response, DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty said the agency has increased inspections of high-hazard dams and brought almost all high-hazard dams in compliance with emergency plan mandates. “While we appreciate the auditor general’s findings, the report reflects the programs of the past, not the programs as they are today,” added McGinty.

Hydro (Excerpts) PPL to Expand Hydroelectric Generation in Maine 04.30.08, Press Release, Forbes.com

ORONO, Maine-- A PPL Corporation --- subsidiary will renovate and re-commission its Orono, Maine, hydroelectric plant, adding 20,000 megawatt-hours per year of clean, renewable electricity to the region's power supplies. The new renewable energy is another benefit of PPL's previously announced agreement with a coalition of government agencies, private conservation groups and the Penobscot Indian Nation to restore historic runs of Atlantic salmon and other species of fish to the Penobscot River. Construction work at Orono will begin soon, and the plant's generators are expected to be serving customers by 2009, according to Dennis J. Murphy, vice president and chief operating officer of PPL's Eastern Fossil and Hydro Generation. "Expanding our renewable energy capabilities is a priority for PPL," Murphy said. "This new source of clean electricity will be a significant benefit for the environment and for the region." PPL plans to spend more than $500 million on hydroelectric expansions in Pennsylvania, Maine and Montana over the next several years. The company also will spend an additional $100 million on renewable energy projects including solar energy installations and plants that generate electricity from the waste methane produced at landfills.

The Orono project is the second expansion by PPL of renewable energy output enabled by the salmon restoration agreement. In May 2006, PPL expanded the output of its Medway, West Enfield and Stillwater hydroelectric plants in Maine by a total of 10,000 megawatt-hours per year. "Through the innovative Penobscot Project, the river can provide hydropower, self-sustaining runs of 11 species of native sea-run fish that have been so important to the local culture and economies, and many other values for people and wildlife," said Laura Rose Day, executive director of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, the nonprofit group charged with implementing key aspects of the 2004 agreement. "We applaud PPL's continuing commitment to both restore fisheries and increase energy generation." Under the river restoration agreement, the Penobscot Trust has until June 2009 to purchase PPL's Veazie, Great Works and Howland dams in Maine for about $25 million. The trust plans to demolish two of the dams and bypass a third to help restore what once was one of the largest runs of Atlantic salmon in the United States, as well as self- sustaining runs of American shad, river herring, sturgeon and other native species. The Orono plant stopped producing electricity in 1996 after the failure of its penstocks, large aging wooden pipes that carried water from the Penobscot River to the powerhouse. PPL purchased the inoperative plant from the Bangor Hydro Electric Company in 1999 as part of a package of generation and other assets. The $4.7 million re- commissioning project will include building a new concrete penstock to direct water to the plant, where it will move turbines and turn the electricity generators. The reactivated Orono plant will provide enough electricity to power 1,800 homes. The energy will be sold on the wholesale market by PPL EnergyPlus, the company's energy marketing and sales subsidiary. ------.

(Here’s a new way to finance a hydro project. Unbelievable!) People urged to chip in for hydroelectric project 5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Posted on April 30th

DUSHANBE (Reuters) - The impoverished Central Asian nation of Tajikistan urged its people on Tuesday to give up their salaries to help build a new hydroelectric plant. (Full article – http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL2955933420080429?feedType=RSS&feedName=o ddlyEnoughNews)

(The full report on Elsinore gives a greater amount of detail. If anyone wants a copy – send me a note.) 2006 report casts doubt on proposed Lake Elsinore hydroelectric power plant April 27, 2008, By AARON BURGIN, The Press-Enterprise

A confidential 2006 report that casts doubt on the financial viability of a proposed Lake Elsinore hydroelectric plant was not disclosed to investment firm Morgan Stanley, the project's chief financier. One Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District board member expressed concern the report could be used as justification if the investment firm walked away from the project. "This is a serious problem," Elsinore Valley board member Phil Williams said. W. Ben Wicke, another board member, echoed that concern Sunday. But he declined to comment beyond that. Williams said the report, which was prepared by consultants Samuel Van Vactor, Stefan Brown and David Ramberg for the district, was withheld because of the possibility of lawsuits. He said the main thing that has changed since 2006 is Morgan Stanley's commitment to finance the project. "If Morgan Stanley had questions about the project, they would not have agreed to finance it," Williams said. "They're not going to get into something without doing their homework.”The board member who released it knows he should not have done that, and we're going to have to talk about it." Morgan Stanley representatives declined to comment. Nevada Hydro spokesman Chris Wysocki was unavailable for comment. Board member John Lloyd said he inadvertently released the 2006 document because he thought he received approval from the board's attorney. "I really didn't know I wasn't supposed to release it," Lloyd said. The board is expected to discuss the release of the document, and possible action against Lloyd, at a meeting today.

At least one legal expert said the board -- not Lloyd -- exposed itself to lawsuits by not disclosing the document sooner. "The greater question raised is whether or not the board has been seeking a full and complete discussion on the subject," said C. Kerry Fields, a USC business law professor and corporate ethics expert. "The investors could sue the board and argue that the board fraudulently tried to get them to finance the project.” I think the directors are at a greater risk if full disclosure is not made," he said. Fields said the board's best move would be to fully disclose both the 2006 and revised reports now, not later. The $1 billion project would combine a pumped storage facility and dam in the Santa Rosa Mountains where water pumped from Lake Elsinore at night would be stored and released through turbines during the day to create electricity during peak demand hours. The power would be transmitted on 30 miles of power lines that would connect the Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric power grids. It is a joint effort of the water district and Vista-based Nevada Hydro Co.

The Report The 43-page report says that without some type of guaranteed rate on return, known as rate basing, the project could not generate enough revenue to cover its costs. The high cost of pumping would undermine the power plant's economics. The 2006 report was revised last year, Williams said. Board spokesman Greg Morrison said the board would not release the revised version because it is still a confidential document. The power lines, however, could be highly profitable, the 2006 report said. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently denied Nevada Hydro's request to rate base the power-plant portion of the project, but granted the request for the power lines. Van Vactor, however, said he didn't believe the report should be viewed as an indictment on the project. Recent changes, including the state's recent push for more wind and solar-based power, may make a project like the pumped storage facility palatable. While public regulators chose not to rate base the project, a private utility could, Van Vactor said. "There are a lot of benefits the project brings that can't be defined in dollars and cents," Van Vactor said. Document Released Lloyd said he requested a copy of what he now knows is the revised report. He said he didn't know the 2006 report existed. "So when I got the (2006) report, I just assumed it was the right one," he said. At a board meeting two weeks ago, Lloyd requested and Brown recommended the board release all documents about the project to the public. Brown, Lloyd said, later told him the board had to vote on that recommendation. While Lloyd said he was not trying to leak the document, he did express concern that the board continued to 6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu promote the project even after receiving the report. "It startled me," Lloyd said. "We had this huge promotional campaign, and all of the (news) releases we sent out said the exact opposite of what the report states." Critics pounced on the report, distributing it to several regulatory agencies, including the federal energy commission. The Los Angeles-based Center for Biological Diversity reacted to the report by issuing a statement based on the reports findings, calling the project "a pipe dream" and "a financial boondoggle." Chris Hyland, a former Elsinore Valley board member and one of the project's most ardent opponents, and others pointed to the document as another example of how in recent years the board has suppressed information pertaining to the project by holding closed session meetings, or discussing it in a two-member ad hoc committee of whose meetings the public had no notice. "For years they have been keeping the ratepayers in the dark, and now we know why," Hyland said. Hyland was on the board when the report was prepared and said she knew nothing about it. "If you question the project, they keep you out of the loop," Hyland said. "They did it to me, and they are doing it to John."

(As I was reminded by Kris Nygaard, The 1992 Energy Policy Act amended the Federal Power Act, Section 21 to add the proviso that a project seeking to use pre-1992 state parks of just about any type cannot use the Section 21 power of eminent domain to acquire such lands, and a project seeking to use post-1992 state parks must perform miracles to get access to those lands too.) FERC Puts Hook Canyon Project on Permanent Hold May 01, 2008 by Eric Ray

(KCPW News, Salt Lake City, UT) It now appears a proposed hydroelectric plant on the eastern shore of Bear Lake will never see the light of day. Last week Utah Governor Jon Huntsman stopped the state from negotiating a land easement that would give Symbiotics LLC of Logan the access necessary for the Hook Canyon Pumped Storage Project. That move spurred the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to inform Symbiotics it will hold the company's license application in abeyance. "FERC can actually empower a licensee with eminent domain so they can accomplish their project, if necessary. The one thing they cannot do is condemn park and recreation land for a hydroelectric project," says Jeff Salt, Executive Director of Great Salt Lakekeeper, an environmental group opposed to the Hook Canyon project. "The state of Utah effectively zeroed in on this FERC rule and killed [Symbiotics LLC's] negotiations with state parks and that was the key to killing this project." Jeff Salt of Great Salt Lakekeeper, an environmental group opposed to the Hook Canyon project, says several state agencies received over 100 emails per day from citizens against the project. Salt credits that outpouring with helping the governor make his decision. Hall of Fame football player Merlin Olsen, who serves as President of the environmental group Bear Lake Watch, applauds FERC's actions. "There's no question in my mind that it was the right decision. It gives us a chance to protect what is a very precious and important resource to so many people in the states of Utah and Idaho," says Olsen. FERC's move also halts a public comment period on the project that was set to expire on May 13. KCPW's calls to Symbiotics LLC for comment were unreturned.

Shoshone hydroelectric plant back online today May 1, 2008, Post Independent

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — The Shoshone Generating Station came back online Thursday after $12 million and 10 months of repairs, Xcel Energy announced. The hydroelectric plant resuming operations restores an important balance among Colorado River water users, the company said, because it commands flows with senior water rights that benefit fish, rafters and other Western Slope water users. “The Shoshone Station produces 14 megawatts of clean, renewable power,” said Lou Matis, vice president of operations, in a news release. “We’re pleased to return this key part of our fleet to full operation within our budget and on time. The damage we sustained was considerable, and we want to thank other Colorado River water users for their patience throughout the clean-up and repair process.”

The 98-year-old hydroelectric plant is located east of Glenwood Springs in Glenwood Canyon. It stopped working June 20 when one of two pipes that deliver water to the plant broke and flooded the generating station. Xcel had to deal with about eight feet of water and tons of rock and soil engulfing the station. But no one was injured and no residential customers lost service, according to a news release. Repair work included rebuilding both “penstock” pipes with steel pipe inserts grouted into place. Generators for the two units were rewound and all the breakers, control cabinets, wiring and related components were replaced along with the plant’s control system. The new control system improves remote control of the facility, Xcel said. The plant is one of seven hydroelectric power plants owned by Xcel Energy in Colorado.

7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

(This brings back old memories of an opportunity missed) NEWS-MINER EDITORIAL Time for Susitna Hydroelectric power plan deserves thorough review May 4, 2008, News-Minor.com, Alaska

By the time the Susitna hydroelectric plan was moved to the back burner, it had been analyzed from every conceivable angle. A library of documents, totalling more than 4,000 reports and 17,000 letters, were collected during the 1970s and the 1980s when Alaskans considered the merits of the project. The plan to build dams on the Susitna River and generate electricity for communities from Fairbanks south to the Kenai Peninsula was a good one for Alaska. And it’s likely that the dams would have been built and today would be providing low-cost and clean energy today had world oil prices remained stable. But the oil crash of the mid-1980s killed the project more than 20 years ago. The state claimed it didn’t have the cash. While building the dams would have been a good investment for some of the $7 billion that was then in the Alaska Permanent Fund, our politicians didn’t want to go there. Had we taken the initiative and looked to the future, we wouldn’t be dealing with the crippling energy problems we face today. The carbon footprint of Alaska’s electrical energy industry would be far smaller than it is today, because we’d be burning a great deal less fossil fuel. The forecasts two decades ago were that oil prices would remain low and that hydro would be too expensive for Alaska. But all of that is water over the non-existent dam. Today, the state is looking again at the Susitna River as a potential source for clean and renewable energy to supply most of the people who live in Alaska. The state capital budget awaiting action by Gov. Sarah Palin includes $2.5 million for a review of Susitna studies and an overall energy plan. There are also efforts to get the utilities to work together and agree on how to find the most efficient and economical way forward. We applaud the Legislature for including the Susitna study funds in the budget. It’s time for the state to pursue hydroelectric power with diligence and develop a project or set of projects that can best meet the needs of Alaskans.

Water (Excerpts) State looks at new dam sites May 2, 2008, trib.com

RAWLINS (AP) -- The Wyoming Water Development Commission is considering construction of three or four small reservoirs in the upper Little Snake River Valley in Carbon County. Mike Besson, head of the commission's dams and reservoirs division, said the Savery-Little Snake Water Conservancy District has requested the reservoirs because some members need more water. "I think there's a good likelihood we might come up with something," Besson said. The new High Savery Reservoir provides late-season irrigation water to ranchers downstream of the confluence of Savery Creek and the Little Snake River. But Besson said there are still about 5,000 acres of land above the creek that don't get enough water after midsummer. The commission plans to hold a meeting May 9 to consider hiring a consulting firm. Besson said the firm would examine the geology and hydrology of the valley to find three or four sites for reservoirs capable of holding 2,000 to 5,000 acre feet of water. The commission has allocated $250,000 to pay for the consulting firm.

Besson said the cost of building the reservoirs would be paid mostly by the state, with the conservancy district also contributing. Jon Wade, planning administrator for the commission, said the consulting firms will mainly look at sites on state and private land. While he said he's not ruling out one or more sites on the Medicine Bow National Forest, he said the lengthy federal permitting process would make them unlikely candidates. In addition to providing irrigation water, the small reservoirs could provide fishing and recreation opportunities, Wade said. ------.

8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Environment Study suggests dams can benefit California salmon runs by releasing cold water as fish spawn The Associated Press, May 1, 2008, International Herald Tribune

Sacramento, CA - California's vast network of reservoirs — which destroyed more than 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) of salmon habitat when their dams were erected decades ago — could turn out to be a savior for a species on the brink of collapse, according to a new study. Those dams store cold water, which the study says will be vital to the salmon's survival as climate change is expected to warm California's rivers. "Paradoxically, the very thing that is constraining fish now, we could use those to our advantage," said study author David Yates, a project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The peer-reviewed paper will appear in a future issue of the Journal of Climatic Change. Yates and the journal agreed to release the study's findings early to The Associated Press. It comes at a time when the number of salmon returning to spawn in state's Central Valley rivers, crucial to U.S. West Coast stocks, are at historic lows.

Earlier this month, federal fisheries regulators recommended that fishing along California's coast and most of Oregon be suspended for the year. It was the first time the Pacific Fishery Management Council had taken such a drastic step, one that is jeopardizing the $150-million West Coast salmon industry. Unfavorable ocean conditions, habitat destruction, dam operations, agricultural pollution and climate change are among the potential causes. Historically, 1 million to 3 million Chinook salmon spawned annually in the streams that tumbled out of the western Sierra Nevada Mountains. This year, just 50,000 are expected to return to the Central Valley river systems. Studies have shown that high water temperatures have wide-ranging and potentially fatal consequences for salmon, who generally need water temperatures lower than 68 degrees (20 Celsius) when they return to fresh water. It reduces their swimming ability, increases their vulnerability to disease and leads to lower growth rates. Spawning females require even colder water of 57 degrees (14 Celsius) for their eggs to live and juvenile salmon migrate back to the ocean more successfully when the river is no more than 64 degrees (18 Celsius). Higher water temperatures can be offset if federal water managers preserved the cold water stored behind Shasta Dam, near the head of the Sacramento River, and released it when the salmon head upriver. Salmon that once headed far upstream to cooler, mountain streams are now forced to spawn in valley waters because the dam blocks their path. State scientists say climate change could lead to more winter flooding, summer droughts, warmer rivers and streams, and rising seas that will push salt water farther upstream from San Francisco Bay. Temperature spikes are particularly worrisome for cold water fish such as salmon, steelhead and the state fish, the California golden trout, according to research compiled in the National Wildlife Federation report.

Tribes, feds to sign off on Columbia River agreement Associated Press - May 2, 2008, KTVZtv.com

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - The leaders of 4 American Indian tribes and federal hydropower regulators are ready to sign an agreement intended to improve fish runs in the Pacific Northwest. The deal to be made formal at midday Friday commits federal agencies to give the tribes $900 million for salmon recovery. In exchange, the tribes will drop out of a lawsuit challenging dam operations. But a fifth tribe has so far refused to sign off on the deal, and environmental groups fear it doesn't go far enough to protect fish in the Columbia River basin over the long term. And on Monday, the third in a series of salmon recovery plans is due from federal agencies. A federal judge has thrown out two previous plans.

