9/03/2010

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss aanndd OOtthheerr SSttuuffff i

Quote of Note: “The best social program is a good job." -- Bill Clinton

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Root: 1, Colchagua Valley Chile, 2008 “No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.” - - Thomas Jefferson

Other Stuff: (Energy use down, energy efficiency down = economy down! The article forgot to mention that hydro is 2.68 Quads or almost 4 times the wind energy output! The article also conveniently forgets to mention that you need backup power for wind and that’s usually natural gas, so some of the so-called savings in coal generation is made up by natural gas generation.) Check Out the Best Energy Use Chart Ever, 2009 Edition GOOD Blog > Andrew Price on August 24, 2010, http://www.good.is/post/check-out-the-best-energy-use-chart-ever-2009- edition/ (Too enlarge chart, click and drag a corner)

See larger version attached

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

Every year, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produces the U.S. Energy flow chart. The designers at the other end of my desk could probably improve on the color scheme, but it is still the best single chart for understanding energy use in the United States. The 2009 edition was just released. It's above, and you can get a big, legible version here. On the left you have all the primary sources for the energy we use, by percent. Flowing from left to right, the chart shows how the energy these sources create gets used. The "rejected energy," by the way, refers to energy that's lost and not used, like energy released as waste heat from a power plant. It may look like we're not using very much renewable energy, but comparing this year to last year reveals some positive trends. Total energy use fell again and coal, as a percentage of energy production sources, dropped to 19.76 percent, down from 22.42 percent last year. • Energy use in the residential, commercial, industrial and transportation arenas all declined by .22, .09, 2.16 and .88 quads, respectively. • Wind power increased dramatically in 2009 to.70 quads of primary energy compared to .51 in 2008. Most of that energy is tied directly to electricity generation and thus helps decrease the use of coal for electricity production. Another interesting thing to note here is just how much rejected energy there is. If there's room to improve the country's energy efficiency, which currently stands at an unimpressive 42.48 percent, we wouldn't have to produce nearly as much in the first place.

(2nd time for this one) The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy: Achieving Energy Independence through Solar, Wind, Biomass and Hydropower (Mother Earth News Wiser Living) [Paperback], Dan Chiras (Author)

Dams (Nothing like being on the wrong page. Why does an organization like Consumer Advocate Inc. think that the USBR has been asleep for 33 years???) Reclamation: Dam safety not at issue SDS critics cite a 1977 safety report; bureau says problems fixed. By CHRIS WOODKA | August 24, 2010 | chieftain.com

Pueblo Dam remains safe under its current level of operation, the Bureau of Reclamation says. “The dam is checked every year by civil engineers, hydrologists and geologists, and is continuously monitored,” said Roy Vaughan, manager of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. “There are 150 points of measurable data.” Vaughan made his report to the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District last week following some media reports in the past few weeks that aired concerns about the safety of Pueblo Dam. A group called Consumer Advocate Inc., run by Michael Satterfield, raised questions of the dam’s safety based on a 1977 report by W.A. Wahler. The report found safety flaws in the dam just two years after it was completed. In an open letter in the Colorado Springs Gazette earlier this month, Satterfield wrote: “It has gone on to become one of the most safety modified dams in the country. Several of the problems cannot be fixed by additional engineering. Wahler’s report states that the soil under the dam is unstable and undermines the stability of the dam itself.” The same report has been cited by Colorado Springs Councilman Tom Gallagher in his claims that Pueblo Dam cannot be operated for its designated purposes, much less for the proposed Southern Delivery System, which Gallagher opposes. Those comments brought sharp rebukes from Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera and SDS program director John Fredell.

“Since the Wahler report you cited, written in 1977, the safety of dam program was officially implemented in 1978 with the passage of the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act and several technological updates have been made on Pueblo Dam,” Fredell wrote in a letter to Satterfield. Fredell goes on to say that SDS — a 50-mile pipeline serving Colorado Springs, Security, Fountain and Pueblo West — would actually lower Lake Pueblo levels by an average of 6 feet, according to the environmental impact statement prepared by the bureau. Reclamation has updated its publication, “Safe Then; Safe Now, a Summary of Pueblo Dam’s history.” It 2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu addresses the Wahler report, saying that two terms in the report have been “widely misused and misunderstood.” The Wahler report calls Pueblo Dam a “high hazard dam” and talks about “seepage.” Reclamation responded: • “‘High hazard dam’ is a classification term used in reference to dams located above populated areas, such as Pueblo, and does not indicate anything about a dam’s overall performance. • “‘Seepage’ describes the water that moves through all dams. Pueblo Dam has features to control and collect the seepage in a safe manner and equipment that monitors seepage through the structure.” In a 2000 updated study on the safety of dams, Reclamation concluded that 17,000 Puebloans could be at risk if Pueblo Dam were to fail. The scenario would involve a “probable maximum flood” that would be many times greater than the largest recorded flood on the Arkansas River in 1921. Since 1977, several improvements have been made on the dam, Reclamation said. In 1981, a stability berm was added to the base of the northern earthen embankment. In 1998, drain pipes were installed downstream of the north embankment to collect and monitor seepage that occurs at high water elevations. In 1998-99, Reclamation added a massive concrete “door stop” in the stilling basin and tied the foundation of Pueblo Dam into underlying rock with long metal rock bolts to prevent possible slippage of the concrete buttresses in the middle of the dam. The Reclamation report also notes that the full capacity of the dam, almost 350,000 acre- feet, is not used in order to provide flood protection for Pueblo. From April 15-Oct. 30, 93,000 acre-feet of space is available for flood control, and water levels in the dam have to be adjusted in spring if they are too high to maintain that cushion.

Work starts soon to fix leaky Idaho dam August 24, 2010, spokesman.com

OROFINO, Idaho — An engineering firm will begin work soon to repair leaks at north-central Idaho’s Dworshak Dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has hired Jacobs Engineering of Seattle to inject urethane in joints between some of the huge concrete blocks that make up the dam. The Lewiston Tribune reports that water stops between six of the 51 concrete monoliths that make up the dam are leaking badly. Engineers say the leaks don’t threaten the structural integrity of the dam, but they do make it more difficult for officials to monitor water slipping beneath the structure. Water leaking under a dam can cause tremendous uplift pressure that can, in extreme cases, undermine the safety of the structure. The engineering firm will start with just two of the leaky water stops. If the fix is successful, corps officials will seek funding to inject urethane into other leaking joints. Cash for the $1.3 million job comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“This is a world-class engineering effort. This is the first time in the world we know of this material has been used on a high-head dam,” said Allan Pomraning, dam safety project manager for the Walla Walla District. Work will begin in September, Pomraning said. “The whole idea is to get the worst of the worst,” he said. The urethane works by soaking up water and then expanding to seal the joints. The expansion process takes about a month. The corps is also working on a $1.9 million project to install additional instruments at the dam to measure uplift pressure and stress on cracks in the concrete. That money also comes from the federal stimulus package. Both contracts are part of the risk reduction measures outlined by the corps two years ago when it released a dam safety assessment for Dworshak. That assessment rated Dworshak a 2 on a scale of 1 to 4. A 2 classification indicates the dam is “unsafe or potentially unsafe.” Still, corps officials say despite the rating Dworshak Dam is safe, and that it received the low score not because there is a real threat of failure but because if it were to fail, the loss of human life and property would be high.

(The END!) Contract to remove Elwha dams goes to Montana firm The National Park Service has signed a $27 million contract with a Bozeman, Mont., company to take out the two dams on the Elwha River in the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history. By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times staff reporter, seattletimes.nwsource.com

After decades of talking about it, the feds finally signed a contract Thursday to take down two dams on the Elwha River in the largest such project ever in North America. The goal is to restore the Elwha River ecosystem, especially its fabled salmon fisheries, choked off by two dams for nearly a century. The takedown of the dams will take about three years to complete. The first concrete will come out of the dams beginning just about a year from now, in September 2011. "Oh mercy, I am so certainly happy to hear that," said Adeline Smith, 92, an elder of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, when told over the phone of the news. Recovery of fish runs is expected to be gradual, building over about 30 years. "It probably won't be in my time; it takes years for it to come back," Smith said. "But I will be happy to see our grandchildren and their

3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu children's children see the fish come up, and the wildlife, and everything around the river will come back, which makes me happy."

The National Park Service signed the $27 million contract with Barnard Construction of Bozeman. The total project cost is $351 million, including a new hatchery and flood- protection levees on the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe's reservation, and a new water system for the city of Port Angeles for drinking water and industrial supply — projects already completed or under way. "We have turned the corner and are heading down the homestretch," said Karen Gustin, superintendent of Olympic National Park. "I feel very humbled to be here right now; a lot of people have done a lot of work who are no longer here. You ... don't have many opportunities in your career to be involved in a project like this." The 108- foot-high Elwha Dam five miles from the river's mouth was completed in 1913. The 210-foot-high Glines Canyon Dam 13 miles upriver was completed in 1927. The two dams were built to generate electricity to spur economic development of the Olympic Peninsula, especially the pulp-mill industry just then taking hold in Port Angeles. For many years the dams powered the pulp mill that still runs at the foot of the Ediz Hook and today produces the soft paper used for telephone books. Both dams are still producing power, but today the mill buys its power from the Bonneville Power Administration.

It was the Elwha Klallam Tribe that first pushed for dam removal, back in the 1980s, when the license for the upper dam was up for renewal by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The lower dam was never licensed and was built despite laws even then against blocking fish passage without providing a fish ladder. The developer of the dam, Thomas Aldwell, struck a deal with state fisheries officials to substitute a hatchery for fish passage. The hatchery sputtered along for a few years before failing for good. But the dam remained, without fish passage. Over time, the entire Elwha ecosystem has been affected, from the beaches, starved for sediment, to the river, devoid of salmon or steelhead above the lowest dam, to the uplands, deprived of the nutrients salmon bring back to the land with their return to spawning gravel. Removal of the dams will be gradual, in order to contend with some 18 million cubic yards of sediment backed up behind the dams. Contractors will begin cutting a pilot channel in a delta of sediment above the upper dam next week, in a first step toward removing the structures.

Before the dams, Chinook salmon returning to the Elwha reached enormous size, even as much as 100 pounds. Descendants of those fish persist today, as a distinct run of fall chinook, unique in Puget Sound. The Elwha was once home to all five species of salmon and steelhead. With three-quarters of the Elwha watershed within the intact habitat of Olympic National Park, it's expected that salmon and steelhead will vigorously recolonize some 70 miles of the river and its many side channels and tributaries. Smith remembers sitting by the river as a child with her relatives on summer evenings, watching the fish go up. "We always sat by the river, we had a couple of chairs, and after everybody got through with supper if it was a nice day they would go down to the river and watch the fish go by. You couldn't cross a stream without stepping on a fish, they were that thick." Her nephew used to pick the fish up by the tails, and to a child, the big fish were a wonder. "We used to hear them flipping around when they were jumping. They were taller than I was. It was nothing to get a 55-pounder," Smith said. "Oh, it just makes my mouth water to think of all the good fish we used to have."