(It’s a good bet that Judge Redden won’t like anything short of dam removal.) The feds' latest plan to restore Columbia salmon leaves dam operations largely intact The third try for a blueprint on restoring fish runs will go before a federal judge who has threatened severe limits May 06, 2008, SCOTT LEARN, The Oregonian

After two rejections in court, the U.S. government released its third plan Monday for pulling threatened Columbia River basin salmon from the brink of extinction -- again without dramatically altering hydropower generation from the system's dams. The Bush administration plan follows Friday's signing of the government's $900 million deal with four Northwest tribes requiring that the tribes not oppose dam operations for a decade. It includes improvements to tributaries, hatcheries and dams as well as fishing 9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu limits. It would cost $75 million a year, make $500 million in capital improvements to the system's 14 dams over 10 years, and boost rates for hydropower generated by the dams by up to 4 percent. It now goes before Judge James Redden in U.S. District Court, where Oregon and environmental groups continue to pursue a lawsuit challenging dam operations. Redden has twice rejected the federal government's plans for 13 runs of Columbia and Snake salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. The government already has spent billions on salmon recovery, with often discouraging results. And Redden has hinted at severe limits on dam operations if the third plan doesn't pass muster. Officials with NOAA Fisheries Service said the new plan is the most thorough ever. The plans, known as biological opinions, go beyond protecting existing fish and "improve prospects for recovery," Bob Lohn, head of NOAA's Northwest Region, said in a statement. The plan would provide new equipment to detour fish around deadly dam turbines; manage spills to better match when fish are present; fine-tune hatchery programs; restore salmon habitat in tributaries; and control birds, sea lions and fish that prey on salmon. The Bonneville Power Administration and other federal agencies involved with the dams also followed Redden instructions to collaborate with parties in the lawsuit, signing the separate deal with four Native American tribes. That agreement allocates $900 million over 10 years to projects favored by the tribes, including some targeted to threatened fish. In exchange, the tribes agreed to drop out of the lawsuit and support dam operations as proposed in the new plan for a decade. Environmental groups blasted the plan, first released in draft form last year. It ducks the damage done by dams, the major issue in salmon recovery, they said. Many environmentalists and sport and commercial fishing groups favor breaching the Snake River dams and spilling more water from dams to aid migrating fish. Overall, wild salmon have fallen to 5 percent of their historic numbers in the Northwest, and salmon advocates say the region is running out of time. Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director, said in a statement that the plan "paves the way to extinction for salmon." In recent years, a collapse in the ocean food chain has added to problems salmon face, contributing to a collapse of Sacramento River salmon this season and the closure of salmon fishing along Oregon and California's coasts, where the Sacramento fish migrate. For details on the government's plans, go to www.nwr.noaa.gov and click on the "biological opinions" link.

****************************************************** “Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Murphy Goode Alexander Valley Merlot 2003 i This compilation of articles and other information is provided at no cost for those interested in hydropower, dams, and water resources issues and development, and should not be used for any commercial or other purpose. Any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

10 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Supplement

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff

i 5/09/2008

Quote of Note: “No one else, ever, will think you’re great the way your mother does.” -- Mary Matalin

Dams Officials announce settlement to remove Mike Horse Dam Posted on April 25, By JOHN CRAMER of the Missoulian

BONNER, MT - State and federal officials on Friday announced a $37 million settlement to remove the Mike Horse Dam and mining wastes along the Blackfoot River. The settlement comes two decades after the first calls to clean up the Blackfoot, one of the Montana’s landmark rivers. Atlantic Richfield Co. and ASARCO will each pay $8 million to the state, which also will receive nearly $20 million from the ASARCO bankruptcy. The U.S. Forest Service will receive another $1 million to oversee the state’s implementation of the project and $230,000 for past costs. The settlement is pending final court approval and public comment, which are expected by July. The dam removal could start by 2010 and be complete within two years. The cleanup of mine tailings is expected to take another decade. Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath, Gov. Brian Schweitzer and representatives of the state Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Forest Service announced the settlement at the Bonner weigh station fishing access alongside the Blackfoot River. Citing the ongoing cleanup at the nearby Milltown Reservoir, officials hailed the Mike Horse settlement as another milestone in the restoration of the state’s public lands and waters from more than a century of pollution from mining, logging and other industries.

(The age-old problem where dam owners do not have the financial capability to take on the liability that comes with a dam.) Small dam owners balk at tighter rules By R. J. Kelly, Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY

ALBANY, NY — Schoharie Valley activists and officials were loaded with testimony Friday about potential devastation if New York City’s giant Gilboa Dam broke, but they were outnumbered at a state hearing by owners of small dams worried they can’t afford tighter regulations. “All dam owners shall contribute to a state-administered fund to provide for independent engineers to perform periodic dam safety inspections,” recommended Middleburgh resident Sherrie Bartholomew, vice president of Dam Concerned Citizens. Proposed state Department of Environmental Conservation regulations covering about 5,500 dams statewide leave paying for inspection engineers up to owners. For thousands of people in Schoharie, 1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Montgomery and Schenectady counties, the 20 billion gallons of water behind the masonry Gilboa Dam at the Schoharie Reservoir, plus another 5 billion gallons downstream behind the New York Power Authority’s earthen dam in North Blenheim, loom as “two sleeping giants,” said Gail Shaffer. “Due to decades of neglect on the part of the city of New York, this aging [Gilboa] dam was allowed to deteriorate, with virtually no significant maintenance, until its vulnerability came to light in October 2005,” said Shaffer, a Blenheim resident and former state secretary of state. If it broke, “a giant wall of water would sweep rapidly through the valley, like a tsunami … from Gilboa to Schenectady,” she said. “It is imperative that the state DEC … should be vigorously inspecting dams for safety,” Shaffer testified. Flood control measures should also be required even at reservoirs built for water supply like the Schoharie, or power generation such as the Blenheim-Gilboa Reservoir, she said. Shaffer said the state Canal Corp. should also be held accountable because “in an extreme flood of 2006, they refused to assist with flood mitigation” along the Mohawk River.

But representatives of private associations operating small dams, including Mariaville Lake in Schenectady County, Helderberg Lake in Albany County, Galway Lake in Saratoga County and Garnet Lake in Warren County, protested that the proposed rules are too vague and too costly. Mother Raphaela, an Orthodox Church of America nun directing Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery near Oneonta, said her group has already spent $20,000 on engineering inspections of a 17-foot-high earthen dam at their pond, but DEC found them unacceptable. “We were not told why,” she said. She suggested the Dam Concerned Citizens go statewide to assist in raising funds. Mariaville Lake manager Sandra Scott said the small dam on the 13-foot-deep lake is listed as a “high-hazard” class dam, the same as the 182-foot high, 1,324-foot wide Gilboa Dam at New York City’s Schoharie Reservoir. The 110-member Mariaville Civic Association has already spent $7,000 trying to prove it warrants a lower-risk category, Scott said. “You’re putting these little country dams and ponds and the millions of gallons reservoirs in the same category,” complained Cynthia Beer, representing the 32-member Garnet Lake Civic Association. “I feel like we’re being punished for individuals or municipalities that have not maintained their lakes.” Beer said beaver dams sometimes cause problems upstream of the lake. “Can I hold the beavers responsible?” Beer asked in suggesting residents in flood zones downstream of dams buy flood insurance. “No matter what kind of a dam, [downstream residents] should take responsibility for some of that risk,” she said. During a break in the hearing, Alon Dominitz, chief of DEC’s dam safety section, said if a dam failure risked killing even one person, the dam could be classified as “high hazard.” The proposed safety and inspection regulations do not include any provision for funding. High-hazard dams would face detailed engineering inspections at least every two years. Finding money would be up to the state Legislature, according to Dominitz.

Speaker after speaker called the proposed regulations another “unfunded mandate” by the state. Several said high costs of engineering or upgrades might force some small lake operators to demolish their dams, potentially causing other environmental damage or loss of wetlands. “This isn’t a program, it’s a technical mandate,” said Jeffery Parker of the Steuben County Soil and Water District. “It makes absolutely no sense to me that these regulations should go forward,” testified Nadine Feiden Shadlock, attorney for the Helderberg Lake Community Association. Dam Concerned Citizens Director Howard R. Bartholomew said he was “very sympathetic” to the plight of small dam owners, and agreed with numerous other speakers that the state should take more responsibility and shoulder more of the costs, including liability for downstream flood damage. The proposed regulations would absolve the DEC from liability. “This statement is a blatant evasion on the part of a state agency … to insulate itself and its subordinates … should a dam failure such as that at [Washington County] Hadlock Pond, or God forbid, Gilboa, occur,” Bartholomew said. “There should probably be two sets of regulations,” said Sherrie Bartholomew after hearing the small-dam operators. The citizens group formed in November 2005 after reports that the 80-year-old Gilboa Dam was potentially unstable if hit with a record flood. In 2006, New York City completed a $24 million reinforcement project. A $583 million reconstruction is planned for 2010-2014. City officials did not testify at Friday’s hearing, the last of three in the state, but plan to submit comments before the May 17 deadline for written submissions, city Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Michael Saucier said. Although Dam Concerned Citizens propose that dam owners bear part of the cost of setting up the inspection fund, “the amount paid by each dam owner shall be related to the condition of the dam, the dam classification and a rating assigned under a dam-rating system,” Bartholomew said. Gilboa town Supervisor Anthony VanGlad suggested DEC set up a new 1-10 rating system, with dams posing more risk requiring more frequent inspections. VanGlad chairs the county’s flood committee. DEC officials will now review comments and consider possible revisions, but there is no deadline for a decision on implementing the regulations, according to Dominitz.

Quakes continue to rattle Kern County mountains The Associated Press, 05/02/2008, San Jose Mercury News

2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

LAKE ISABELLA, Calif.—More tiny earthquakes rattled under mountains at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley on Friday, but authorities said earthen dams that hold Lake Isabella were safe. The quakes, measuring from magnitude-1.4 to 2.3, were centered about a dozen miles south of the town of Lake Isabella and 34 miles east of Bakersfield. On Thursday, a magnitude-4.4 quake was followed by many others including a 3.7, two 3.5s and a 3.3. The lake is a man-made reservoir on the Kern River with a main dam and auxiliary dam dating to the 1950s. Concerns raised in recent years about the integrity of the auxiliary dam have led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work on updating maps of where flooding would occur in the Bakersfield area in the event of a failure. Bakersfield has a population of more than 270,000. The Kern County Fire Department said the Corps of Engineers was monitoring the geological situation. "They have checked both dams and instrumentation following the initial earthquake with no findings of concern," a Fire Department statement said. Engineers also responded to Thursday night's 3.7 quake, it said. While studying the Lake Isabella problem, the Corps of Engineers has determined that the Isabella dams meet safety guidelines if the reservoir is not filled more than 60 percent, and it is currently at about 19 percent of capacity, according to the Fire Department Web site. Lake Isabella is about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

Hydro College, town courted as customers for local hydropower project By Addison Independent, Apr 28 2008, By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — Developers who want to install a water turbine at the Otter Creek falls in downtown Middlebury are hoping to sign up the town of Middlebury and Middlebury College as their two exclusive clients for electricity, a move they believe will make the project more financially viable and less encumbered by permitting hurdles. Anders Holm and his family — owners of the Main Street building that borders the south side of the falls — are proposing the water turbine, which would harness electricity from the water that flows through a flume under the Holm building. The electricity would be processed in a powerhouse erected on town-owned land near the base of the footbridge that links Frog Hollow with the Marble Works complex across the Otter Creek. The Holms have spent the past two years refining their project while seeking financing and the necessary permits. The Holms have experienced setbacks on both counts, driving up the costs and lengthening the timeline of their proposal. They now believe that a partnership with the town and college could expedite the process. The Holms are hoping to make the two entities the only wholesale consumers of their water turbine’s power. Such an arrangement, Holm said, could instantly give the project firm standing and credibility among permitting and financing organizations.

College and town officials last week acknowledged interest in the Holm project, though they stressed the need for more study. “We are still exploring the economic feasibility of this project, but we’re excited by the idea of developing a green energy source that would provide power to the college and town,” said Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz. “We are wanting to explore how to organize and operate a very limited utility here, one with only two clients — the town and the college,” said Middlebury selectboard Chairman John Tenny. “Certainly, there is a keen interest on the part of the town to see if we can make this work.” The Holms are seeking a “certificate of public good” through the Vermont Public Service Board as part of the permitting process to move forward with the turbine project. That process, Holm explained, requires that the applicant line up a customer for the power the project will generate. To that end, the Holms are seeking to secure commitments form the town of Middlebury and the college. Such an arrangement could provide benefits to all parties involved, according to Holm. It could specifically: • Make the water turbine application more viable in the eyes of permitting authorities. Having major entities as the college and town as backers and consumers would give the project more clout. • Avoid the prospect of having to connect the project into the state’s power grid. Dealing exclusively with the college and town, Holm said, would involve a less complex process of extending power feeds to the nearby campus and municipal system. “The bureaucracy of putting electricity on the (state) grid is very daunting,” Holm said. • Provide a clean, renewable energy source to potentially illuminate the town’s streetlights, library and municipal building, as well as structures on campus. • Ostensibly give the college a tremendous boost in meeting its objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2016. To that end, the college has already initiated or completed a series of projects to reduce its carbon footprint, including construction of an $11 million woodchip-burning biomass

3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

plant. The college has also made an increasing commitment to purchase locally produced foods and has been operating a wind turbine to provide some electricity for its recycling facility.

Harnessing a substantial amount of its electricity needs from a water turbine in the Otter Creek could greatly accelerate the college’s mission to become carbon neutral. The Holms have reapplied for up to $250,000 from the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF) to help further their project. Administered by the Vermont Department of Public Service, the CEDF contains grant money for projects that create and promote clean, renewable energy. Holm would use the money to defray some of the upfront costs — such as permitting and legal expenses — to get the plan rolling. The Middlebury hydro project failed to secure a CEDF grant last year, but Holm is more optimistic this year. He explained that his 2008 application is more complete, as he and his family have been able to provide more information about the proposed project — including the condition and viability of the flume under the Holm building through which the water would pass to the turbine. “We are also very fortunate that a Middlebury College student did his physics thesis on the power potential of the site, looking at flows from the last 100 years,” Holm said. “That was very helpful.” The new information, according to Holm, affirms his family’s contention that the project could produce up to a megawatt of power — enough to light around 1,000 homes. He also said the project could generate power throughout the year — more abundantly during the late spring when the creek level is high, and less intensively during the late summer, when the water level is lower. Holm hopes the hydropower project can come on line in 2010, which would be the 120th anniversary of when water energy was first used at the Otter Creek site. “It’s ambitious, but that’s my goal,” Holm said.

May 5, 2008, Press Release

DOE Announces Up to $7.5 Million in Advanced Technology Research to Harness Energy Potential of Oceans, Tides and Rivers

WASHINGTON, DC – As part of the Bush Administration’s ongoing commitment to invest in clean energy technologies to meet growing energy demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced up to $7.5 million in federal funding for research and development to help advance the viability and cost-competitiveness of advanced water power systems. Through this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), DOE seeks partnerships with U.S. industry and universities to develop innovative and effective technologies capable of harnessing water power energy resources, including ocean wave, tidal, current and other water-based resources.

“Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface. Using environmentally responsible technologies, we have a tremendous opportunity to harness energy produced from ocean waves, tides or ocean currents, free flowing water in rivers, and other water resources to advance the Administration’s comprehensive energy strategy and provide clean and reliable power in the United States,” Andy Karsner, DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, said. “The U.S. Department of Energy is aggressively pursuing the development of next-generation technologies that are capable of increasing the use of clean, renewable energy to further our energy security and help meet the President’s goal to stop greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2025.”

Through public-private partnerships, the FOA seeks to advance water research and development projects in support of water power technology. DOE plans to award industry-led partnerships to research, develop and/or field test advanced water power technologies to further the President’s Advanced Energy Initiative, which dramatically increases clean-energy research funding to develop cleaner, lower cost, and more reliable alternative energy sources. Successful applicants will be required to develop collaborative project teams involving at least one other industry, university or national laboratory partner and a minimum 50 percent non-federal cost share is required. The FOA provides industry-led partnerships with the opportunity to conduct research on engineering standards and codes, utility grid interconnection issues associated with water technologies, technical sitting requirements, and wave and tidal resources assessments. DOE also plans to award grants to university-led groups to conduct advanced research on marine renewable energy. These groups will serve as an information clearinghouse for the marine renewable energy industry, collecting and disseminating information on best practices research. Research will include technology testing, experimental and numerical modeling, wave forecasting, environmental impacts, and corrosion- resistant materials research. Completed applications for this FOA are due June 16, 2008. All grant applications will be merit reviewed and competitively awarded. DOE anticipates selecting up to 17 awards, and projects are expected to begin in Fiscal Year 2008. The continuation of projects beyond FY 2008 is subject to Congressional appropriations. In working to develop technologies that harness the power of our water resources, DOE is furthering the President’s Advanced Energy Initiative, which aims to dramatically

4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu increase clean energy research investments to develop cleaner, lower cost, and more reliable alternative energy sources. The Energy Independence and Security Act signed by President Bush in December 2007, authorizes DOE to establish a program of research, development, demonstration, and commercial application to expand marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy production. Interested applicants can access a copy of the FOA at Grants.gov or EERE Financial Opportunities page. Read read more about the Department of Energy’s Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program on the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy webpage.

Water (Oh oh! How does someone build a whole dam and no one notices they didn’t have a permit?) Lake brings flood of complaints A Franklin County couple created a lake in their back yard without the proper permits. By Jeff Sturgeon, Roanoke Times, April 30, 2008

BURNT CHIMNEY, VA -- A Franklin County couple had a contractor build an approximately 1,000-foot-long recreational lake in the back yard of their new house without getting permission to dam up a stream for the water. Now the state environmental agency is proposing a civil charge of nearly $20,000 and conservation measures such as tree planting if Rosie and James Musgrove wish to keep their unauthorized lake. Dam- safety officials consider the 32-foot-tall dam safe to operate if repaired and upgraded and placed in a monitoring program. Three years ago, crews working without permits mowed down a forest, carved out a bowl and dammed up a tributary of Gills Creek about 15 miles southeast of Roanoke. The Musgroves ended up with a private, roughly 7-acre lake and a house on the shore -- a nice spread with the lake as a premium, a real estate agent said. Nearby property owners include one resident who admires the wildlife the lake attracts and one who hasn't heard about the lake, which isn't visible from any public roads. But others are unhappy.