Madison Dam damaged by loose boulder kxlf.com, Aug 30, 2010

A boulder broke loose and fell on Madison Dam near Ennis Monday, causing a small oil spill and impacting river levels. PPL Montana reports in a news release that no one was injured and the facility is in stable condition. "We've taken immediate action to start an emergency drawdown of Ennis Lake so we can identify where repairs need to be made and reduce pressure on the dam. There is leakage around the boulder in the spill gate section on the west side of the dam," said David Hoffman, director of External Affairs for PPL Montana. The damage is causing river flows downstream of the Madison Dam to run about 2,000 cubic feet per second, which is about 500 cubic feet per second more than

4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu before the event. "The lake will be lowered by about 9 feet, which will affect boat docks and public launch sites along the lake," he said. "We apologize for this inconvenience to our neighbors at Madison Dam, but the drawdown is required to make repairs to the dam." PPL Montana engineers have inspected the dam and will develop plans to remove the boulder and make repairs, Hoffman said. Spill gates damaged by the falling boulder cannot be opened, but three undamaged spill gates are functioning. The hydroelectric plant continues to generate electricity. Booms have been deployed in the Madison River to capture a small amount of oil - about 15 to 20 gallons - that spilled into the Madison River when the boulder severed a hydraulic line. No additional oil is leaking into the river. Flashboards were also damaged as a result of the falling boulder. Madison Dam is a four-unit hydroelectric plant on the Madison River at the head of Bear Trap Canyon, about 10 miles north of Ennis.

Hydro (A little bit here, a little bit there, first thing you know there will be some real hydro development. How about supporting all hydro?) Nevada rebates support small hydropower installations By James Cartledge, 8/24/10, brighterenergy.org

A 93-kilowatt hydroelectric project in Nevada has received a $232,500 rebate from power company NV Energy to help with construction costs. The Home Ranch facility is being developed at the Young Brothers Ranch in the Big Smoky Valley, about 17 miles south of Austin, in central Nevada. The project involves a 10-inch diameter steel pipe, which brings water from the Santa Fe and Shoshone creeks in the Toiyabe Mountain Range above the ranch down to a powerhouse. Ralph Young, one of the owners of the ranch, said the facility should save $5,000 to $7,000 per month in electricity costs. The funding for the Home Ranch project was the first rebate from NV Energy’s HydroGenerations program, which is part of the utility’s RenewableGenerations rebate program aiming to encourage agricultural businesses in Nevada to invest in small solar, wind and hydropower projects. Two more hydroelectric projects supported by the HydroGenerations program are expected to begin construction soon, including a 175kW project at the Young Brothers Ranch, and a 225kW installation at another Big Smoky Valley ranch in Nye County. Nevada Controls LLC of Carson City is the contractor for all three projects, with construction scheduled for the fall. Rebates on the HydroGenerations program support up to 200kW of capacity per project.

Dam's future in city's hands By DIANE LEDERMAN, August 25, 2010, masslive.com

NORTHAMPTON - Mayor Mary Clare Higgins wants people here to have a lot more information before the city takes a stand on the future of the Upper Roberts Meadow dam. The mayor recently sent a letter to those lobbying to save the dam, outlining plans to bring in an outside engineering company to review two previous reports about cost as well as hydropower resources that the dam could produce. The city's Department of Public Works wants to take down the upper dam, a $1 million project, and repair estimates are about $1.8 million. The Friends of the Upper Roberts Meadow and Chesterfield Road Dam, which wants to save it, needs to come up with the difference in cost and enough money to maintain the dam for 50 years. Higgins sent a letter to the friends group telling them that she has asked energy and sustainability officer Christopher S. Mason to contract with an outside engineering company to review the work by both Essex Partnership and GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc., which has looked at how much hydropower the dam could produce. A report from Essex showed that $20,000 in power could be produced at the site. GZA had a similar power estimate, but not dollar value as well, according to the letter. She also wants other financial questions answered.

Higgins wrote that there are also questions about the safety of the dam. With hydropower at the site, jurisdiction would be transferred to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which has some of the most stringent regulations in the world, she wrote. Joseph P. Misterka, a friends group board member, does not know where the $1.8 million repair cost is coming from because earlier estimates had repairs just slightly more than the razing of the dam. "I certainly welcome having a third party look at it," he said of the mayor's intention. "We are interested in getting all the facts out, and that helps us to do that." He said he wants to ensure that all the numbers are considered and he believes that there is money available to help the friends 5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu group pay the difference between the costs of razing and repairing the dam. "Obviously, we all want to work with the correct information," he said. Higgins said she hopes that evaluation process could be completed by the middle of September.

(One step for hydro, one giant step for small hydro) (Excerpts - http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100825005948/en) Ritter, feds agree to speed up permits for hydropower. The Denver Post, 08/26/2010

Gov. Bill Ritter signed an agreement Wednesday with the federal government that will make it easier to develop small hydropower projects. The agreement allows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Colorado to streamline the permitting process, reducing the time and money required to develop a project. Surveys have found that Colorado has several hundred sites with a potential of 5 megawatts or less, with a combined generating capacity of more than 1,400 megawatts.

United States Department of Energy Selects Princeton Power Systems to Develop Converter for Hydropower Applications August 25, 2010, businesswire.com

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Princeton Power Systems (PPS) was awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract from the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science to develop an advanced power conversion system for commercial tidal, wave, and related hydropower applications. Using a high-power (1.5MW) converter design and silicon carbide (Sic) semiconductor switches, enabled by PPS’ patented AC-link™ circuit topology, will allow for a much higher power-density as well as a direct connection to 12 kV or higher power lines without using a transformer. This will drastically reduce the space and logistic requirements for the power electronics in tidal, wave, and other hydropower systems. Furthermore, the converter will increase the efficiency of transmitting power onshore and interconnecting with the utility grid. Ultimately, this system will reduce the cost of ocean and hydropower sources, while making them more efficient and more compatible with the existing electric grid. Darren Hammell, Executive Vice President of Business Development, stated, “We are excited to expand the use of our technologies to the rapidly growing sector of grid-connected hydropower applications. Our history of providing rugged components for Navy applications will ensure that our designs can endure the unique environmental requirements of these systems.” Wave, tidal, and other hydropower generation systems are clean, non-polluting energy generation sources that have the potential to displace large amounts of polluting, non-renewable power plants. ------.

(Excerpts) - (No - Harrison Ford didn’t jump from a dam in Chicago where the movie supposedly took place – it was in NC. Hydro folks were the only ones who recognized the dam.) Alcoa Kicks-Off Cheoah Dam Modernization Project New Generators, Turbines, Transformers to Increase Efficiency

ROBBINSVILLE, N.C., Aug 27, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Alcoa ------today kicked off a $110 million modernization project at Cheoah Dam, one of four hydroelectric dams that make up Alcoa Power Generating Inc.'s Tapoco Project. The modernization effort will increase the dam's efficiency and energy output and increase the life of the dam by at least another 40-50 years. "Hydropower is clean, renewable, reliable and efficient," said Rick Bowen, Alcoa Energy President. "These attributes equal sustainability -- sustainable energy and sustainable jobs. That's why we are looking forward to replacing the four 90-year-old Francis turbines with four new high-efficiency turbines, generators, and transformers which will provide an additional 22 megawatts of generating capacity at APGI's Tapoco Cheoah plant."

Alcoa Energy is a global producer, controlling nearly 3,000 megawatts of generating capacity to provide for the energy needs of Alcoa's worldwide smelting and refining system as well as the needs of regional wholesale markets. The business includes Alcoa Power Generating Inc., which owns and manages the 360- megawatt Tapoco system. "Alcoa Energy is pleased to be actively improving our green energy assets to increase our energy self-sufficiency. It is an added advantage that our reservoirs offer a variety of recreational opportunities and provide important habitat for plants, fish and wildlife," Bowen said. The modernization project was given a jump start when the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would award Alcoa a $12.95 million grant as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grant was issued by DOE's Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program. Jacques Beaudry-Losique, Wind & Water Program Manager for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, joined Bowen at the kick-off ceremony. "Upgrades like the ones planned for Cheoah Dam represent significant opportunities 6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu to make environmentally sound hydropower even more cost-effective. This project will boost four turbines' generating capacity by 28%, and serves as a terrific example of how the Recovery Act can expand clean energy while putting people to work," Beaudry-Losique said. When announcing the grant last year, DOE Secretary Steven Chu said, "One of the best opportunities we have to increase our supply of clean energy is by bringing our hydropower systems into the 21st Century. With this investment, we can create jobs, help our environment and give more renewable power to our economy without building a single new dam."

DOE sought cost-shared projects that upgrade existing hydropower facilities without requiring significant civil works modifications to dams, allowing for them to be developed quickly to help create jobs and stimulate the economy. The first phase of the modernization project will include the upgrade of two of the dam's five power generation units. Specifically, first phase objectives for this DOE cost-shared project are to purchase four new high-efficiency turbines, generators, and transformers, upgrade the balance of plant equipment, and complete installation of two units. Another two units will be upgraded during phase two of the project and will increase Cheoah's total capacity to 140 MW and add 40 to 50 years of expected useful life to the facility without requiring any modifications to the dam and without any significant regulatory delay. In total the site has 5 units. Unit 5 was built in 1949 and the generator was rebuilt in 1995. Unit 5 is a 30MW unit and does not require replacement. "I am honored to be able to congratulate Alcoa and help announce a major modernization of the Cheoah Dam, which has provided hundreds of job opportunities and enormous amounts of clean energy throughout its 100-year history," said Rep. Heath Shuler (D-North Carolina). "The $110 million investment Alcoa is making to ensure the success of this project underlines the tremendous impact the Dam has had, and will continue to have, on economic prosperity throughout Western North Carolina." The modernization follows the recent relicensing of the Tapoco project by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The new 40-year license was effective March 1, 2005 and outlines protection, mitigation, and enhancement measures for the Project that address ecological resources as well as other beneficial uses of the Cheoah and Little Tennessee Rivers, including hydropower generation, watershed protection, endangered species enhancement, fish passage and recreational opportunities. Construction began on Cheoah Dam in 1916 and was completed in 1919. At the time of completion, Cheoah was the world's highest overflow dam at 225 feet. The dam was made famous by serving as the backdrop of the jump scene in the 1993 major motion picture, The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford.

(Interesting!) Klamath dam removal initiative fails to qualify Associated Press | August 27, 2010, gazettetimes.com

A proposed initiative to bar Klamath County from supporting removal of four dams from the Klamath River has failed to qualify for the county ballot. The Herald and News reports that Klamath County Clerk Linda Smith said Thursday it does not meet state constitutional requirements to stick to one subject, or a court ruling barring initiatives from addressing administrative actions. Frank Goodson of Voters Opposed to Dam Removal says they will appeal. Long-running battles over sharing scarce water between salmon and farms led to two landmark agreements this year. One lays out plans for removing four hydroelectric dams on the upper Klamath that block salmon. The other covers sharing water between fish and farms and restoring ecological balance to the basin.