After an unidentified person filed a complaint, state agencies took action against the company that owns the land, R&K Foundations Inc. Rosie Musgrove is its president. Now, after more than two years of agency dealings, Musgrove last month signed a proposed consent order to settle charges that the company disturbed state waters without a Virginia water protection permit. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is accepting public comment on the proposed settlement until today. The DEQ will then send it to the State Water Control Board for possible approval. Rosie Musgrove declined to comment, as did the office of her environmental engineer. James Musgrove could not be reached. If the lake were being used for agriculture, the dam would likely be exempt from regulations. But authorities concluded it is a water- recreation amenity subject to environmental and safety rules that are supposed to be addressed before construction. "They stocked it with fish. It's primarily for recreation," said Robert Steele, the Roanoke-based regional enforcement coordinator for the DEQ. Added Erick Moore, zoning and plans inspector for Franklin County: "It has a boat ramp. It has boat docks." Based on an aerial photograph he reviewed this week, real estate agent Billy Kingery estimated that the lake added 20 percent to 25 percent to the value of the property, which is assessed at $594,000. "Water's special," said Kingery of Mountain to Lake Realty in Franklin County. "It's just something that people really enjoy." It provides a habitat for wildlife, can aid in fire protection -- if a dry hydrant is installed -- and supports recreation, Kingery said. So why, in a time of rising alarm over corporate environmental degradation, are authorities going after the owners of a little rural lake? Authorities have concluded it poses little or no threat to people and development in the event of failure. The nearest downstream road is about one and a half miles away. But Tom Roberts, a regional dam-safety engineer with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, said dam-safety laws serve a vital purpose. The reason for the regulations was brought home after a spectacular dam failure near Toccoa, Ga., in 1977. Floodwater released by a broken, 42-foot dam inundated part of the campus of Toccoa Falls Bible College, killing 39.

The Musgrove dam is not in danger of breaking but could fail in a heavy storm and needs work, Roberts said, adding that to his knowledge the builder "did not follow any kind of design on paper." While the risk is not enough to warrant a dam-safety agency fine, Roberts wants to see improvements to the spillway, a side

5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu channel by which heavy flows pass from the upstream side of a dam to the downstream side. In addition, authorities are worried about soil loss caused by veins of water that have made their way into the dam in a degradation called piping. Unchecked water activity can carve out a cavity and lead to sudden failure. One- third of dams that break do so because of piping, which was a contributing cause of the Toccoa incident, Roberts said. The builder of the Musgrove dam, Elton Cundiff, said he built the structure soundly, putting $50,000 to $60,000 into the job, and is experienced in dam construction. He said he thought he was building an agricultural lake "for irrigation, fire hydrants, stuff like that," so he didn't seek permits. To resolve the matter, the DEQ has proposed a two-part settlement. Rather than take the whole thing down, which would cost tens of thousands of dollars, R&K Foundations has agreed to pay a $19,880 civil charge as a penalty for disregarding laws designed to protect the environment from undue damage. In addition, the settlement calls for the company to protect or improve the remainder of the property with potentially extensive environmental measures. Those measures, which have not been decided, could include the planting of hundreds of trees at company expense and the permanent protection of land beside still-undisturbed stream channel from development. Businessman Robert Graf said he is facing the fallout from the project. His company, American Mine Research Inc. in Rocky Gap, owns the first lot downstream from the Musgrove property. The company bought it as an investment and not for company operations, he said, adding there is a tree farm and it is used for recreation. Before the dam, a cool stream flowed from the Musgrove land to his. But in 2005, the dam's construction silted an area of the stream where Graf had contemplated placing small trout ponds, he said. Since then, dam leaks have waterlogged the adjacent shores of the stream, he said. "The damage on our property? It's turned it into a marsh," Graf said. If the owners had spent the additional money to do it right in the first place, "then they wouldn't have any of this trouble." Nor would he, he said.

Environment

Species survival Big fish calls attention to salmon crisis By Robert Speer, 04.24.2008, CHICO COMMUNITY PUBLISHING

For the next two months, Bill Cassidy will be turning heads on the highways of America, as he and two other activists from the Seattle-based group Save Our Wild Salmon pull a two-ton, 25-foot fiberglass salmon all the way to Washington, D.C. The fish is their humorous prop in a highly serious effort—traveling the country to call attention to the cascading series of threats to Pacific Coast wild salmon and what they say is a failure of federal agencies to manage our natural resources properly. Their particular focus is the Columbia/Snake River fishery, once the largest in North America, but they also want to call attention to the collapse of Sacramento River salmon runs, as well as the diminishing Klamath River runs. Historically, these three rivers had the largest salmon runs on the Pacific Coast. Cassidy is from Minneapolis, but his passion for wild salmon developed when he worked in Alaska as a fishing guide. “I’ve seen first-hand what wild salmon runs mean to people and the rest of nature,” he said, while standing behind an information table at last week’s Thursday Night Market in downtown Chico. Behind him, the big fish drew the attention of passersby along Fourth Street. Adults stopped to ask about it and read handouts, while their children clambered up a set of stairs and crawled into its mouth. Inside they found colorful murals of a forest and a salmon spawning stream. The timing of the tour is appropriate. In the wake of the collapse of the Sacramento River fishery, federal officials recently announced a complete seasonal ban on fishing for chinook, or king salmon, off the coast of California for the first time since fishing began there more than 150 years ago. The action could be the death blow for the state’s salmon fishing industry, which has declined by 90 percent in the past 15 years and now numbers only 400 boats. There are many reasons given for the Sacramento fishery’s decline. Scientists blame the collapse on global warming that in 2005 forestalled the ocean “up-swelling” that provides food for young salmon. Some people blame overfishing, while others say water diversions—to irrigate farms and water lawns—have turned the Delta and San Francisco Bay into toxic soups. Then there are the thousands of dams, up and down the coast, that block the fish from returning to their ancestral spawning grounds. Reversing the decline will take a multifaceted approach, but SOWS’s focus is on dam removal, particularly the removal of four of eight small dams on the Lower Snake River in eastern Washington.

6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

The dams are part of the vast power system along the Columbia and Snake rivers operated by the Bonneville Power Co. For more than two decades, scientists and environmental groups have argued that breaching these four dams would bring back the Snake River salmon to productive, if not historic, levels. Bonneville Power, which provides electricity to much of the Northwest, has argued that, without them, lights would start going out. The Snake is one of the largest river systems in America. It stretches from Wyoming in the east and Montana in the north to northern Nevada, and includes virtually all of Idaho. Historically between 10 million and 16 million salmon spawned in the system each year. Today less than 10 percent of the fishery remains. The decline is seen most vividly, perhaps, at beautiful Redfish Lake, which is nestled at 6,500 feet below the Sawtooth Mountains in central Idaho. Named after the prized sockeye salmon, which has a bright orange-red color, it once was the spawning ground of thousands of fish each year. Last year just four sockeye returned to Redfish Lake. Federal agencies and biologists have been trying for years to bolster Snake salmon runs without tearing out the dams, but they have declined nonetheless. The collapse of the Sacramento run, however, and other threats from global warming have increased the pressure to save the Snake runs. That’s because most of the Snake is at a higher elevation than the Sacramento and the Klamath rivers, which means that its water stays cooler, which is good for the fish. The Snake is also largely a rural river, so its waters are relatively pristine.

As Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, noted in a March 21 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece, “The biggest, wildest, highest, coldest, healthiest and best-protected salmon habitat left south of Canada spans millions of acres and thousands of stream miles in … the headwaters of the Snake River. It is Noah’s Ark for salmon—the haven they need to reach to survive and carry on.” In 2004, the Bush administration presented an incremental plan—"small tweaks to the system,” as one environmentalist described it—for making the Columbia Basin dams safe for salmon. But, on April 10, 2007, a federal appeals court rejected it, saying it used “sleight of hand” and violated the Endangered Species Act. A new version of the plan is due out in May. In February, a group of nearly 100 members of Congress urged the feds to develop a plan that examines “all scientifically credible and economically viable alternatives” for salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin, including breaching the four dams. That’s why Bill Cassidy and his traveling companions— Emily Nuchols, the communications director for SOWS, and Nate Grader, who comes from a family of fishing industry advocates—are traveling the country with their big fish. Everywhere they stop, they are educating people about the crisis and collecting signatures on a petition to take to the U.S. Capitol and deliver to Congress. Their goal is to ensure that the upcoming federal plan acknowledges what scientists have been saying for years: Only dam removal will stop the decline and provide a significant response to the challenge now presented by global warming.

Department of Interior awards restoration work April 26, 2008, TradingMarkets.com, (Bangor Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)

The coalition working to restore passage for Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish species in the Penobscot River received national recognition this week. The U.S. Department of the Interior awarded one of 21 "cooperative conservation" awards to the groups behind the historic pact to remove two dams and bypass a third on the Penobscot. The historic agreement, made final in 2004, involves six conservation groups, the Penobscot Nation, dam owner PPL Corp. and several state and federal agencies. The Interior Department award called the Penobscot project "one of the most ecologically significant and innovative river restoration efforts in the nation" and "the last best chance to save wild Atlantic salmon from extinction in the United States." Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne presented the award during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. In total, the 21 awards recognized more than 700 groups or individuals across the country as working cooperatively on a broad range of conservation projects. Under the terms of the Penobscot agreement, the coalition known as the Penobscot River Restoration Trust plans to purchase the Veazie, Great Works and Howland dams from power company PPL Corp. In return, PPL is permitted to increase power generation at six other dams to offset the losses at the three.

The project is expected to open up nearly 1,000 miles of habitat to Atlantic salmon, alewives, Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon and other sea-run fish now blocked from migrating upstream. The Penobscot is home to the nation's last remaining sizable run of wild Atlantic salmon. The trust has raised approximately $25 million from private and federal sources to purchase the dams. After the purchases are complete, likely later this year, the coalition must raise an additional $25 million to remove the Veazie and Great Works dams and bypass the Howland dam. "The Penobscot Indian Nation, whose ties to the river go back more than 10,000 years, is deeply appreciative of this award, and the Department of Interior's recognition that the project is not just about removing dams and restoring fish, but also about our cultural survival," Chief Kirk Francis said in a statement. "This project really shows what we can achieve by working collaboratively to protect the environment, renew our cultural traditions, and provide for local economies." The other groups involved in

7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu the Penobscot River Restoration Trust are the Atlantic Salmon Federation, Maine Audubon, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, Natural Resources Council of Maine and American Rivers.

********************************************************************** “Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Villa Antinori Toscana Blanco 2006 i This compilation of articles and other information is provided at no cost for those interested in hydropower, dams, and water resources issues and development, and should not be used for any commercial or other purpose. Any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff i 5/16/2008

Quote of Note: “An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.” - - T. S. Eliot

Dams Folsom Dam safety improvements to start this month The Associated Press, 05/06/2008, The Mercury News

FOLSOM, Calif.—The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a $3.2 million contract for continued safety improvements to Folsom Dam. The program is intended to reduce the risk of water overflowing Folsom Lake's dams and dikes during an extreme storm. Preliminary work by DD-M Crane and Rigging of Alameda is expected to begin this month, with construction on the dam's dike starting after Labor Day. The bureau's restoration work includes adding features such as filters and drains to control erosion.

Feds issue anti-terror safety strategy for small boaters Feds issue anti-terror safety strategy for small boaters By EILEEN SULLIVAN and SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press, May 6, 2008

WASHINGTON — As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist the country's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the country's 95,000 miles of coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al-Qaida's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States has so far been spared this type of strike in its own waters, terrorists have used small boats to attack in other countries. The millions of humble dinghies, fishing boats and smaller cargo ships that ply America's waterways are not nationally regulated as they buzz around ports, oil tankers, power plants and other potential terrorist targets. This could allow terrorists in small boats to carry out an attack similar to the USS Cole bombing, says Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. That 2000 attack killed 17 American sailors in Yemen when terrorists rammed a dinghy packed with explosives into the destroyer. "There is no intelligence right now that there's a credible risk" of this type of attack, Allen says. "But the vulnerability is there." To reduce the potential for such an attack in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security has developed a new strategy 1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu intended to increase security by enhancing safety standards. The Coast Guard is part of the department.

On Monday officials will announce the plan, which asks states to develop and enforce safety standards for recreational boaters and asks them to look for and report suspicious behavior on the water — much like a neighborhood watch program. The government will also look to develop technology that will help detect dangerous materials and other potential warning signs. The United States has spent billions of dollars constructing elaborate defenses against the monster cargo ships that could be used by terrorists, including strict regulations for containers and shipping. "When that oil tanker is coming from the Middle East, we know everything about it before it gets here," said John Fetterman, deputy chief of Maine's marine patrol. But when it comes to small boats, he said, "nobody knows a lot about them." Initially the government considered creating a federal license for recreational boat operators, but that informal proposal was immediately shot down by boating organizations. Coast Guard and homeland security officials have toured the country in the past year to sound out the boating industry and its enthusiasts. While the government insists there will be no federal license, the strategy suggests that the government consider registering and regulating recreational boats. There are about 18 million small boats in the country, contributing to a $39.5 billion industry, according to a 2006 estimate from the National Marine Manufacturers Association. Fetterman and his officers regularly get intelligence reports about unknown or unrecognized boaters taking pictures of a bridge or measurements of a dam. But he says there just aren't enough officers on the water to address every report. The only way to police the waterfront, says maritime security expert Stephen Flynn, "is to get as many of the participants who are part of that community to be essentially on your side." Flynn, a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, says treating boaters as allies rather than as a threat will go a long way.

The government has taken tentative first steps to secure the waterways, but at a much slower pace than the effort aimed at large container ships. Small boats are not the top terrorist threat facing the United States, officials say. But the nation shouldn't wait to be attacked, said Vayl Oxford, the head of homeland security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. "We just cannot allow ourselves to get to the point where we're managing consequences," he said. Oxford's office is leading two pilot programs that train and arm harbor patrols with portable radiological and nuclear detection equipment, starting with Seattle's Puget Sound. A similar program for San Diego is in the planning stages. Many local departments across the country have been concerned with the small boat threat. The New York Police Department has scuba teams and marine units equipped with radiation detection that patrol New York waters. But few departments across the country have similar resources. That is why the strategy is intended to create a layered defense that would create a national federal standard to operate a boat, Allen says. The Coast Guard will work with states to establish minimum safety standards and ways to enforce the new rules. That may include requiring boat operators to have a copy of the safety certification on board with them and a piece of identification that links them to the certificate. That's important, security officials say, because currently there is no uniform requirement for pleasure boaters to have identification on board with them on the water.

The government defines small boats as any vessel less than 300 tons. The new strategy will not only create more awareness on the water, but additional state safety requirements could have other benefits: keeping boats shipshape and having their inspections up to date; more lifesaving equipment on board; and possibly fewer drunken people operating boats, said California's homeland security adviser Matthew Bettenhausen. In 2006, there were 710 boating deaths, more than 3,400 injuries and close to $44 million worth of property damage, according to the latest statistics from the Coast Guard. Of the 710 deaths, 70 percent occurred on boats operated by someone who did not have boating safety instruction. "To the extent you can limit those kinds of problems, that means there's more resources that can be focused on the terrorism-prevention mission," Bettenhausen said. "This is the way you buy down the risk," said Mark Dupont, a senior intelligence officer with Florida's department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Requiring minimum safety instruction may very well make the waters safer, says Mark Jambretz, a 36-year-old recreational boater in San Francisco. But Jambretz is skeptical that it would have an impact on the terror threat. "As long as you have sailboats or powerboats running up along a giant container ship — or any type of ship — you wouldn't be able to tell them from a boat loaded with anything else," he said. But Allen says the boater that is on the water every weekend knows where people fish and knows when a boat near a piece of critical infrastructure looks out of place. "The small-boat community is not the problem," he said. But he added that with this strategy, they would now be part of the solution.

Recent quakes haven’t shaken at-risk dam near Truckee Officials study seismology at Martis Creek Dam By Greyson Howard, Sierra Sun, May 7, 2008

2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Seismic study is high priority at the Martis Creek Dam, but recent earthquakes in the area haven’t affected the safety of structure. Located three miles east of Truckee in the Martis Valley, the earthen-fill dam has been categorized as an “extremely high risk” by the Army Corps of Engineers for seepage issues. Geologists blame the coarse glacial soil for the seepage that could destabilize the dam, making it one of the six riskiest dams in the nation. Because of that risk, officials are keeping water levels low. Meanwhile, the potential of nearby active faults also compound the risk the dam poses to downstream residents through the Truckee River Canyon, in Reno and in Sparks. “Our accelerated efforts are due to the potential faults in the area of the dam,” said Veronica Petrovsky, project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers. “We’re seeking an additional $1 million to continue on the fast track for seismic issues.”

An initial study released in March indicated a recently-active fault may lie underneath the dam itself. According to a May 2 situation report from the Corps, investigation of that fault will occur this summer. Archeological study of cultural resources may be deferred until after seismological work can be completed, Petrovsky said. Also in the works is an inundation map, she said. “That will provide the depth of inundation [flooding] along the Truckee River all the way to Pyramid Lake if the dam failed with a full pool behind it,” Petrovsky said. But the Corps isn’t taking any risks, keeping the reservoir less than 20 percent full, she said. Potential solutions include removing, repairing, or replacing the dam, she said, but a decision is still years away. In a best-case scenario, the study is scheduled to continue until 2011, followed by design work in 2012-13, and construction or other work around 2014-15, Petrovsky said.

(How come every time there’s a dam upstream, people think it is the cause of a flood? The main reason for floods is too much rain in too short of a period of time. Small dams, no matter how operated, usually do not have enough storage space to make a difference. There’s also this belief that you can predict the amount of rainfall when we know that the Weather Service has trouble predicting the weather tomorrow. So, when do you lower a reservoir? The bad news is that this was not the largest flood that will happen, especially as population and development increases.) Guest commentary NIPSCO's report to the FERC Opinions & Letters, Carroll County Comet, May 7th, 2008

Floods are the most destructive, most frequent and most costly natural disasters on earth. Too often in the case of non-flood control or run-of-river dams like ours, the downstream residents are put at risk by companies more intent on wringing the most electricity possible or bowing to the whims of more influential residents residing on a lake, rather than keeping water levels low enough to slowly absorb incoming runoff. Norway and Oakdale dams are loaded weapons aimed down river. Downstream residents understand that floods will happen and we have learned to live with them as best we can, even those of us who were not in the "old" flood plain. The NIPSCO flood abatement study, released last month, rejects the idea of lowering Lakes Shafer and Freeman in advance of a predicted flooding. "The lakes simply cannot hold enough water and they are not large enough to prevent or significantly lessen floods downstream of the dams, said NIPSCO. That attempting to delay the downstream flooding by holding back the water, "may result in grave consequences" once the water is finally released. NIPSCO's standard response in this speculative report doesn't hold water when compared to the available information.

Measures can be taken to reduce the speed, size and duration of floodwaters, such as improving drainage, controlling erosion, and restoring meanders and wetlands. Where new housing developments with manicured lawns have replaced the undergrowth causing unprecedented water runoff, flood absorption areas for that displaced water should be created. Where proper flood control management and planning is in place, hopefully flood mitigation will be successful, but where planning is inadequate or worse, non-existent, the effects undoubtedly will be disastrous. NIPSCO still believes its preparation was adequate, but because the threat was underestimated and its lack of proper communication with local agencies and residents, that was not the case. Better preparation is almost always possible, but sometimes commitments to invest in risk-reducing measures for low-probability; high-consequence events like this compete with more immediate demands with faster and more visible payoffs. With proper flood/water management in place even delaying peak flows one hour could mean the difference between a few dozen homes being flooded and hundreds more. Indeed, using the dams new record incoming/outgoing flow rates (run-of-river), if the lake levels were lowered 5 feet in advance (and the flood gates were closed) it would take 3 hours and 24 minutes to fill Lake Shafer's 1,291 acres and 3 hours and 1 minute to fill Freeman's 1,547 acres. However, who in their right mind would close the gates at a time like that?

One solution or option then is to start with the lakes lowered 60 inches or some arbitrary number that takes silt and sediment into consideration and then allows the water to continually pass through at a reduced flow 3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu rate. For example, starting with Lake Freeman lowered 60" and opening the flood gates to 20,000 cfs in a continuous flow (instead of the record 31,000 cfs) would take 8 and a half hours to fill it 60 inches to Freeman's normal level. The same criteria applied to Lake Shafer and letting out 18,000 cfs instead of 24,087 cfs, would take 12 hours and 50 minutes to fill 60". If this process had been in place and used, using the new reduced incoming flow rate from Shafer - (releasing 18,000 cfs) into Freeman - (releasing 20,000 cfs) it would now take Freeman a full 19 hours to fill 60". Filling the lakes over a longer duration could buy that crucial extra time that could make all the difference to those people in front of that loaded gun downstream. Would 19 hours be enough time for the news coverage and emergency response teams to inform homeowners that flooding was imminent? Would 19 hours be enough time to gather your belongings, move your vehicles, and find alternate lodging? Would 19 hours be enough time for the weather to abate, negating the need to open the floodgates to maximum capacity? Perhaps the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will require NIPSCO to re-evaluate its position that everything's fine, otherwise it's time to move along. Nothing to see here, no changes necessary. Good luck next time. Edward Priest, Battle Ground, (Carroll County)

FERC again says no to Dillsboro dam bid By Becky Johnson, week of 5/7/08, Smoky Mountain News

Jackson County lost another round last month in the fight to save the Dillsboro dam. Jackson County has spent five years fighting Duke Energy’s plans to tear down the Dillsboro dam. The final decision maker — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — has consistently sided with Duke in the battle. This month, Jackson County lost its last and final appeal with the energy commission. “This is the end of the line. The FERC train stops here,” said Mark Singleton, director of American Whitewater and an advocate of tearing down the dam. The appeal indeed marked the last chance at getting the energy commission to reverse its decision, but there are several other avenues the county can still pursue to overturn FERC’s decision. “There are a number of avenues that are still left open. It is far from over,” said County Manager Ken Westmoreland. One of those options is an appeal before a federal judge. “We have been building a case for four years alleging FERC hasn’t followed its own procedures,” Westmoreland said. A hearing before a federal judge could prove more favorable than FERC, which seems to side with the utility industry. The county is also appealing a permit issued by the state for tearing down the dam. If Jackson is successful in stopping the state permit, the dam can’t come down. The county has several arguments against the state permit, Westmoreland said. A hearing on the state permit is scheduled for July 14. Another outlet is condemning the dam. The county would simply take the dam from Duke under eminent domain. The county would hire a contractor to operate the dam on the county’s behalf. The county is soliciting proposals from contractors to do just that, with a deadline of June 2. However, should the county take the dam through eminent domain; it would need a permit from the energy commission to operate it. That seems unlikely given the number of times Jackson has been struck down by the energy commission. The reply was strongly worded, in essence chastising Jackson County for the audacity of appealing in the first place. Singleton said it was one of the most strongly worded decrees he has ever seen by FERC. Singleton is disappointed the county plans to continue its fight. “I am surprised the commissioners continue to throw dollars at this thing when the writing was so apparent much earlier on,” Singleton said. Why tear down the dam? Duke has pitched tearing down the dam as compensation for the other dams it operates in the region. Duke Energy has 10 other dams in the region, including those on Lake Glenville and Nantahala Lake. Its permits to operate the dams are up for renewal. To get new permits, Duke has to compensate the public for its use of the rivers. Duke’s answer was tearing down the Dillsboro dam, providing both environmental and recreational benefits. Jackson leaders opposed the plan for several reasons. Primarily, they felt the Dillsboro dam was an important source of green power and an historic icon worth preserving. The alternate mitigation proposed by Jackson County called for Duke to turn over the dam to the county and pay $500,000 for restoration along the Tuckasegee River. Jackson questions how removing a dam on the Tuckasegee could mitigate for other dams as far away as Nantahala Lake, Hiwasee and the Little Tennessee in Franklin. Oddly, FERC wrote in its reply that tearing down the Dillsboro dam had nothing to do with mitigation for Duke’s other dams. “As to the contention that the Commission considered the Dillsboro surrender as mitigation for the other projects in the river basin, (Jackson County) is mistaken,” FERC wrote. “(Jackson County) contends that Duke’s settlement agreements viewed removal of the Dillsboro Project as mitigation for continued operation of the other projects. However, the Commission is not bound to accept that view, and indeed, as the record demonstrates, we do not.”

4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

(Who –What is the Federal Bureau of Dam Safety?) Lake will disappear after dam breech WEST MILFORD MESSENGER, 5/8/08

West Milford, CT — Experts deemed the West Milford Lake Dam unsafe and will likely recommend it be breeched, reducing West Milford Lake from 12 acres to ¼ acre. The old dam will be replaced with a new structure, and a new park has been proposed for the land where West Milford Lake used to be. Evaluations by the federal Bureau of Dam Safety, the township Environmental Commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection have been ongoing since 2005. During that time, public hearings have been held to evaluate what should be done with the land once West Milford Lake is drained. Dr. Fred Lubnow of Princeton Hydro recommended construction of a town park planted with native vegetation. The vegetation would be used to stabilize the soil at the site and prevent phosphorus from draining into Greenwood Lake and Beltious Creek. West Milford Lake contains extremely high levels of phosphorus, causing algae blooms and weed growth. According to Lubnow, the site design endorsed by the Town Council will mitigate many of the problems surrounding the site development plan. “Once the dam is breeched, we will need to test the soil to see if it is stable. If it is, planting native vegetation will stabilize the soil and capture the nutrients that have been draining into Greenwood Lake and Beltious Creek. This will be aesthetically attractive and we will not have to remove a lot of sediment, which can be expensive. “The proposed plan will be paid for by federal grants and cost between $100,000 and $200,000.

However, the lake is privately owned and because public funds cannot be used on private property, redevelopment of the site will be contingent on West Milford purchasing the land through the open space program. The township doesn’t yet know if the owner of the property will consider selling the land to the township. If the town purchases the land and uses grant funds to rehabilitate the site, the town will also be responsible for maintaining the dam and the areas once covered by West Milford Lake. According to Les Lynn of Ecological Associates, there are many possibilities for the site and the possibility of additional state or federal grants. Lynn said, “The Westland Mitigation fund has funds that can be used. A wildlife habitat could be created for migrating birds. Because the water area will be so small once the dam is breeched, a different kind of bird will nest there and it will be very nice for birders. The geese, ducks and other large water birds will pass it by. Eventually a nature center could be built, and an observatory.” Removal of unstable soil at the site could drive the cost to more than $100,000. Experts call that an unlikely scenario. Dr. Fred Lubnow: “The water will not be released all at once, but slowly and steadily. The DEP does not just breech a dam and then walk away. There will be silt fences, vegetation planted and coffer dams that will offer stabilization to the site. However, the DEP is not concerned with what plant species start growing in the soil left behind. If we get invasive species, the way the Meadowlands did, we will get an unattractive mess.”

Safety of dams in Texas uncertain Agency says it needs more funds and inspectors May 9, 2008, By JANET ELLIOTT, Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN, TX — With only seven inspectors for 7,603 dams, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality cannot ensure the safety of the dams, according to a state auditor's report released Friday. The report noted that the agency has conducted more frequent inspections over the past four years. But it also said it is "still not able to perform timely inspections of all high- and significant-hazard dams, ensure that deficiencies identified in inspection reports are corrected, or obtain key information needed to assess the risk posed by many of the state's dams." Much of the blame falls on limited funding. Texas ranks 28th among 47 states for state funding to the regulatory agency charged with ensuring dam safety, even though the state has the largest inventory of state-regulated dams. Texas spends just $350,000 on its inspection program, and each inspector is responsible for 1,028 dams. "What an enormous task they have," said Brad Iarossi, chairman of the legislative committee for the Association of State Dam Safety Officials. Report's recommendations The report said TCEQ should conduct more frequent inspections, obtain additional information on the hydraulic adequacy of high- and significant-hazard dams, follow up on deficiencies identified in inspection reports, strengthen enforcement to ensure that dam owners comply with safety requirements and estimate the cost to rehabilitate the state's deficient dams. The environmental agency said in its written response that its ability to improve safety is "contingent upon legislative support for additional (full-time employees) and funding needed to modify the dam safety program as proposed." "We know of no dams in Texas that are in imminent danger of collapse," said TCEQ spokesman Terry Clawson. While determining how much more 5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu money it would need to achieve safety goals, the audit report said the agency should take several interim steps. These include completing a rewrite of safety rules, developing criteria to ensure that the highest-risk dams receive priority inspections, identifying low-hazard dams that should be upgraded to higher-hazard status due to new downstream development and updating a dam inventory database. How dams are classified Dams are classified as high-hazard when a failure would cause expected deaths and excessive economic loss. A significant-hazard dam would be one where death is possible, but not expected, and there would be economic damage. Texas has 872 high-hazard dams and 817 significant-hazard dams. The rest are low- hazard, meaning that no loss of life is expected and economic loss would be minimal. Clawson said that most large dam owners have their own safety and inspection process, which TCEQ oversees, while smaller dams are inspected by the agency staff. The Lower Colorado River Authority, which operates six major dams in Central Texas and the Hill Country, has been modernizing its dams over the past decade, said spokesman Robert Cullick. The six dams, including Mansfield Dam that creates Lake Travis, must be able to withstand flash floods that can send water moving with tremendous force. "We have to make sure those dams could live up to a higher standard," said Cullick. The LCRA, which sells water and electricity, was lucky to have a customer base that paid for the upgrades, which cost more than $50 million, Cullick said.

(This is the 2nd situation I have heard about regarding the Corps’ “rating” system. The previous case was the somewhat low rating given to the Dworshak Dam, a concrete gravity structure that has some isues with its drainage system. In the Falls dam situation and with Dworshak dam, the Corps’ rating system may be a good thing for engineers, but the general public is totally confused and are being unduly alarmed. What is “conditionally unsafe”? It’s either safe or not!) N.C. dam rated 'conditionally unsafe' Matthew Eisley, (Raleigh) News & Observer, May. 12, 2008

The Falls Lake dam itself is sound and can be made even safer, according to the engineers who run it. But if it ever ruptured because of a structural failure, extraordinarily high water or sabotage, the result would be cataclysmic. Because of that, Falls Lake's dam recently scored a middle safety rating of "conditionally unsafe." "You can never discount the possibility of a failure," said Wayne Bissette, chief of engineering for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Wilmington District, which manages the lake. Falls Lake has been a godsend since its construction 25 years ago. The 28-mile-long federal reservoir north of Raleigh provides the Capital City's drinking water, keeps the Neuse River flowing healthily, enhances recreation, and has prevented more than half a billion dollars in flood damage downstream. But the federal engineers who manage the lake now are warning of an unlikely but conceivable catastrophe: If the lake's earthen dam ever burst, a freshwater tsunami would swamp the Neuse River valley from North Raleigh to Kinston, blasting away bridges, obliterating riverside homes, inundating parts of Smithfield and Goldsboro, and possibly drowning dozens or hundreds of people -- perhaps with no warning. Continued development along the river, much of it in popular subdivisions with street names reflecting the watercourse's appeal, worsens the danger. "It's the downstream development that creates a problem," Bissette said. "As long as encroachment on the floodplain continues, there's always the potential for loss of life and economic impact." Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said the warning was news to him. "I've never heard anything about the Falls Lake dam failing ...” Meeker said. "We haven't been briefed on that." Martin Chriscoe, Wake County's emergency management director, said he has no study or report of the likely effects of a dam failure and flood. No one involved has any estimate of the number of homes and businesses in the flood path. Nor does the corps, Raleigh, or the state plan to buy and clear the Neuse bottomland, local, state, and federal officials said. "Unless you have a major disaster, it's hard to do," said Doug Hoell, the state's emergency- management director. "In the meantime, people in the floodplain need to have flood insurance."

A threat to bridges, too At its normal level, Falls Lake holds about 43 billion gallons. If a storm pushed the lake to its spillway height (as almost happened three times in the 1990s) that would constitute about 115 billion gallons. That's about 101 billion gallons more, if dumped in one day, than what causes flooding in adjacent neighborhoods. Corps 6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu officials say that to deter terrorism, they cannot let the public see their map of the likely extent of the inundation. But they say it would extend somewhat beyond a 500-year-storm floodplain, a line state and local governments use for land-use planning. Such a deluge also would jeopardize at least the 16 highway bridges and three railroad bridges over the Neuse River between the Falls dam and Smithfield, from Falls of Neuse Road at the dam's foot to Interstate 95, about 50 miles downstream. "I would expect that there would be some bridge failures, but some of them would survive," said Don Idol, the state Department of Transportation's assistant state bridge inspection engineer. "Nothing's 100 percent." State and local the injured and recover the dead.

Riverfront life Some of them might be found in northeast Raleigh's aptly named River Bend Plantation neighborhood, part of which is at risk of flooding anytime the corps has to release heavy volumes from storm-swollen Falls Lake. Off Buffaloe Road, the bucolic, heavily wooded neighborhood is wedged between the Neuse River and Beaverdam Creek. That's where homebuilder David Burns and his wife Yvonne, a WakeMed cardiovascular monitor technician, are building their family of five a two-story home on a low-lying riverfront lot. The Burns' dream home is being built about eight feet off the ground to get it up out of the 100-year floodplain -- but not nearly high enough to remain safe if the Falls Lake dam breaks upstream. "I didn't know that," Yvonne Burns said to her husband one day last week. "Did you know that?" No, he didn't. But they're not too worried. "It's engineered to the hilt," David Burns said. "It should be unsinkable. If it ever happens, maybe it won't be in our lifetime." Yvonne Burns said she worries more about her family's routine health than the minor threat of a catastrophic flood. "This place is so beautiful -- why would I give that up out of fear?" she asked. "Everything except my children and my husband is replaceable. I told him to strap a canoe on the roof, so if we have to, we can get out." Several government officials said the risk must be considered in light of its slim probability and the natural desire of people such as the Burnses to live near water. They compared it to living at the beach, where a hurricane could strike any year, or next to a highway or a railroad carrying hazardous cargo. "It's one of those risks that people who enjoy the environment are comfortable with," said Tom Freeman, the corps' operations manager at Falls Lake. "I know what I would do," he said. "Absolutely nothing."

Quake damaged hundreds of dams in China

Chinese officials say nearly 400 dams -- including two large ones and 28 medium ones -- were damaged in Monday's earthquake. The National Development and Reform Commission reports that Zipingpu Dam near Dujiangyan suffered the most damage, according to The New York Times. A state-run website reported yesterday that the Zipingpu hydroelectric power plant, which came on line about two years ago, was knocked out after the powerful temblor caused cracking and collapses at the dam, which is located up the Minjiang River from Dujiangyan.