Water Local water district seeking federal money to raise dam By JUSTINE FREDERIKSEN, The Daily Journal, 08/23/2010, ukiahdailyjournal.com

RRFCD and WCID manager says most of the region will benefit from doubling the lake's capacity

A local board is trying to build a swell of support for raising the Coyote Dam and increasing the water-storing capacity of Lake Mendocino. "The dam was actually designed and built to be raised over time, but for whatever reasons, that never happened," said Sean White, manager of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, pointing out that according to the Russian River Plan, drafted 10 years after the dam was built in 1959, the dam was scheduled to be raised in 1994. "We feel that the time has arrived." If the dam is widened and raised, White said the capacity of the lake could be doubled, which

7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu would provide the lake a "savings account, instead of having to live paycheck-to-paycheck. "That would give us multiple years of water supply, instead of a one-year supply," he added. "Now, if it doesn't rain one year, the next year you're in trouble." White said the district plans to ask Congress for the money to raise the dam, and also seek funding for a separate project related to the lake's water level - moving some of the recreational facilities for camping and picnicking, much of which has been underwater this summer.

"Until the dam gets raised, we're going to be running the lake at a lot higher level than in years past," White said, explaining that while the lake has historically been kept at 748 feet, the district was authorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to raise it 13 feet. Because of recent drought conditions, the lake was not able to reach that height, and is at 758 feet. However, since the campgrounds, picnic areas and other facilities were built when the lake was at its old level, many of them are now flooded. "We would like to have the best of both worlds, and to not have to choose between having water and providing recreation," he said. "We have been weighing the pros and cons of the community needs." To solve the dilemma, board members at the district's last meeting earlier this month discussed requesting federal dollars to move forward with raising the dam, and how to gather support for the effort from the numerous cities and water agencies that also benefit from the water stored in Lake Mendocino. "We hope to demonstrate broad community support," White said, explaining that not only do all the cities downstream of the lake - such as Cloverdale, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa - benefit "from a fully functional Lake Mendocino, but even areas such as Marin County. We are hoping to gather as broad a coalition as possible to see if we can't leverage some money."

The district's board, which includes Lee Howard, Judy Hatch, Bill Townsend, Paul Zellman and Richard Shoemaker, agreed to draft a Lake Mendocino Improvement Resolution for consideration at its next meeting. "Hopefully, we'll adopt it here, then get other folks to do the same," said White, who also expressed at the meeting that a lake tour the district hosted Aug. 2 may help their efforts. "We can build on the momentum from that day," he said. "We all know what the issues are - let's just get this done." So far, "the Corps has been using a process that they have called a feasibility study, to look at the feasibility of raising the dam," White said. "But that has been very slow and underfunded." As for how much the projects will cost, White said "I don't know that anyone knows, but (raising the dam) will likely cost more than $100 million." He said there is also no budget for moving of the recreation facilities, but that would cost significantly less. The lake - technically a reservoir - can hold 122,500 acre-feet of water (almost 90 percent of it belonging to Sonoma County under water rights decided at the time the dam was built and based on Sonoma County's willingness to help fund the dam), and the local district has an 8,000 acre-feet water right it sells to other districts, cities such as Ukiah, and about 50 major agricultural users. The USACE operates the Coyote Dam at the south end of the lake.

(Many people in the Country should ponder the same question because without dams, we would never have enough water supply for people!) Where do we get water? Sonoma County owes its supply to a complex system of wells, pumps and reservoirs pressdemocrat.com, August 28, 2010

Six wells plunging up to 60 feet into deep gravel beds beneath the Russian River near Forestville draw out water that supplies 600,000 residents in Sonoma and Marin counties. Massive pumps with a combined 14,750-horsepower rating pull water from the gravel aquifer and propel it into a distribution system that serves six cities and three water districts from Windsor to Sausalito. Technically, it is all Russian River water. But it comes to the pumps from a system that stretches nearly 100 miles to the north and collects rainfall from 235 square miles of watershed in hilly, rural reaches of Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Two reservoirs — Lake Sonoma near Healdsburg and Lake Mendocino near Ukiah — hold enough drinking water to cover 282,000 football fields a foot deep (or 282,000 acre feet). That's a whopping 92 billion gallons of water behind two dams, which also serve as Russian River flood-control facilities. Lake Sonoma backs up behind a $360 million federally built dam northwest of Healdsburg that was the object of a prolonged political battle and two public votes in the 1970s. Coyote Dam, completed in 1959, blocks the East Fork of the Russian River, forming Lake Mendocino, which provides water to Ukiah and Mendocino County farms and about half of Sonoma County's supply, with the other half flowing from Lake Sonoma. And even farther to the north, a source of both water and controversy, is a mile-and-a-half tunnel blasted through a rock mountain in the early 1900s, before permits and policy replaced the rugged western entrepreneur's urge for

8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu water and electrical power. The tunnel sucks water from the Eel River, which flows north into the Pacific Ocean near Eurkea, and diverts it into the Russian River through a powerhouse in Potter Valley that still generates electricity. Eel River diversions, which have been cut in half in recent years, remain a point of contention as federal, state and local agencies balance the water needs of people and endangered fish species in both the Eel and Russian rivers. Warm Springs dam, completed in 1983, is the Sonoma County anchor of a system with about 79 miles of underground pipeline and 18 steel water storage tanks that delivers Russian River water to residents and businesses in Santa Rosa, Windsor, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Petaluma and Sonoma and to water districts in Sonoma Valley and Marin County. The rest of Sonoma County, including Sebastopol, Healdsburg and Cloverdale and most of the area outside city limits — including most farms, dairies and vineyards — gets its water from wells.

Both reservoirs are watched closely these days, especially in water-poor years when mandatory conservation measures are imposed, but they were conceived and built to curb destructive floods along the Russian River. Warm Springs Dam is a 319-foot compacted earthen barrier at the confluence of two small creeks — Warm Springs and Dry Creek — at the far end of scenic, wine-producing Dry Creek Valley northwest of Healdsburg. Lake Sonoma holds 212,000 acre feet of water for human consumption, a two- year supply, officials say. That abundance enabled Santa Rosa to become the 28th fastest growing city in the United States in the 1980s. Today, however, the region's water dynamics are more complicated. The two reservoirs must not only provide water to 600,000 people, but also maintain minimum summertime flows in the Russian River to preserve endangered fish species. Lake Mendocino, which depends on spring rains for annual refilling, is solely responsible for the river flow between Ukiah and Healdsburg. A further complication stems from limits on the amount of water that can be released from Lake Sonoma down a 14-mile stretch of Dry Creek to the Russian River, based on findings that too much water is bad for the young fish maturing in the creek. If a proposed reconfiguration of Dry Creek fails to protect the fish against higher flows, the county may have to build an expensive pipeline from the dam to the Wohler pumps.

Sonoma County Water Agency officials refer to their resource as “home grown” water, coming from moisture that sweeps across the Pacific Ocean in clouds and falls nearby on mountains in California's coast range. As such, it is distinct from the water that comes from the Sierra snowpack and is transported hundreds of miles to the metropolises of the Bay Area and Southern California, as well as vast farmlands of the Central Valley. The coast range and the Sierra are the only rainfall-rich regions of the state, which is otherwise a semi-arid land transformed by water engineers into an agricultural powerhouse and the nation's most populous state. The State Water Project transports 2.4 million acre feet of water per year, flowing through 700 miles of aqueducts, canals and pipes from Lake Oroville in Butte County to Lake Perris in Riverside County. The local water agency, in contrast, is legally entitled to draw no more than 75,000 acre feet annually from the Russian River, and last fiscal year pumped just 45,873 acre feet from the Forestville wells. That's down nearly one-third from the 66,556 acre feet pumped in 2003-04, the peak consumption in the past 15 years. Aggressive water conservation measures adopted during three drought years (2007-09) account for much of the drop in consumption, according to Mike Thompson, the water agency's assistant general manager. Cities and water districts supplied by the agency have also turned to increased use of groundwater from their own wells, reducing demand on the Russian River, he said. The close-to-home water source may bode well for the region's future, as climate change is expected to shrink the Sierra snowpack, possibly triggering a water supply crisis. Experts aren't certain whether the coast range will get wetter or drier in future decades. “Right now we don't know a whole lot,” said Pam Jeane, water agency assistant general manager. “The scientific jury is out.”

Environment (Sometimes a dam or whatever this may be just doesn’t look like a dam anymore and getting rid of it makes sense. When you can remove a dam with a backhoe, it’s not much of dam in the first place.) Homestead Woolen Mill Dam Removal Underway on Ashuelot River 20 Miles of River and Fish Habitat Restored From Keene to Winchester nature.org

SWANZEY, N.H. — August 24, 2010 — The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services announced today that after 12 years of planning, work on the removal of the Homestead Woolen Mill Dam is

9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu scheduled to begin today. The dam, located on the Ashuelot River in Swanzey, New Hampshire, is immediately downstream from the historic Thompson Covered Bridge, which is being stabilized in conjunction with the removal of the dam. The projects are linked because of the potential impacts that removal of the dam could have on the abutments and pier that support the bridge. The timber crib dam has been in disrepair for several years. The high cost to repair the dam, coupled with the desire to restore the free-flowing river, prompted the dam owner, Homestead Woolen Mill, Inc., to work with the River Restoration Program at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) to pursue removal as an option for meeting dam safety requirements. The process of evaluating the feasibility of dam removal and its alternatives, as well as securing the permits and developing the final plans for the project, has been complicated, but the project is now ready to begin. “River restoration projects have to take into consideration the impact on historic resources. At the same time, these projects have tremendous environmental and natural habitat benefits,” said DES Commissioner Tom Burack. “This project is only able to move forward because we have the tremendous cooperation of many stakeholders and the sponsorship of natural resource advocates. We’re proud to be part of the team.”

“By opening up over 20 miles of river habitat, this project not only restores fish passage, but also improves natural flows and aquatic habitat for a host of freshwater biodiversity in the ecologically significant Ashuelot River,” said Doug Bechtel, The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Freshwater Science and Conservation. “We applaud the efforts of the Dam Bureau and all its partners in making this project a success after many years of diligent work,” said Bechtel. The Town of Swanzey has been a critical partner in this project since its inception. Beth Fox, Town Administrator for Swanzey, said residents identify with the dam as part of the town’s heritage and highlighted that this stretch of the Ashuelot River is an important part of the community. “Both the bridge stabilization and dam removal projects are complex in and of themselves, but they are also connected because of their close proximity along the river. All of the project partners have put in a tremendous effort to work together to sustain the unique historic and natural resources that are so much a part of the Town of Swanzey, and we are really appreciative of that,” Fox said. DES has been working with Homestead Woolen Mill, Inc., for several years helping to secure funding and providing technical assistance. The consultant for the project is Vanesse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., of Bedford. The approximately $500,000 project is being funded by three separate programs within of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Open Rivers Initiative in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NH Fish & Game, FishAmerica Foundation, NH Corporate Wetland Restoration Partnership, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, and The Nature Conservancy. The New Hampshire Chapter of The Nature Conservancy made possible contributions from the Davis Conservation Foundation and a local family foundation, as well as matching funding from the Conservancy’s Connecticut River Program. State and federal biologists, with the assistance of trained volunteers, are working to relocate mussels that would be stranded by low water levels during construction. Included in this effort is the dwarf wedge mussel, a federally listed endangered species. The biologists are working to relocate them prior to construction, but the river restoration will enhance the habitat of the mussels and other aquatic life. In addition, a group from Dartmouth College, led by Professor Francis Magilligan, has secured independent funding to monitor the project, which will provide valuable information on the physical changes to the river after the dam is removed.