(The dam is a concrete-faced Rockfill structure about 150 feet high) China: Dam is stable, safe 14/05/2008, News24.com, South Africa

Beijing - A dam near the epicentre of a powerful Zipingpu Dam earthquake that hit southwest China is "structurally stable and safe", officials told state media on Wednesday, denying earlier reports of dangerous cracks. Foreign media reports quoting state media had said that 2 000 soldiers had rushed to repair Zipingpu dam, which is upriver from the quake-hit city of Dujiangyan, due to "extremely dangerous" cracks that had appeared after the quake. Dujiangyan is about 50 kilometres away from Wenchuan, the epicentre of the 7.9-magnitude quake that hit the southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday afternoon. "After the earthquake happened in Wenchuan, Sichuan, there were rumours saying there were cracks in the dam," a manager at the Zipingpu Development Company was quoted as saying by state Xinhua news agency. "But after the quake, experts from the Ministry of Water Resources made a thorough examination of the important parts of the dam and made a scientific assessment, and they ruled that the dam is structurally stable and safe," he said, without directly ruling out there were cracks. But there were suggestions that the government might be censoring some online content about the dam. When the 7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu words "Zipingpu" and "troops" were typed into a Chinese search engine earlier on Wednesday evening, a message came up saying "the content of your search might have violated national rules and regulations". The foreign media reports about the troops being rushed to the dam could not be found in Chinese on the internet. But a later search on the internet using the same words brought up search results, although none related to cracks in the dam.

Hydro

Lot’s of Dam news, but this hasn’t been much of a news week for hydro – not a good thing!

Water Auburn dam may be dealt death blow By Matt Weiser, May 9, 2008, The Sacramento Bee

A long-stalled Auburn dam on the American River has suffered many defeats. But the next could be truly fatal. The State Water Resources Control Board plans to revoke the water rights held by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the project. The unfinished dam, in other words, would no longer have any water to hold back. Reclamation halted construction on a dam more than 30 years ago due to earthquake concerns, leaving the river's north fork heavily scarred but not permanently blocked. A host of environmental concerns and ballooning costs have delayed the project ever since. Though still coveted by some officials in the region, a dam is probably doomed without water. "If they lose the water rights, it would be very problematic, I would think," said Bruce Kranz, a Placer County supervisor and chairman of the American River Authority, a joint-powers agency and leading dam advocate. The original Auburn dam was approved by Congress in 1965. It was designed to store 2.5 million acre-feet of water behind a dam nearly 700 feet high adjacent to the city of Auburn. Reclamation secured water rights for a dam from the state in 1970. Those rights allowed the agency to store a staggering amount of water – 5 million acre-feet – at different times of year for purposes ranging from power generation and recreation to farming and urban consumption.

Under state law, water rights expire if not used. But Reclamation was granted an extension in 1984 on the condition that it present a revised project for approval by Dec. 31, 1987. It failed to do so and has asked for three more extensions since 1988. The state did not grant those extensions, nor did it revoke the permits as a result. Bill Rukeyser, a spokesman for the state water board, said Reclamation has run out of chances by failing to make progress on the dam. "It's our understanding they will not strongly contest it, because obviously the project is not going ahead," he said. "Basically, time is up, so this is simply a matter of the water rights division taking care of business." But Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said his agency will argue to keep the rights. It requested a hearing on the matter before the water board, set for July 21 in Sacramento. A prehearing conference will be held June 4. Both are open to the public. "This remains a congressionally mandated project," McCracken said. "The bottom line is, we continue to want to hold onto those rights because Congress told us to do something and it hasn't yet been completed." In reality, the project is moldering in legal limbo. It remains federally authorized, but costs have grown so dramatically that restarting construction would require a new vote by Congress. That is unlikely, because the project's environmental consequences would be far more controversial today than when the dam was first proposed. Also, the new water supply it would create is much less than Reclamation's paper water rights. Ronald Stork, a senior policy advocate at Friends of the River, estimated an Auburn dam would yield something less than 300,000 acre-feet of new water supply. That's not nearly enough to justify the project's huge cost, he said. The most recent estimate, completed last year by Reclamation, put the cost to finish the dam at a minimum of $6 billion. That's 12 times greater than the originally authorized cost. "You either have to find very wealthy beneficiaries who are prepared to pay a heck of a lot for the water, or some taxpayers 8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu somewhere who are prepared to be fleeced," Stork said. The project also is losing its most committed supporter, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, who announced in January he wouldn't seek re-election. If the water rights are revoked, another party can apply for them. But they would likely get much less water, because science has shown the environment can't sustain the diversions allowed by the 38-year-old permits. For his part, longtime dam supporter Kranz has turned his focus elsewhere. "Politically, it's not there right now," he said. "I want to work on things that have a chance of being successful."

(This is interesting! The writer of the article says hydro “uses” water as if it goes somewhere other than staying in a river. I posted a comment without being too harsh – that’s a first!) (Gallons/Liter = 3.79) The Water-Industrial Complex William Pentland 05.14.08, Forbes.com

In 2001, a water shortage in America's Pacific Northwest wiped out nearly a third of the U.S. aluminum industry. Low precipitation levels in the Cascade Mountains during the preceding winter robbed local reservoirs of the water needed to turn the massive turbines inside the region's main hydroelectric power plant, the Bonneville Power Administration. Electricity prices skyrocketed. Over the course of a few months, roughly a dozen aluminum plants closed. Nearly a decade later, only one has reopened. Like oil, water is an essential part of doing business in almost every industry, and unexpected shortages can trigger potentially catastrophic consequences. The trouble for investors: Companies disclose very little if any information about their exposure to water-related risks. "This is not an area that companies like to discuss quite frankly," says Carl Levinson, an economist at J.P. Morgan and the principal author of the recent report Watching Water: A Guide to Corporate Risk in a Thirsty World. "They don't want to call attention to a vulnerability and that applies very much to the water scarcity issue. Investors in general know very little about what is going on in companies' supply chains." The water risks are most obvious in the food and beverage sector. Together, Nestlé, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and Danone consume an estimated 575 billion liters of water every year, or roughly the amount of water needed to meet the basic daily needs of every person on the planet.

But "watergy," as some are now calling it, is a very big deal for all industries. In the U.S., industry uses more water than agriculture thanks to its use in power generation. The industrial sector uses an estimated 45% of water in the United States, agriculture accounts for 42% and domestic uses, like drinking and sanitation, account for a mere 13%. Worldwide, agriculture uses about 70% of all water. To understand how dependent industry is on water, look no further than the southeast U.S. Last summer, a severe drought in the region forced a nuclear power plant, Browns Ferry, to shut down one of three reactors for a week. The incident passed largely unnoticed because the third reactor had only recently returned to service after years of sitting idle. But the region gets roughly 30% of its electricity from nuclear power plants, and each plant needs prodigious amounts of water. Nearly a quarter of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States are in areas experiencing severe levels of drought. Similar incidents this summer could raise electricity prices dramatically. "Water is the nuclear industry's Achilles heel," Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, told the Associated Press in January. "You need a lot of water to operate nuclear plants." Other energy sources are just as water-intensive. Hydroelectric power uses about 39% of all fresh water in the United States annually. New clean energy legislation promises new shortages. A liter of corn ethanol requires nearly 2,000 liters of fresh water to produce. Similarly, solar thermal energy-- which harnesses the heat of the sun to generate steam-powered turbines--consumes more than 2,600 liters of water per megawatt hour, 200 liters more than coal-powered generation needs to produce the same energy. And while much of the water used for energy can be somewhat, scarcity has already spawned informal water markets in parts of Texas and Mexico. The prospect of shortages has attracted a growing number of venture capital firms and investment funds to place big bets on technologies aimed at replenishing water supplies. Meanwhile, several logistics and information technology start-ups like PurFresh and Nova Analytics are implementing new systems to help executives manage potential water-shortage crises more effectively. "Sooner or later, the way in which the world adapts to shortages is with price," says Levinson. "So my expectation is that water is going to become increasingly costly as an input for all kinds of purposes, and when that happens you'll see a lot more interest in conserving water."

9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Environment Flaming Gorge Dam to let loose 3-week torrent Artificial flood Increased flow will mimic spring runoff, help fish recovery The Salt Lake Tribune , 05/09/2008

Flows from Flaming Gorge Dam will pick up significantly next week as the Bureau of Reclamation increases water volume out of the dam as part of its endangered species recovery operations. Beginning on or around Monday, the bureau will increase flows from an average of more than 818 cubic feet per second to a maximum power plant capacity of approximately 4,200 cfs for a three-week period. Each year the bureau times the increased flows from the power plant to the Green River to mimic the spring runoff peak of the nearby Yampa River - which flows into the Green - as a means to aid in the recovery of the river's endangered fish species. There are critical spawning beds in the Green River downstream of the confluence of the Green River and Yampa River. The endangered fish are now starting to spawn. By timing the power plant release to match the runoff peak of the Yampa River, the combined flows will ensure the sediment that washes downstream will not be re-deposited on the spawning bars. In addition, the high flows will carry the larval razorback suckers into flooded lowlands - historically critical nursery habitat for the fish. Current projections are for the Yampa River to peak at about 18,000 cfs during the last week in May. The projected peak at Jensen, Utah, from the combined flows of the Yampa and Green should reach about 23,300 cfs - flows that should meet the levels requested by the recovery program.

********************************************************************** “Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Raymond Cabernet Sauvignon NAPA Valley Reserve 2005

i This compilation of articles and other information is provided at no cost for those interested in hydropower, dams, and water resources issues and development, and should not be used for any commercial or other purpose. Any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

10 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff

5/23/2008 i Quote of Note: “The most difficult thing in life is knowing yourself” - -Thales

OOtthheerr SSttuuffffff::: (I’m not a fan (pun intended) of wind power because it is incredibly undependable and no one talks about the backup power that’s needed for firm energy output. However, this shows that wind is the renewable of choice and hydro has little chance of support, especially from Congress where the words hydro and renewable can’t be stated in the same sentence. Also note that a large amount of the wind energy is supposed to be Offshore – good luck on that.) New DOE Report Analyzes a Path to Reaching 20% Wind Power by 2030 This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a DOE Newsletter - May 12, 2008 Wind power could provide 20% of U.S. electricity needs by 2030, according to a new DOE report. The report, titled "20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply," identifies the steps that need to be addressed to reach the 20% goal, including reducing the cost of wind technologies, building new transmission infrastructure, and enhancing domestic manufacturing capability. Released on May 12, the report was produced by DOE and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories with the assistance of the American Wind Energy Association, engineering consultants from Black and Veatch Corporation, and more than 50 energy organizations and corporation.

According to the report, reaching the 20% goal will require boosting wind power from its current production capacity of 16.8 Gigawatts (GW) to 304 GW in 2030, an 18-fold increase. Despite the magnitude of that challenge, most of the report's key findings are encouraging. Notably, the report concludes that 20% wind power can be reliably integrated into the grid at a cost of less than 0.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which compares favorably to today's average retail price of electricity in the United States, at 8.9 cents per kilowatt-hour. In addition, the demand for copper, fiberglass, and other raw materials needed to build the wind power facilities will not be prohibitive to reaching the 20% goal. However, the report also identifies several challenges that need to be overcome.

1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Achieving 20% wind power by 2030 will require that the annual installations of wind power increase threefold, from today's 2,000 annual turbine installations to almost 7,000 per year by 2017. Also, new transmission lines will need to be installed reach the most productive wind resource sites. But between now and the time the goal is reached, wind power will have avoided the emission of 7.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide, helping to forestall the growth in greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants. The 304 GW of wind power will also continue avoiding 825 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year thereafter. For comparison, the United States currently emits about 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. For more information, see the DOE press release, the 20% Wind Energy by 2030 Web site, EERE's Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program Web site, and the full text of the report (PDF 3.95 MB).

And from another blog on the subject: “Finally, at the DOE press conference today, which I listened to over the phone, Andy Karsner, DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy — an incredibly enthusiastic champion of clean tech who, sadly, was appointed far too late in the administration to have an impact — said that the 20% wind penetration could be accomplished with “no technology breakthroughs” for wind power. And when Karsner was asked about scale of the effort, especially in regard to building power plants far from where people lived, he pointed out the country had already done this once, when it built all those hydropower plants decades ago. At the time, not many people lived near Hoover dam.”

(But, then there’s this! The costs are interesting - $3,450/kW for offshore and $2,140/kW for land- based, comparable with hydro which is far more dependable power.) WIND POWER: High costs, shortages stall offshore development (05/14/2008)

Equipment shortages and rising costs have stalled as much as $120 billion in offshore wind power projects. A Sept. 16, 2007, storm battered an Irish Sea turbine-installation barge, putting it out of service and halting work on E.ON AG's Robin Rigg wind farm for seven of the past eight months because only one short-term replacement could be found. Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced May 1 that it would sell its one-third stake in the London Array, the world's biggest offshore wind project. "It's been more difficult to build offshore projects than everyone thought," said Goeran Lundgren, head of Nordic power generation at Stockholm-based Vattenfall AB, which has put a 640-megawatt wind farm in the Baltic Sea on hold. "I don't think we'll see any large-scale offshore parks until we've taken a few big development steps." The price of offshore turbines rose 48 percent to €2.23 million ($3.45 million) per megawatt in the past three years, according to Danish wind power consultant BTM Consult APS. By comparison, land-based turbines rose 74 percent in cost to €1.38 million ($2.14million) per megawatt during the same time period. A shortage of construction vessels like the one damaged in the Irish Sea and the high-voltage cables needed to link the wind parks to an electricity grid have also stalled development (Paulsson/Dobson, Bloomberg, May 14).

DDaammss (This is something that should make dam owners nervous because of the terrorist threat) WWII Dambusters raid revisited BBC News, 16 May 2008

On the 65th anniversary of the Dambusters raid, a re-enactment watched by the last living pilot from the operation took place. It marked perhaps the most famous operation ever carried out by the RAF. BBC North of England Correspondent Danny Savage was there.

The event was marked by a fly-past by a Lancaster bomber over the Derwent Dam in Derbyshire - used as a practice target for training the crews. It was an operation which the cynics thought would probably never succeed. Not only were aircrews asked to fly ridiculously low but the bombs they were using had performed with mixed results during practice.

Tricky execution

2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

The idea was simple: fly a plane low over a German reservoir and drop a single bomb which would bounce on the water and sink against the dam wall. The resulting explosion would shatter the dam and disable a key supply of water and electricity. But executing it was far from simple. Exactly 65 years ago, 19 Lancaster bombers from the 617 squadron took off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire on the mission. Many of the young men were aged just in their early twenties and had spent the hours beforehand sitting on the grass in the sunshine at Scampton playing cards or kicking a football around. Surprisingly little has changed at the airfield. The runways have been concreted, but the hangars the Lancasters were kept in are now Grade II listed buildings. The wild flowers still grow. Fifty three of the 133 men who set out on the raid didn't come back. The operation made Sqn Ldr Guy Gibson a household name and outside one of the hangars is the grave of his equally famous black Labrador - --- - who was run over on the day of the mission and buried at midnight just as his master was over his target. For weeks beforehand the crews had flown countless flights over lakes, reservoirs and dams in England and Wales. With just days to go before the mission they were told they would have to approach the target at just 60ft (18m) above the water. Altitude meters of the time were just not accurate enough, so two spotlights were fitted to each aircraft. When they matched up side by side, the plane was at the right height. Their targets were dams close to the river Ruhr in Germany. Not only did they hold back millions of gallons of water vital for the German war machine, they also produced power. If the dams could be broken then vast areas would be flooded, and it would also put a dent in the enemy's war machine. Several targets were selected but because the RAF suffered heavy losses, only two of the dams were destroyed. But it was still regarded as a huge success and the crews, from across the Commonwealth, were hailed as heroes. A real wartime propaganda coup. In the 1950s the mission was immortalized in film. The Dambusters starred Richard Todd, was filmed on location at RAF Scampton and re-enacted the training missions over the Derwent reservoir. The memorial to a daring raid finishes with Todd, playing Wing Cdr Guy Gibson, walking across the airfield at Scampton to write letters to the families of the men who didn't return. Thousands of people were at the Derwent reservoir to see the flying tribute to a mission that has captured the imagination of millions of people over the years, including the last surviving Dambusters pilot, Les Munro.

Sqdn Ldr Al Pinner, the commanding officer of the commemorative Battle of Britain Memorial Flight said: "In peacetime nowadays, operational fighter aircraft are occasionally cleared to fly as low as 100ft and they are very small, maneuverable aircraft.”Take a big plane like a Lancaster and try to fly that down to 60ft at night - you have one of the most incredible pieces of flying skills you will ever see.” Several dams were targeted and two of them were breached.

Civilians killed It shouldn't be forgotten that hundreds of civilians died that night as floodwaters washed down the valleys below the dams, sweeping aside farms and villages. That sentiment is reflected by the Battle of Britain Memorial The Muhne Dam was one of two dams destroyed Flight marking the occasion over the Derwent Dam. The flight's motto is "Lest We Forget". The Lancaster bomber made a series of passes over the dam followed by Tornado aircraft from today's 617 squadron. The names of those who died in the raid are on a special memorial at in the centre of Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire. The memorial is shaped like a broken dam and often draws crowds of visitors.

(And, the same can be said for the Northwest, but some people have short memories or no memory at all.) EDITORIAL: TVA at 75 5/18/2008, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

The view from the visitor overlooks at Pickwick Dam on the Tennessee River, about 25 miles north of Corinth, offers a sweeping panorama of a huge reservoir, a Tennessee resort park on the south side near the dam, expensive vacation homes on the northern, steeply sloped shoreline, and a huge paper mill within sight downstream. Even at flood stage, the dam largely eliminates downstream flood damage as its turbines generate electric power. Seventy-five years ago today, the river at Pickwick Landing was uncontrolled, and the only way to cross was by ferry. Lowland flooding was frequent, if not annual, and prosperity was somewhere else. President Franklin Roosevelt’s signature on May 18, 1933, created the Tennessee Valley Authority in federal law, and on Oct. 27, 1933, Tupelo officials and leaders of the Tennessee Valley Authority signed a contract that would make Tupelo the first city to purchase TVA-generated electric power. That

3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu power was affordable, virtually unlimited, and life-changing. Today’s 75th anniversary of TVA’s founding offers a valley-wide panorama that’s refreshingly and amazingly different from the economic and cultural landscape in 1933 – the depth of the Great Depression.

The poorest region in the nation was even poorer than before the economic collapse that started with the 1929 stock market crash. Many banks had closed. About one-third of all the work force was jobless. People were desperate in the effort to scratch out a living, even to put food on the table. And, electricity was a far-off fantasy – not even a dream – for most people living outside towns and cities. About 90 percent of rural America had no electric power. TVA offered hope that affordable electricity soon would be within reach. In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration empowered dreams through a system of customer-owned cooperatives. The first one anywhere was in Corinth, chartered in January 1934. Electricity increased productivity, and better productivity meant more money, a hope of unprecedented prosperity. Roosevelt was considered by many in the private, for-profit utility industry the political equivalent of Satan. TVA was seen as an economic evil that sought, not profit, but development of a region. Socialism, it was called.

It was a radical experiment, but it wasn’t socialism because, as Roosevelt said in a speech delivered in Tupelo, everything good that happens depends on the communities and their own initiative. He was right, and the idea worked. TVA’s electricity revolutionized community life. Affordable electricity made unprecedented manufacturing and industrial development attractive in and near population centers. By the time TVA’s huge system of hydroelectric dams came on line in the late 1930s and 1940s, the surge of relocating industry from what’s now called the Rust Belt had started. TVA remains one of the most powerful marketing assets for places like Tupelo, Corinth, New Albany, Booneville, Amory, West Point, Columbus and other energetic communities in Northeast Mississippi. TVA’s certified mega-sites at Blue Springs and near Columbus have been magnetized by regional leadership, attracting thousands of 21st-century jobs and billions in investment. Besides manufacturing, the reservoir lakes created by TVA’s dams drove development of tourism and recreation industry that was unthinkable before the river was controlled. Nothing is overstatement in terms of measuring the importance of TVA in the continuing economic development of the seven-state region it serves. TVA is the nation’s largest public utility, and its operation as a part of the national commonwealth should continue, even as it adapts to technological innovations and steadily increasing demands for power. We agree with former TVA Chairman Glenn L. McCullough, Jr., a Tupelo resident and native Mississippian: TVA’s sustainability must be melded with the growing of a strong, green economy in the valley region. Continuing innovation and efficiencies will help TVA endure as its region prospers and the authority reaches toward 100 years of service.

(Now the speculation begins and the anti-dam movement wants to blame dams. Question – has there ever been a reservoir induced seismic event from a dam that is as far from the epicenter location as is Three Gorges? Probably not! Three Gorges is 700 km (435 miles) from the epicenter.) China's quake: the dam factor From Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Beijing, Chronicle Foreign and National Desk, SFGate.com

As Chinese officials continue to grapple with the devastating earthquake that has killed tens of thousands of people, they have also been seeking to reassure the world that the nearby behemoth Three Gorges Dam is safe. Critics of the dam have long painted a bleak picture of mass death and destruction in the Yangtze River region should the dam fail. They say its placement in an earthquake- prone area is one of its most dangerous attributes. Now, there is speculation that the world's largest and perhaps most controversial dam was a factor in causing the killer Sichuan province quake. Scientists from around the world have long theorized that the sheer weight of the reservoir created by the dam could cause seismic shifts in the area. A recent article in Scientific American explained the issue and said 19 earthquakes in China over the past 50 years could be blamed on dams. Though no one has directly fingered Three Gorges as the reason for the earthquake, Probe International, a Canadian non-profit that monitors 4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

China's dams and their environmental and humanitarian fallout, raises the possibility. "Whether reservoir- induced seismicity is behind last week's earthquake should be urgently investigated before the Three Gorges reservoir is filled to its maximum height," said Patricia Adams, the group's executive director.

Armed Guards Begin Patrolling Dillon Dam Denver Water Hires Guards To Improve Security After Stunt May 19, 2008, The DenverChannel.com

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. -- Between concerns about security, curious sightseers and communication issues, Denver Water has decided to hire full-time guards to patrol the scenic mountain dam and one of Denver's most important water sources. The patrol started over the weekend but most drivers crossing the Dillon Dam noticed the guard for the first time Monday morning. "The first thing I noticed were the little white trucks driving up and down the dam road," said Trudy Carp, who eats lunch by the scenic reservoir several times a week. "I was surprised, I was like where did these guys come from?"

The Dillon Dam is a main east-west thoroughfare in Summit County, but five months ago, it was shut down for more than a week while officers investigated an incident involving two men shooting a music video on the road. "The dam road was closed at that particular time, and they were in an area that was closed. That was unusual and that was what got the ball rolling," said Craig Austin, manager of safety and security for Denver Water. He said during the routine security evaluation, the negative attention from that stunt was one of several reasons Denver Water increased security on Dillon Dam Road, hiring a private security firm to be their eyes and ears, patrolling 24-7. "It allows us to let the caretaker do their caretaker jobs, and we'd still be able to respond to safety and security issues," said Austin. He referred to car accidents, boating accidents, and curious sightseers who stop on the dam, even though it's illegal. For those who live in Summit County, it's hard to imagine it could be a terrorist target or security concern. "Maybe it makes some people feel more secure, but personally, I feel it's a waste of money," said Carp. Denver Water said the price tag for 24-7 security on Dillon dam is about $350,000 per year.

State: Dam owners have not proved its safety By HATTIE BERNSTEIN, May. 17, 2008, The Cabinet

HOLLIS, NH — The town has gained some leverage in its attempt to block the rebuilding of the Mossman Dam. Hollis officials had written to the state Department of Environmental Services’ dam bureau, asking them to deny the application from Milford dam owners Matthew and Andrew Ciardelli. Now a state dam safety expert has rejected the report of an engineering firm hired by the Ciardellis that says there would be little risk in rebuilding the dam, which breached last year causing severe flooding in Hollis. The 10-page report from Sandford Survey and Engineering of Bedford concludes that the Ciardelli’s dam is a low hazard. But the report didn’t impress the state nor Hollis officials, who have asked the state to include them in the permit–giving process. In a letter to the town of Hollis, Jeffrey Blaney, the dam safety engineer for the DES, says the engineer’s analysis was not based upon “standard engineering assumptions.” “The state disagrees. We’ve reviewed their report, their letter, and we disagree with their assumptions,” wrote Blaney, who said the state won’t approve the application to rebuild the dam, based on the recent analysis. The onus of proof is on the property owner. The dam is located southwest of Laurel Hill Road, and Mossman Road crosses the town line separating Hollis and Milford. Toddy Brook runs through the dam and the flooding damaged several Hollis homes downstream. The Ciardellis have applied for a permit to rebuild the earth berm with the same height and water volume as the previous pond, and they must first demonstrate that the dam would not be a significant risk to public health and safety. Town administrator Troy Brown said, “The dam application should be reclassified to a higher (potential hazard) classification.” Brown said the town wants a bigger role in the decision making process, given the public health and safety risks. • “We want to be formally involved in the permitting process,” he said.

But safety isn’t the only issue. Hollis officials believe the brothers shouldn’t be able to rebuild the dam if they don’t compensate property owners who have spent an estimated $500,000 to clean up and repair their properties following last year’s flooding. Officials also said they want the Ciardellis to guarantee to take responsibility for any future flooding and damage, and Brown has said that the town wants the brothers to post a performance bond in an escrow account. Residents living downstream of the dam said the April, 2007 flood not only destroyed property, but also left them traumatized. At least one homeowner said she panics every time it rains. But Matthew Ciardelli said this week his consultant’s analysis revealed that the dam might have “helped stop” previous flooding in the area. It states that if the dam is rebuilt, the water level from any future breach “will be consistent with NH Dam Bureau administrative criteria for classification of a low hazard potential dam.” Water levels in such a case would only rise “one foot above the first floor elevation of

5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu any habitable residential structure. “Additionally, no incremental structural damage to a Class I or II road is predicted which could render the road impassable,” the report states. Ciardelli attended the Monday night selectmen’s meeting with his brother, Andrew, and their parents, Michael and Heather Ciardelli. Instead of discussing the application to rebuild the dam, the property owner said, the board wanted to talk about compensating victims of last year’s flood. The Ciardellis are suing Paul Kerouac, the previous owner of their property, and according to Hillsborough County Superior Court records, Kerouac owned the property until July 1, 2007, more than two months after the April flood. • Kerouac has asked the court to dismiss the suit because of a “paucity of allegations and factual disclosures.”

(Report on Chinese Earthquake) Dams safe but risks remain: Official By Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily), 2008-05-21

Most of the lakes and damaged dams in Sichuan are currently safe but face the danger of heavy rain and aftershocks in the next few days. Li Chengyun, vice-governor of Sichuan province, said at a press briefing on Monday that 21 lakes could breach their banks, and efforts are being made to reduce the risks. The National Meteorological Bureau has forecast moderate or heavy rain - 13 to 30 mm - to hit the disaster areas in the next three days. The Sichuan earthquake administration said there is still the possibility of severe aftershocks. Xu Shuisen, an official with the Chengdu earthquake administration, told China Business News the government was aware of the danger of floods caused by lakes bursting their banks, and had taken steps to reduce the risks. Two experts and soldiers have been assigned to each lake and dam to keep a 24-hour watch. The government also has plans in hand to evacuate people downstream should the need arise. In some places, troops and construction teams have been deployed to divert the flow of water from the lakes and dams.

One lake that poses a threat is in Beichuan county. The lake was formed due a landslide that partially blocked the Qianjiang River. It is 40 m deep and contains about 30-40 million cu m of water. In Qingchuan county, another lake has been formed containing about 10 million cu m of water. Experts with the Sichuan water resources department said the lake's water level was rising. All people living downstream have been evacuated. Gao Jianguo, a researcher with the China Earthquake Administration's Institute of Geology, said it was extremely urgent to monitor the newly formed lakes that could burst their banks and

6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

cause flooding downstream. "As the rainy season is approaching, these unstable lakes, or natural reservoirs, pose a serious threat to densely populated downstream areas," Gao said.

In 1933, three newly formed lakes burst their banks 45 days after an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale struck Diexi in western Sichuan, he said. Floods extended 250 km to Dujiangyan, killing 2,500 people. Chai Hejun, a researcher with the Chongqing Institute of Transportation Design, said 21 percent of the new lakes could breach within a day, 48 percent within 10 days and 88 percent within a year. Gu Junyuan, chief engineer with the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, said on Monday that all of the hydropower stations along the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, a major river running through the quake- hit areas, were "quite safe". The hardest-hit area, which has 29 dams, is located in a valley in the upper reaches of the river, he said. Most of the dams are solid gravity dams or gate dams, which are strong enough to sustain overflowing water. Five hydropower stations where the earthquake's epicenter was located are relatively small, with a total storage of 1.5 million cu m. "Even if there are some problems with these dams, we have the giant Zipingpu Reservoir downstream of the Minjiang River," Gu said. "With a storage capacity of 1.1 billion cu m, it has the capacity to contain the runoff from some of the damaged dams." The Zipingpu Reservoir is now operating properly after sustaining some minor damage during the earthquake, Gu said.

HHyyddrroo Factoid: In the U.S., for total energy use about 7 percent of energy came from renewables in 2006 according to the Energy Information Administration. Of that amount, 41.4 % was hydro, 5 % geothermal, 3.8 % wind, and 1 % solar/PV. For the year 2006, and for electric consumption only, 81.3 % was hydro, 4.1 % geothermal, 7.5 % wind, 0.14 % solar/PV, and the remainder was from Biomass.

Hydro-electric power created at Denison Dam May 15, 2008, Reporter: Mystic Matthews, KXII.com

DENISON, TX - Electricity can come from a number of sources. But officials say we are fortunate to have a clean renewable source right here in Texoma. The Denison Dam produces hydro electric power just about everyday. Mystic Matthews investigates how much is generated and where it ends up. "We are very lucky to have it. Several lakes in Tulsa district have hydroelectric power. But we are very fortunate to have it," says Joe Custer, the Texoma Lake Manager. Hydro-electric power is a clean burning renewable energy source and it’s made right here at the Denison Dam. Something Denison resident Michael Tingle says we should be using more of. "The fact that it's here and it’s renewable.” Custer says we only have two units producing power at the dam, “Approximately 11,000 cubic feet per second is running from two units at 40 megawatts per unit." And that's with the flood gates shut. "Flood gates are used for large releases during a flood or high water situations. Right now the only release is through the generation units.” With those units producing 80 megawatts of power, “One megawatt will typically operate 1000 Midwestern homes; one megawatt is 1,000 homes. 40 megawatts is 40,000 homes. So today's generation is 80,000 homes." That's a lot of power. "Yes, that is a lot of power, but its only peak power. Our power is not stored. You cannot store hydroelectric power. As we create it, its being used somewhere across the grid," says Custer.

But he says there are disadvantages to hydro electric power. "The availability of water and the costs to build a dam in today’s environment is one or two drawbacks to hydroelectric." But Tingle says it’s worth it, “Being a renewable source, it’s what we need to be doing." And Custer agrees. So for now, the dam will continue to create what the power company needs. And if the demand for hydro electricity goes up, “More units could be added in the future if demand necessitates." Custer also told me all power that is generated at the Denison Dam goes to a company called AEP. But the power only goes to customers they service in Texas.

Chouteau County queries Tester on new Missouri dam May 19, 2008, The Havre Daily News

7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

GREAT FALLS. MT

Chouteau County commissioners say it's time to take another look at building a new hydroelectric dam on the Missouri River. Commissioners have sent a letter to Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., asking him to investigate the feasibility of building a dam at Carter, 15 miles upstream from Fort Benton. "With the present energy situation in Montana and the United States, we think it would be prudent to leave all of our energy options open, including the possibility of construction of a hydroelectric dam," the commissioners wrote in their letter to Tester. Commissioners say the dam could provide affordable electricity, water for agricultural producers and new boating and fishing opportunities. "I know there's a need for more power and this definitely would be a clean power," Commissioner Harvey Worrall said. There are five privately owned hydroelectric dams near Great Falls. A sixth such dam was considered by Montana Power Co., the former owner of the five dams, in the 1970s and '80s. Dick and Mary Urquhart live south of Carter. They say the proposed dam would flood property they own, where one of the nation's most well-preserved Lewis and Clark campsites is located. The lower portage site, as it's known, is where the expedition began its portage around waterfalls the explorers described as the "great falls" in the Missouri River. "It will be under water and then the public couldn't go down and see it," Mary Urquhart said. The Urquharts also own the land east of Great Falls where t he proposed coal - fired Highwood Generating Station would be located. They wonder whether the proposed power plant is fueling the commission's interest in hydroelectricity. The Chouteau Count y Commission has gone on record as opposing the coal-fired plant. "It's a way to mess with the coal-fired generator," Dick Urquhart said. Commissioner Jim O'Hara said the idea isn't related to the county's opposition to the Highwood plant, adding he wasn't aware of the dam's potential to degrade the Lewis and Clark site. "That could be a deal killer

WWaatteerr (Excerpts) TVA revenues up, net income sinks 42% May 13, 2008, Memphis Business Journal

TVA reported higher operating revenues and power sales for the quarter ended March 31, but net income fell 42%, primarily due to accounting changes. -----. TVA reported a 42 percent drop in net income to $73 million for the quarter, compared to $126 million for the same period in the prior year. ------. Power sales in the second quarter were 45.4 billion kilowatt-hours, or 3.7 percent higher than the same period in the prior year, mainly due to higher sales to industrial and federal customers. -----. Hydroelectric power -- TVA's least expensive form of generation -- was at 44 percent of normal capacity in the second quarter, causing TVA to purchase replacement power or use more expensive forms of generation. "TVA still faces challenges related to fuel, purchased power and reduced hydroelectric generation for the remainder of the year," said TVA president and CEO Tom Kilgore, in a statement. "Drought conditions continue to impact our financial results." TVA is the nation's largest public utility, providing power to large industries and 159 power distributors -- including Memphis Light Gas & Water -- that serve approximately 8.8 million consumers in seven Southeast states.

EEnnvviirroonnmmeenntt (Someone jumped to conclusions.) Oregon: Heat Killed Sea Lions By WILLIAM YARDLEY, May 16, 2008, NY Times

Six sea lions caught in traps at a major dam on the Columbia River died of heat exhaustion, not gunshots, as had earlier been suspected, federal officials said this week. The sea lions, which were found dead on

8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

May 4, feed off salmon and other fish making their way past the Bonneville Dam. They were being trapped as part of a federal and state effort to protect endangered Chinook salmon. Wildlife officials are authorized to permanently remove, and in some cases kill, California sea lions that had been previously tagged for feeding at the dam. One of the six that died was a tagged animal. Officials initially believed that the animals had been shot in the cages but later determined that they died from heat exhaustion. For reasons that remain unclear, gates on the cages, shown covered above, had closed unexpectedly, preventing the sea lions from cooling off in the water.

Klamath dam removal poses serious risks Opinion › Speak Your Piece Marcia H. Armstrong, May 19, 2008, Redding Record Seachlight

The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement is premised on dam removal, which poses significant concerns for communities downriver from the dams. There is an estimated 20 million cubic yards of sediment stored behind the dams. Siskiyou County had a consultant do a preliminary analysis of the sediment studies that had been done. The 2006 Klamath River Dam and Sediment Study was not comprehensive, nor did it detail negative impacts. In fact, it listed a large group of additional studies that would need to be done to develop that information. The American Rivers study did not use the accepted and vetted engineering model for sediment transport, nor did it use available detailed topographic reservoir profiles. The model it did use accounted for sand-sized sediment, when the majority is silt-sized. The study is questionable. The studies done by the California Coastal Conservancy relied on the defective American Rivers study. They failed to take into account that no study had been done on how the flows will carry the sediment.