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 from 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

9/10/2010

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss aanndd OOtthheerr SSttuuffff i

Quote of Note: “POLITICIAN: One who shakes your Hand before elections and your

Confidence later.”

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Silver Oak Cellars Alexander Valley Cabernet, CA 2006 “No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.” - - Thomas Jefferson

Dams (Excerpts) (This is not the kind of jobs program the hydro industry had in mind.) Peninsula company will gain millions as subcontractor in dam removal project By Paul Gottlieb, Peninsula Daily News, peninsuladailynews.com, August 30, 2010

PORT ANGELES -- A Bozeman, Mont. construction company chosen last week to tear down the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams has awarded a chunk of its $26.9 million contract to a North Olympic Peninsula business. Sean Coleman, the project manager for Bruch & Bruch Construction of Port Angeles, said Friday the company will receive an estimated $2 million to $4 million from Barnard Construction Co. Inc. to haul away concrete from the Elwha River dams as they are demolished. About 45 people will be employed under the subcontract. That will include 15 additional hires -- truckers who will be employed during the 2 ½-year project. "In this market, getting any contract is a great deal, but I don't think everyone realizes what the full potential of the exposure is," Coleman said. "I'm glad we are going to be part of it. It will be a good thing. It's one of the larger projects for us." The dams will be demolished beginning in September 2011 and ending in March 2014 as part of the $351 million Elwha River restoration project. ------.

The 108-foot-tall Elwha Dam, located outside Olympic National Park, and 210-foot-tall Glines Canyon Dam, located inside it, will be torn down to restore a river that once teemed with salmon of legendary size. Destroying the dams will free an estimated 18 million to 20 million cubic yards of sediment behind the structures. That sediment will coat the river bed and enrich salmon habitat for the run, which has been blocked for 98 years on 70 miles of the waterway and its tributaries. One of the more dramatic first steps in the largest dam removal project in U.S. history begins at sundown Monday. That's when Lake Mills, the reservoir created behind Glines Canyon Dam, shuts down to recreational boating, fishing and swimming 1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu while the lake is drawn down 5 feet and a channel built in the lake's delta. The channel will route the sediment down river as the dams are demolished. Equipment will begin arriving at the Lake Mills boat launch on Tuesday, Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said Friday. Workers will begin digging the channel after Labor Day. Barnard specializes in pipeline, tunnel and dam construction but has never torn down a dam. "It's a project we feel very suited for because it's the type of work we do routinely," VanAmburg said. "We're just looking forward to the next couple of years on it." Barnard Construction has offices nationwide and in Canada and Mexico. The company employs 140 salaried workers but, depending on the number of projects it's engaged in, can employ hundreds to thousands of craft workers at any given time, VanAmburg said. VanAmburg declined to comment on the company's annual profits. "We're a medium-sized contractor with large capabilities," he said. "From year to year, revenue can fluctuate, but we're in the several-hundred-million [dollars] per year type thing as far as work performed." The bid awarded to Barnard Construction came in at $13 million under the $40 million to $60 million budgeted for the dam- tear-down portion of the restoration plan. VanAmburg said it's not unusual for construction bids to be awarded at under budgeted amounts in the current recession. The dam-removal portion of the restoration project will create 40 to 50 jobs. ------.

(This should have the title: “Only in New Jersey!” Reminds me of the time we had to dismiss a license application for a pumped storage project in Jersey because the Mafia rigged the bid for their contractor.) Fraud charges filed in Clinton dam restorations project BY WALTER O'BRIEN • STAFF WRITER • AUGUST 30, 2010, mycentraljersey.com

CLINTON TOWN — Police have announced charges of fraud and theft against the contractor fired earlier this summer from the town dam restoration project. Police said Monday that Joseph Budis, 61, of New Providence, owner of Murray Hill Historical Construction, was charged with three counts of contract fraud, two counts of theft by deception and one count of identity theft. Mayor Christine Schaumburg said the state attorney general is investigation the matter and municipal clerk Cecilia Covino confirmed that the town has received grand jury subpoenas for documents. Budis is free after posting $100,000 bail.

Sgt. Jay Hunter and Ptl. Timothy McGuire, investigating a June 3 accident involving a construction worker on the dam reconstruction project on Lower Center Street, discovered that Budis was project manager for Murray Hill Historical Construction, although the work documents filed for the job listed his name as "Joe Delia." A two-month joint investigation with Det. Mario DiRienzo of the New Jersey State Police Official Corruption Unit found that the bid, payment and performance bonds and the certificate of liability submitted by Murray Hill were counterfeit, that the notary who attested on the documents was fictitious, and that both Budis and Murray Hill were on a state list of firms not eligible to be awarded state-funded projects, authorities said. The town immediately fired Murray Hill and rebid the $914,000 project. This project to repair the dam and armor the dike was required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the safety of residents of the Town of Clinton due to repeated overflowing of the dam, dike and flooding of local streets. The town engaged Civil Dynamics Inc. of Stockholm, New Jersey, an engineering firm experienced in the design of dam rehabilitation projects, to design the rehabilitation in accordance with New Jersey Dam Safety Standards and then to observe the construction work. Adamsville Maintenance, Inc. of Bound Brook won the new round of bids and began work on Aug. 9. The original deadline for the project to be completed was Halloween but due to the delays from changing contractors, but no new deadline was announced.