Dam removal would likely raise the river bed and height of the river. (In the recent decommissioning of Oregon's Marmot Dam with 955,000 cubic yards of stored sediment and erosion of 131,000 cubic yards of sediment, the downstream channel rose 13 feet.) This could inundate adjacent land downriver where there are homes and infrastructure. The fine sediment could also be trapped in gravel spawning beds, requiring a 100-year flood event to return them to a suitable state for salmon. A review of sediment bore samples showed some presence of ethyl-benzene and creosote compounds. Three bore samples taken in each of the reservoirs indicated that the sediment contains dioxin. Two samples were above human health standards. (You can read about that toxin and its carcinogenic health impacts at www.ejnet.org/dioxin.) It is likely that the levels of dioxin could kill the benthic community or bottom ecology of the river and that a large quantity of floating organic toxic waste particles would pollute the mouth of the estuary. The Klamath dam removal proposal would be the largest in the United States and evidence is that there may be significant risks involved. It is evident that the comprehensive scientific studies needed to assess this option to determine the impact on human beings and the environment have not been done. This includes: (1) detailed studies using a well-vetted model of sediment transport and deposition; (2) evaluation of the impact of resultant sediment loads on fisheries habitat; and (3) further evaluation of sediment toxicity. On behalf of the health and welfare of my downriver communities, I call for a halt of further action on the agreement until such analysis has been done. On another note, ratepayers should take note that, according to PacifiCorp, the cost of retrofitting of the dam to accommodate fish bypass can be amortized over 30 years and rate increases spread out over that time. Dam removal, however, is an immediate expense and will be felt up front by the ratepayers. Claims that dam removal is the better option do not pencil out, nor do they withstand scientific scrutiny. Marcia H. Armstrong is a Siskiyou County supervisor for District 5, representing the communities downriver of the dams.

********************************************************************** “Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Casa Lapostolle Alexandre Cabernet 2005

9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

i This compilation of articles and other information is provided at no cost for those interested in hydropower, dams, and water resources issues and development, and should not be used for any commercial or other purpose. Any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

10 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff

i 5/30/2008

Quote of Note: “I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” - -Will Rogers (Good summary of Government’s action on energy)

(Note: Has anyone thought about the fact that all the talk about windmills, solar power, hydropower, nuclear power plants, etc. has nothing to do with the oil price problem? We don’t run cars on electricity “yet” (only 1.6 % of electricity is from oil)! Unless we can produce more oil in the U.S. during the interim while changing to other ways to move cars, the $6.00 gasoline prediction may not be that far-fetched. There is also one dire prediction for $10-$15 gasoline.)

OOtthheerr SSttuuffffff::: (OK, now what do we do to make the energy picture better? If we do everything we can, apparently energy efficiency will meet 25 – 30 % of demand in the next 25 years. Where do we get the other 70-75 %? Maybe, Congress could enact an energy plan?) Energy Efficiency Potential Not Fully Utilized, Despite Success May 20, 2008, facilities.net

U.S. energy consumption (as measured per dollar of economic output) will have been slashed by the end of 2008 to half of what it was in 1970, from 18 thousand BTUs to about 8.9 thousand BTUs, according to a recent study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). However, the report, “The Size of the U.S. Energy Efficiency Market: Generating a More Complete Picture,” concludes that the U.S. is not aware of the role that energy efficiency has played in satisfying the growing energy-service demands; the contributions of efficiency often go unrecognized. The report also notes that although efficiency is a proven resource, it remains underdeveloped.

Key report findings include: - Given the right choices and investments in the cost-effective but underutilized energy-efficient technologies, the U.S. can cost-effectively reduce energy consumption by an additional 25-30 percent or more over the course of the next 20-25 years - Annual investments in energy-efficient technologies currently support 1.6 million U.S. jobs; The $300 billion invested in energy efficiency in 2004 was three times the amount invested in traditional energy infrastructure - Investments in energy-efficient technologies are estimated to have generated approximately 1.7 quads of energy savings in 2004 alone — roughly the equivalent of the energy required to operate 40 mid-sized coal- fired or nuclear power plants - Since 1970 energy efficiency has met about three-fourths of the demand for new energy-related services while conventional energy supply has covered only one-fourth of this demand - Total investments in more energy-efficient technologies could increase the annual energy efficiency

1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

market by nearly $400 billion by 2030, resulting in an annual efficiency market of more than $700 billion and total additional investments over the period 2008-2030 of nearly $7 trillion.

DDaammss (Excerpts) Second contract awarded for Folsom dam safety work 21 May 2008, International Water Power and Dam Construction

The US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) has awarded the second in a series of construction contracts for dam safety modifications at Folsom dam and reservoir. -----. USBR's Safety of Dams (SOD) program is continuing a multi-year construction scheme to perform required safety modifications at Folsom in conjunction with the ongoing Joint Federal Project (JFP). The JFP represents an unprecedented partnership among USBR, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency to address the hydrologic risk to Folsom dam identified through SOD evaluations. Hydrologic risk refers to the possible overtopping of Folsom Reservoir's dams and dikes during an extreme storm event. The JFP will also achieve the USACE's objective of increasing flood control at Folsom to 1/200-year protection.

As part of the SOD program, modifications will be made to Dike 5, an earthen embankment feature located between Dikes 4 and 6 on the north shore of Folsom reservoir, near the intersection of Auburn-Folsom Road and Eureka Road in Granite Bay. The principal work to be performed includes the partial removal of the downstream face of Dike 5 in order to add features such as filters and drains to control internal erosion. The filters and drains will be constructed of high-quality imported materials that will be obtained commercially and brought onsite via trucks. Supplemental material will be excavated from a borrow site within the reservoir bottom close to Dike 5. Site preparation, including trail relocation, development of the contractor use area, and installation of contractor access off Auburn-Folsom Road, will begin this month and continue until approximately 1 September 2008. Principal construction work on Dike 5 is anticipated to begin after this date, with completion expected in spring 2009. Some construction activities will be limited to certain times of the year to maintain dam safety and operational/recreational requirements.

Sali: Proposals to breach dams politicizes science Action will not increase salmon runs, study says Patricia R. McCoy, Capital Press, 5/23/2008

Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, says proposals to breach dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers are nothing but a politicization of science, brought forward to placate extreme environmentalists. Taxpayer-funded studies do not support breaching the dams to increase salmon runs in the Columbia River, Sali told his fellow members of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans during a committee hearing on May 15. "In fact, there are significant environmental impacts if the dams were breached, of which my constituents will bear the brunt," Sali said. "I am disappointed at the tone of this hearing from the outset - intentional commingling of issues to get a desired result. These organizations are frantically trying to take advantage of a crisis situation so they can capitalize on the misfortunes of others," he said.

If three dams are breached, alternative transportation would have to be found to haul freight, Sali said. Due to tight rail capacity, truck transportation would be the primary source available, he said. As of May 15, 1,600 million trip-ton-miles were transported on the Snake River to, or from, Lewiston, Idaho. Moving from barge freight to truck would increase carbon dioxide emissions in the region by up to 65,000 metric tons per year, Sali said. That does not take into consideration safety and economic concerns, with increased congestion on Idaho roads. "More striking, however, is the significant increase in carbon emissions from replacement of the electricity from four hydropower dams. If that energy source was replaced by coal-fired power plants, we would move from a carbon-free power source to one that would emit approximately 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year," he said. "Many assert carbon emissions contribute to climate change and thus to

2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu ocean warming, the same ocean warming that witnesses today testified affect salmon. This sounds counter- productive to me." Sali authored House Concurrent Resolution 184 in 2007 to ask Congress to oppose removing dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers and to recognize the environmental benefits of keeping them in place. (Interesting-The full blog is at: http://historycontroversy.blogspot.com/2008/05/ancient-irrigation-system- withstands.html)

(Excerpt) DUJIANGYAN, China (AFP) - Friday, May 23 Ancient Irrigation System Withstands Earthquake

- High above the world's oldest operating irrigation system, Zhang Shuanggun, a local villager, stands on an observation platform cracked by China's massive earthquake last week. She has a simple answer for why the ancient, bamboo-based Dujiangyan irrigation system sustained only minor damage, while nearby modern dams and their vast amounts of concrete are now under 24-hour watch for signs of collapse. ------. Built from 256 BC, the system involved diverting the Minjiang River's flow using man-made islands built on bamboo frames that allowed water and fish to flow freely underneath. ------.

China quake: 69 dams near collapse May 25th, 2008 posted by admin

BEIJING, China (CNN) — China warned Sunday that dozens of dams were in danger of collapse in Sichuan province following the 7.9-maginitude earthquake that devastated the region earlier this month. The warning came as authorities revised up the death toll from the May 12 disaster to 62,664 with another 23,775 missing and a powerful magnitude 5.8 aftershock hit the area killing at least one person and injuring 400 others. The aftershock — the strongest since another of equal magnitude a day after the quake — was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu, 240 kilometers from the aftershock’s epicenter. China’s water ministry on Sunday warned that 69 dams were close to bursting their banks. It was not immediately clear what the risk presented by the damaged dams presented. Earlier dam scares have seen China mobilize its military to perform emergency engineering work on damaged structures.

Meanwhile, state media reported Sunday that rescue workers had two days earlier pulled an 80-year-old paraplegic man from the rubble of his home, 11 days after he was trapped by the quake. The man, Xiao Zhihu, had been trapped for nearly 266 hours. The beam of Xiao’s house in Mianzhu City collapsed during the quake, trapping him, China’s state-run television CCTV said. The station said Xiao’s wife could not go and call for help. She brought him food, until he was found and freed by rescue crews Friday. Since the quake struck, workers have made several other dramatic rescues. But the numbers have dwindled in recent days as time has passed. China’s central government put the death toll from the quake at 60,560 with another 26,221 people missing and 353,290 injured. The government estimates that 45 million people, mostly in the Sichuan province, were affected by the massive earthquake and that five million were left homeless. On Saturday, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao gave United Nation Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a dramatic look at the damage, taking him to a town near the epicenter. The world will not forget, Ban told Wen, who appealed the U.N. chief to help raise international aid for the region. Wen said no infectious disease outbreaks have developed despite the harsh living conditions for survivors. Wen optimistically predicted that life would return to normal in the quake area in about three months.

Quake damaged dams could burst in China 5/26/2008, Timesnow.tv, AU

Emergency workers called in a helicopter on Monday (May 26), to take vital earth-moving equipment to one of the dams threatening to burst following the earthquake two weeks ago in Sichuan Province of China. Chinese state television broadcast images of a helicopter maneuvering into place to carry a large excavator for repair work on the Tangjiashan dam. CCTV showed the aircraft lowering lines to secure the machine, then whisking it away. Xinhua News Agency says 1,800 soldiers have arrived at the new Tangjiashan Lake in Beichuan County on Monday (May 26), carrying 22 pounds, or 10 kilograms, of explosives each to blast through the debris to defuse the danger of major flooding. The lake is 3.2 kilometres, (two miles) upstream from the main centre in Beichuan County. Thousands of people who remained there after the May 12 earthquake have been evacuated in recent days as a precaution. Officials have said that more than 80 dams may have been fatally weakened by the tremors and aftershocks, many of them big enough to cause serious flooding in the event of a burst.

3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

80,000 evacuated near China dam Troops rush to avert flood in wake of earthquake Associated Press, May 28, 2008, The Baltimore Sun

MIANYANG, China - About 80,000 people were evacuated yesterday from downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam that is threatening to collapse and troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it floods the valley. The threat of flooding from dozens of lakes swelling behind walls of mud and rubble that have plugged narrow valleys in parts of the disaster zone is adding a new worry for millions of survivors. More than 30 villages were emptied, and the people were being sent to camps like the one outside Jiangyou, where an Associated Press reporter saw 12 to 15 people crammed into each of about 40 government-issued tents pitched on a hillside overlooking the river. "We were told that so far it is the safest place for us to stay if the dam of the lake crashes," said Liu Yuhua, whose village of Huangshi was one of those emptied. "But we will have to move farther uphill if the situation turns out to be worse." Troops used explosives yesterday to blow up tree stumps that were hampering heavy-duty excavators that were airlifted by helicopter in recent days to the newly formed Tangjiashan Lake near the town of Beichuan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The magnitude-7.9 quake that struck Sichuan province May 12 sent a mass of dirt and rocks tumbling in the valley about two miles above the town in a spot not reached by roads, plugging a river that is now forming the lake.

Elsewhere in the region, workers also used explosives to level some buildings that were left teetering by the quake - a further sign that officials have stopped rescue and recovery efforts in some places. The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. China's Cabinet said yesterday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed, with 20,790 still missing. Aftershocks continued to rattle the region, causing more damage and injuries and jangling the already-frayed nerves of survivors. Qingchuan County, Xinhua reported. Sixty-three people were injured; six were critically hurt. The U.S. Geological Survey measured a magnitude-5.2 aftershock just after 4 p.m. (4 a.m. EDT) and one measuring 5.7 about a half-hour later. In a live broadcast, state television showed heavy earth-moving equipment being used to carve a 200-yard channel to drain the water from the Tangjiashan Lake. "We are prepared to get rid of the trees by chopping and explosion. After that, the second batch of equipment will be moved in," Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying on CCTV. Downstream, officials rushed to evacuate people in the path of potential flood waters. Xinhua said emergency workers labored into the night to try to get 80,000 people out. Another group of about 80,000 has already been moved out of the valley, it said. At Tangjiashan Lake, hundreds of troops were working around the clock to dig a channel that would divert the rising waters before they breach the top of the rubble wall. Officials fear the loose soil and debris wall could crumble easily if the water starts cascading over the top, and send a torrent flooding down into the valley. The lake now holds 34 billion gallons (104,350 ac. ft.) of water and is rising by more than 3 feet every 24 hours, Xinhua reported.

HHyyddrroo May 23, 2008, Press Release, Washington, DC Statement of the National Hydropower Association on House Passage of H.R. 6049 Linda Church Ciocci, NHA executive director, today issued the following statement: “NHA applauds the House for the leadership it demonstrated this week in approving H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, which contains much needed incentives for new development from hydropower and ocean, tidal and instream hydrokinetic technologies.” “We now urge the Senate to move quickly on the renewable energy tax package. For increased renewable energy production, for growth in green jobs across the county, for a secure energy future – the time to act is now.”

(Well, they lost the case on a technicality – 17 years too late! But, it does sort of seem short- sighted? Oil is now over $130/barrel. The contract for this power was a bargain. The PUCs in

4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu most states are a hindrance to renewables development, and not just hydro. The free market approach doesn’t work for renewables because the PUCs won’t allow long-term amortization which penalizes renewables because of their higher up-front construction costs and rewards non- renewables which have high fuel costs.) Court cuts income for Greenville power dams By DAVID BROOKS, Nashua Telegraph, May 21, 2008

As New Hampshire prepares to embrace programs to encourage alternative energy production, a court case dating from similar moves a quarter-century ago has served as a reminder of how complicated the process can be. “Unfortunately, it sends a negative message about long-term investment in renewable energy resources,” said Thomas Donovan, whose client was on the short end of a recent federal appeals court ruling. Donovan represented the late Jenny Greenwood, widow of Alden Greenwood, whose family owns three small hydropower dams in Greenville on the upper Souhegan River. The The Otis Dam in Greenville (one of three small hydropower ruling from the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, dams) that lost bid to keep receiving higher power rates. released last week, reduces the amount of money paid for the dams’ electricity to the “spot rate” that’s paid to most electricity providers rather than a higher rate agreed to in 1985. It will reduce the Greenwoods’ income by as much as $4.3 million over the next 10 years. The ruling probably won’t have a sweeping effect on the state’s hydropower, because it was based on the fact Alden Greenwood waited 17 years to make his complaint rather than the facts of the case. But as New Hampshire gets ready to deal with far more complicated ways to provide financial incentive for alternative energy, it’s a sobering holdover from the last time the government entered this arena.

The case arose because Alden Greenwood, who died in 2007, was one of many small energy producers who signed up for a 1978 law called PURPA, or the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act. Congress passed this law after the oil embargoes of the 1970s to guarantee good income for little guys generating electricity using non-fossil fuels, hoping they would help wean the country off foreign oil. Greenwood owned three small (150 kilowatt) hydropower dams in and around Greenville. In 1985, he signed a PURPA contract under the oversight of the state Public Utilities Commission, guaranteeing that Public Service of New Hampshire would buy his electricity at rates above market values. Most contracts under PURPA were for 20 years and have expired, but Greenwood signed a 30-year contract, designed to run through 2015. Shortly after he signed the contract, however, oil prices nose-dived rather than continuing to soar, as had expected. As a result, PURPA became extremely expensive to utilities such as PSNH, which found itself paying Greenwood considerably more for electricity than it could get by selling the power to customers. In 1988, the Public Utilities Commission trimmed all 30-year contracts to 20 years. The PUC decided “that was just too far into the future – that last decade is just too speculative, too untethered from reality,” said Donald Kreis, general counsel for the PUC. Greenwood complained, but never completed the appeal process before the PUC, and the issue fell dormant until 2005, when his dams lost their protected rate. Greenwood moved for reconsideration, but in 2006, the state Public Utilities Commission turned him down; he then went to federal court and won.