Rockbridge Co. residents worry about dam's safety The federal government has already determined that Goshen Dam in Rockbridge County constitutes a "high hazard." So why isn't anything done? Rex Bowman, roanoke.com, September 1, 2010

ROCKBRIDGE BATHS -- The people who live in the homes and cabins along the Maury River in Rockbridge County are fairly certain of this: If the nearby Goshen Dam ever breaks, the massive wall of water and rock that will wash through their community will kill folks. And, increasingly, they want to know why nobody seems to be doing anything to prepare for that possibility -- especially since the federal government concluded more than 30 years ago that the big 2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu earthen dam is a "high hazard." The government followed up that assessment earlier this decade with a report that the dam is "at risk of failure" if a once-in-200-years storm hits. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report concluded that failure of the dam, one of about 30 "high hazard" dams in the state, would potentially kill 28 people, threaten 265 and cause $25 million in damage along the stretch of river from the dam to Rockbridge Baths. (The corps calculated there are 165 structures and 330 vehicles in the area's flood plain.) And with each passing year -- the dam is now 44 years old -- the threat of a catastrophic storm looms larger for residents. But the story of why the Goshen Dam has not been upgraded is one of government intervention followed by government inertia, an approach that has frustrated people for years. The federal government agreed to "repair and upgrade" the privately owned dam in 1996, only to fail to do the work. "The dam is very dangerous and it needs to be fixed," said Linda Larsen, who owns a cabin on the riverbank. "For people who live there, it's pretty scary."

The dam, 38 feet high and 1,300 feet long, holds back the Little Calfpasture River before it merges with the Calfpasture River to become the Maury. The dam was built for the Boy Scouts of America in 1966 to create the 425-acre Lake Merriweather just outside the town of Goshen. The dam, the lake and surrounding land are owned by the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which brings Scouts from the Washington region to the Goshen Scout Reservation at the lake. Though the dam has always been private property, in 1996 -- at the request of the congressional delegation from Northern Virginia, according to U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte's office -- the dam was included in the Water Resources Development Act, a law that spelled out which dams nationwide would get federally funded upgrades. Work on the Goshen Dam was priced at $6 million, though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported in 2006 that it could put "concrete armor" over the dam at a cost of $5 million. But despite various appropriations over the years, Congress has never fully funded the work, said Brian Rheinhart, a Corps of Engineers project manager in Norfolk. Money was appropriated each year from 2003 through 2006, he said, but never in a lump sum big enough to do the armorization work; consequently, at the end of each year, the corps took the money and put it toward other projects. Overall, $5.7 million has been appropriated piecemeal over the years, of which $3.6 million was put toward other projects. "It's a very low priority project for us," Rheinhart said. "We put our priority on the dams that we own." The corps oversees 650 dams nationwide. So, because the federal government agreed to take on the Goshen Dam's upgrade, its owners, the Boy Scouts, have no plans to do the work. And because the Corps of Engineers has spent much of the appropriated money on other projects, no work on the concrete armor has begun.

Residents remain frustrated. "My concern, and I guess it's everyone else's around here, is that the dam would break," said Nat Jobe, who lives above the Maury at Wilson Springs. Mike Donaghue, director of support services for the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts, said the organization is doing everything it can to get adequate federal funding. Meanwhile, he said, the Boy Scouts are working with state dam safety officials and conducting regular inspections. But ultimately, Donaghue said, it's the Corps of Engineers' responsibility. Cabin owner Larsen, though, said the Boy Scouts are shirking their responsibility. If the federal government ever does the work and the organization sells the property, she added, the Boy Scouts should then use some of the profits to reimburse taxpayers. Donaghue said the organization has considered paying for the work, but "we've never had the money." According to documents filed with the IRS, the National Capital Area Council had revenues of $11 million in 2008, while the parent organization had revenues of $150 million. Partly resigned to seeing no work ever done, residents along the Maury have begun agitating for a notification system to give warning if the dam should break. They petitioned the Rockbridge County government for a comprehensive warning system in January, not long after a floodgate at the dam malfunctioned and caused the river to rise dramatically. Residents said they have received no response to their petition. But Robert Foresman, emergency management coordinator for the county, said a plan is in place. The Boy Scouts, he said, have contact information for all homeowners and landowners in the area, and they're required to keep Foresman's office up to date. In an emergency, he said, he also would contact everyone via the county's e-mail and text messaging alert system, and if need be, firefighters would go door to door.

Lake James getting some "down" time tradingmarkets.com, 31 Aug 2010

Aug 31, 2010 (The McDowell News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Lake James- area residents will get used to the sight of mud and silt this winter. Duke Energy will lower the lake's water level by up to 15 feet starting later this year, according to a press release. The utility company hopes to get some major work done in the coming months, with less impact continuing through next spring and summer. Duke Energy advised lake residents and businesses Tuesday to begin making any necessary arrangements for their boats or properties during lower lake levels. The notice came as a shock to businesses that rely on 3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu the lake to generate income. Dayna Shipman, a manager at the Bear Creek Marina, said they were surprised by the news and uncertain about the impact. "It got thrown on us," she said. "I'm not sure yet how this will go. It's hard to say." Duke officials say the lake will be lowered to 85 feet, 15 feet below full pond, in November. While there's hope the lake will be refilled to 92 feet, 8 feet below full pond, after mid-February, before the main recreation season, Shipman said the business will be impacted even if all goes according to plan. "There's always fishing going on," she said. "We were open all year last winter." Burnette's Marina plans to close for the winter. Manager Gary Nanney said lowering the lake could potentially devastate the business. "If they lower the lake 10 feet or more, we ain't going to have a drop of water out there," he stated. "It'll be a creek in front of the landing. It's going to be tough on