The PUC took that court decision to the U.S. District Court of Appeals and won. The ruling says in part: “It is inherently unreasonable to permit a producer to wait 17 years to bring a pre-emption challenge to a state rate order.” Donovan said Greenwood’s family hasn’t decided whether to appeal the case further. The PURPA law ended several years ago, but its wean-us-from-oil spirit lives on in two approaches: renewable energy credits (known as “recs”), which require New Hampshire utilities to generate a certain percentage of their power from renewable power, and cap-and-trade agreements under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which provides an indirect spur for more alternative energy by making it more expensive for power plants to produce greenhouse gases. Both recs and RGGI take a different approach from PURPA, which was a classic top-down method in which government regulators determined prices. Instead, they try to use the more flexible power of the free market to move electricity generation away from oil and coal.

Firm renews request for plant Metro Hydroelectric files papers with agency on Gorge park proposal

5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

By Bob Downing, Beacon Journal staff writer, May 23, 2008

The proposal to build a hydroelectric plant on the Cuyahoga River in the Gorge Metro Park on the Akron- Cuyahoga Falls line is still alive. Metro Hydroelectric Co. of Fairlawn filed paperwork with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to renew its permit that gives the company exclusive rights to investigate such a plant at the 57-foot-high Ohio Edison Co. dam. The project is still ''very much alive . . . and is still being pursued,'' company President David C. Sinclair said this week. He declined additional comment. The $4 million project is designed to produce electricity for about 2,000 houses. Many of the organizations and agencies that opposed the project earlier will be filing renewed objections, said Elaine Marsh, a spokeswoman for the Friends of the Crooked River, an Akron grass-roots group devoted to the Cuyahoga River. ''We keep hoping it will just go away,'' she said. ''We can't understand why it doesn't go away. It's just a very bad idea. Only the applicant and FirstEnergy think it's a good idea.'' FirstEnergy of Akron has been supportive of the project and has said it would purchase the electricity produced.

The hydroelectric facility is opposed by Metro Parks, Serving Summit County; Summit County Council; the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency; the Summit Soil & Water Conservation District; the cities of Cuyahoga Falls and Kent; Friends of Metro Parks; American Rivers; American Whitewater; and park districts in Portage and Geauga counties. The Summit park district says such a plant would adversely affect the Gorge park. Spokesman Nate Eppink said the park district and its attorneys are keeping a close eye on what's happening with the project. It had appeared last summer that the project was dead. In a June 14 notice, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission noted that Metro Hydroelectric had been unsuccessful in its federal lawsuit to get access to the park. Because the company was unable to secure access to the park, the commission said, Metro Hydroelectric could not meet the federal timetable for getting an expedited permit. The company's expedited application was terminated, and the commission refused to reconsider the termination. That decision then was appealed to a federal court in Washington, D.C. Metro Parks, Serving Summit County had blocked the hydroelectric company from having access to the Gorge park. The company won access to the park from Judge John Adams in U.S. District Court, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati then blocked that access. A final decision from the appeals court is expected soon. The company contends it has a valid right to use the existing dam and parkland because of easements granted in 1929 to Ohio Edison. Metro Hydroelectric Co.'s three-year federal permit for the project expired in March and the company then filed its renewal request. A legal notice for the renewal ran late last week. The federal agency is accepting public comment on the request until June 8. The proposal to build a hydroelectric plant on the Cuyahoga River in the Gorge Metro Park on the Akron-Cuyahoga Falls line is still alive. Metro Hydroelectric Co. of Fairlawn filed paperwork with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to renew its permit that gives the company exclusive rights to investigate such a plant at the 57- foot-high Ohio Edison Co. dam. The project is still ''very much alive . . . and is still being pursued,'' company President David C. Sinclair said this week. He declined additional comment. The $4 million project is designed to produce electricity for about 2,000 houses. Many of the organizations and agencies that opposed the project earlier will be filing renewed objections, said Elaine Marsh, a spokeswoman for the Friends of the Crooked River, an Akron grass-roots group devoted to the Cuyahoga River. ''We keep hoping it will just go away,'' she said. ''We can't understand why it doesn't go away. It's just a very bad idea. Only the applicant and FirstEnergy think it's a good idea.'' FirstEnergy of Akron has been supportive of the project and has said it would purchase the electricity produced.

Hydroelectric Hopes 24 May 2008, By Dave DeWitte, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

May 24--N ORTH LIBERTY -- On a spring day when Coralville Lake levels are high and the tailwaters of the reservoir dam are a churning, raging torrent, it's easy to believe in Ken Bickner's dream. The civil engineer and his Iowa City-based company, Midriver Power LLC, envision the current of waters passing through the dam's overflow conduit producing another kind of current -- electricity -- that is now made in Iowa mainly by burning coal transported by rail from Wyoming's Powder River Basin. The potential of hydroelectric power has largely been bypassed in Iowa's green power renaissance, which includes ample quantities of wind power, biofuels and even electrical generation from switch grass. No place is that more apparent than at Coralville Lake. The water flows are usually ample, and the drop is an impressive 32 feet. "This is the best place in Iowa other than the Mississippi because of the flow rate and the fall," said Bickner, who used to work as a civil engineer in Cedar Rapids' water and sewer operations. Demand for renewable power has spawned a surge in permit filings for hydroelectric installations on dams maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, said Jim Bartek, hydropower coordinator for the Corps' Rock Island District, which oversees Coralville Lake. "We've got just about every site in our district permitted, with somebody or other assessing

6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu the feasibility of hydro," Bartek said. Bartek helps developers with the information they need to obtain permits.

While he's helped quite a few developers to that stage, none of them has been able to make a hydroelectric project happen. "They just don't seem to be economically feasible," Bartek said. Potential obstacles could be finding buyers for the power output, which would vary with the flow of the river, or the initial cost of installing hydroelectric generators, he said. At the Coralville Lake dam, Bickner says, seven previous applicants have gained permits to develop a hydroelectric generation facility. Bickner decided to pursue the permits anyway, gaining preliminary approval this spring from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. His next steps will be getting permits from the Corps of Engineers to construct the hydroelectric facility, completing the financial projections and finding investors to back the project financially. Previous developers who pursued the Coralville site seemed to be waiting for better government incentives to make it more feasible, Bickner said. Midriver's approach is to "use good design to make it more cost-efficient," he said. The preliminary permit from the energy regulatory commission calls for twin generators with a combined capacity of 5.7 megawatts in two 70-foot-long, 180-inchdiameter structures on the reservoir side of the existing conduit. The project would generate on average around 3,000 kilowatts of electricity, much less than the rated capacity, because of the highly variable flow rate of the dam, Bickner said.

China to review hydropower projects after quake May 25, 2008, Reuters UK, (Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Lucy Hornby; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Sunday it will review the 13 planned hydropower projects in the country's southwest after the massive May 12 quake, but expects no big change to the plans. "We are going to review these projects from the geological conditions and environmental impact after the quake. But we foresee no big change to the plans," Liu Ning, chief engineer of Ministry of Water Resources a news conference. The southwest, including Sichuan province worst hit by the May 12 earthquake, is the country's hydropower base. Hydropower supplies more than one tenth of China's electricity needs. The 7.9-magnitude tremor that hammered Sichuan nearly two weeks ago damaged 27 out of the 29 power stations along Min River and knocked out 4.4 Gigawatts of power supply shortly after. China has quickly restored most of the lost power supply, including the main Zipingpu power plant on the Min River, with its four generators resumed normal operations, E Jingping, Vice Minister of Water Resources told a news conference.

Rising prices renew interest in river power May 26, 2008, By STEVEN ROSS JOHNSON, CourierNewsOnline.com

ELGIN -- As the price of energy around the world continues to rise, so too has interest grown in using a power source from the past to help meet the city's future power needs. Elgin City Councilman Dave Kaptain and retired local businessman Chuck Emmert have been discussing the possibility of bringing back the use of hydroelectric power along the Fox River, with the installation of a turbine generator at the Kimball Street dam. Used from the early 1800s up to around the mid-1900s to power Elgin's industry, hydroelectric power had become something of an outdated concept when cheaper and more-reliable alternatives became present. "Almost all the dams on the Fox River were built as hydroelectric dams," Kaptain said. "They were not made as flood-control dams. They were power dams for the communities." About a year ago, Kaptain said, officials from the office of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn's office targeted Elgin's dam for removal because of environmental concerns. He said the state backed off that plan once city officials explained the dam's importance in providing the city's water. "Our dam is responsible for holding the water back for our drinking- water supply," he said. With the rising costs of fossil fuels, Kaptain said, what was viewed less than 10 years ago as a money-loser might now be used as a cost-effective means of supplying energy for some of downtown's biggest electricity gobblers. "It's something that we certainly could look at," he said. "It's a possibility that they could offer enough power to help power the library (Gail Borden Public Library), maybe the rec center (The Centre of Elgin) and in areas close by down there." The idea has prompted Kaptain to include it among a list of items he plans to recommend to a special committee charged with overseeing the formation of a citywide "green" master plan. "If it's (the dam) going to be here, why can't we use it?" He said. "Let's take a look and see if it's feasible to do that and if it's cost effective."

Differing studies The question of whether hydroelectricity makes good economic sense has been raised before in recent years. A 2004 study found hydroelectricity not economically feasible at the time, according to city water department Superintendent Kyla Jacobsen. "One of the reasons why hydroelectric power is such a good idea is because of the drop of head," she said. The term "head" refers to the difference in elevation between the water behind the dam and the water below the dam. The more the water drops, the greater the pressure as the water pushes its way through the turbines that power generators. "If we had a 20-foot drop, there

7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

would be a lot of head that would be behind the water that really would be economical for us to drive turbines," Jacobsen said. "But the elevation change is very minimal." However, according to a 2006 report by an engineering and marketing team from the Illinois Institute of Technology, a generator could pay for itself in five to 10 years, based on current electricity prices. "We figured, depending on the size of the hydroelectric unit installed, it could produce around 800 kilowatts," said Dr. Mohammad Shahidehpour, an IIT instructor involved with the study. "It's substantial for a small unit and a small river like that." One problem is where to put such a generator and turbine, plus the raceway or pipes taking water to it. The east shore next to the Kimball dam is covered with the Pioneer Memorial and a scenic overlook. The west side has a steep bank and Metra railroad tracks at the top of it. However, Emmert said it might be possible to pipe water under or around the scenic overlook on the east side and install the machinery somewhere out of the way. Like Kaptain, Shahidehpour believes the best use of a generator would be in supplying energy to nearby facilities. "If there is a building, or several buildings nearby, then this unit could supply power to those facilities for the purpose of sustainability," he said.

Seeking best investment Elgin Mayor Ed Schock said he is open to taking another look at a hydroelectricity project, but he contends that the city should do so while also examining an array of alternative energy sources. "We're always open to ways of reducing energy costs or looking at a variety of energy needs," he said. "It's a complex issue that I think won't be solved in the short-term." Schock said that, in the end, it will come down to what provides the best return for the limited amount the city has to invest. "You have to know what your investment would be, and you have to weigh the benefit versus the cost," he said. "For example, maybe solar panels at The Centre would be a better alternative than investing in a hydroelectric dam -- you might have less investment and get better return. "Yes, an electric dam would produce energy there, but the question is where do you get the best bang for your dollar."

WWaatteerr (Articles on flooding would be a little more informative if there was information on what the flood levels would be without the reservoirs.) Dams ready to spill over By DAVE BUCHANAN, The Daily Sentinel, May 21, 2008

When this year’s runoff in the Gunnison Basin was delayed by cool temperatures, water managers started eyeing their calendars. Even as late as last week some high-mountain areas were receiving snow, adding to a snowpack that crept to the highest levels in Gunnison since measurements started in 1915. But a high pressure system swept into the state over the weekend, bringing mid-summer temperatures across the Western Slope, and rivers that were slumbering through runoff suddenly roared to life. Blue Mesa Reservoir, the 29-mile long impoundment that tops the Aspinall Unit of dams, is the critical key in controlling the torrent of snowmelt pouring out of the high country. “Things are starting to happen,” said Dan Crabtree, lead hydrologist of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Grand Junction office, during a conversation Monday. His office is charged with balancing water levels in the three Aspinall Unit dams — Blue Mesa, Morrow Point and Crystal, and he said a May 15 runoff forecast predicted the April through July inflows to Blue Mesa at 40,000 acre-feet greater than previously estimated. “Right now we’re looking at 1.1 million acre-feet, which is 153 percent of average,” Crabtree said. That’s more than Blue Mesa can hold, which means some of that water has to go downstream. Soon.

Flows in the lower Gunnison Basin were expected to peak Wednesday or today, he said in an e-mail Wednesday. “We feel confident that now is a good time to begin ramping up (releases) from the Aspinall Unit reservoirs,” Crabtree said. The ramping (controlled, gradual increases in flows) will be timed to avoid flooding in Delta by matching the downside of the runoff in the North Fork of the Gunnison. By the time the ramping is done, which might be Saturday or Sunday, there will be 6,000 to 7,000 cubic feet per second ripping through the Black Canyon and the Gunnison Gorge. By Wednesday afternoon, flows had increased to 4,250 cfs. To reach that level, the bureau will open the bypass tubes and produce maximum power generation at Blue Mesa and Morrow Point dams. That will send 6,500 cfs of water into Crystal Reservoir,

8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

and because that dam only can release 4,150 cfs through its bypass tubes and power plant, the rest will have to go over the top. “Crystal Reservoir is at a level at which it will begin spilling today,” Crabtree said, announcing an event that last occurred in 1997. Flows will increase by 800 cfs per day through Saturday. Anglers have eagerly awaited the spill, seeking to flush the river of some of the sediment that’s accumulated over the last decade. “We’re excited about the opportunity to improve the overall health of the river,” said Pat Oglesby of the Grand Valley Anglers Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Federation of Fly Fishers. “We’re also grateful for the cooperation of the Bureau of Reclamation.” Crabtree said the spill is scheduled to go through May 31, but that could change depending on weather, water conditions at Delta and side inflows. The bureau is monitoring several main tributaries, including the Cimarron River, Crystal Creek and the Smith Fork, which is downstream of the dams but contributes to the water reaching Delta. “Every effort is being made to minimize flooding at Delta,” Crabtree said. “It’s supposed to cool off this week, so that will affect runoff.” People curious about the spill won’t have easy access to Crystal Dam. The East Portal Road is open only to the campground and the diversion dam along the Gunnison River. The road to the base of Crystal remains closed to vehicles following a huge rockfall this spring. It’s a 1.8-mile jaunt from the parking lot to the locked gate near the dam.

EEnnvviirroonnmmeenntt (The media in most cases are the unqualified parties! The FERC Chairman was too kind.) Inaccurate assertions on FERC's role in Lake Powell pipeline By Joseph T. Kelliher, 05/21/2008, The Salt Lake City Tribune

The Tribune's May 12 Lake Powell Pipeline Project editorial, "FERC Unqualified: Pipeline plan needs thorough environmental study," completely overlooks facts and makes frequent inaccurate assertions regarding more than 90 years of regulatory and environmental expertise at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Overlooked fact: Hydropower regulation is the oldest area of jurisdiction for FERC and its predecessor agency, the Federal Power Commission, dating back to 1920. FERC regulates more than 1,600 hydroelectric projects at more than 2,500 dams throughout the United States. These projects represent 54 Gigawatts of hydroelectric capacity, more than half of all U.S. hydropower. The project, including the Lake Powell Hydroelectric System, is now in what is called the "pre-filing" stage. In this stage the applicant works with FERC, other federal agencies, state agencies, tribes and other stakeholders to identify issues and study needs, perform the studies, and prepare an application.

Overlooked fact: The environmental review for the Lake Powell Project will be handled like all others before it. It will involve cooperation with federal and state agencies and provide extensive opportunities for public involvement throughout the process. Our first round of public meetings will be June 10, 11 and 12 in three cities in Utah. Inaccurate assertion: "FERC has little knowledge" of environmental assessments and their reviews of an area's geology, both surface water and groundwater, fish and wildlife, recreation, aesthetics, archaeology and economics. Indeed, what FERC offers in this area is just the opposite. FERC staff dedicated to working on the environmental review of the Lake Powell Project consists of engineers, wildlife biologists, fishery biologists, anthropologists, a geotechnical engineer, economists and water resource specialists, many of whom hold doctorates in their fields. Their average length of experience is 22 years. And over the past five years, FERC has prepared 1,200 environmental documents for hydroelectric projects and natural gas pipelines. Clearly, FERC possesses the experience and expertise to conduct an environmental review of the Lake Powell Pipeline Project. Inaccurate assertion: "Even FERC admits it is qualified only to approve the several power stations along the pipeline route." No one at FERC has ever made such a statement. Our agency is considering those portions of the project under its legal jurisdiction and will cooperate with those agencies that have jurisdiction for the remaining portions. We will do this in a fair and deliberate manner. We always have done so. We always will. Inaccurate assertion: "FERC does not have the expertise in water projects to oversee a comprehensive environmental study that looks at all possible alternatives for the pipeline, including not building it." FERC's environmental review team is solid and highly qualified as discussed above. FERC routinely balances power and nonpower needs of all parties in our proceedings and evaluates the no action alternative, which in this case is "not build the project." This is a legal requirement.

9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

I am proud to say that FERC is leading this effort. We look forward to working with all stakeholders throughout this process. This is an open and public process and FERC, without a doubt, has the experience to get the job done. --- * JOSEPH T. KELLIHER is the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. On agency cooperation: We will do this in a fair and deliberate manner. We always have done so. We always will.

********************************************************************** “Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay 2005 i This compilation of articles and other information is provided at no cost for those interested in hydropower, dams, and water resources issues and development, and should not be used for any commercial or other purpose. Any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

10 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu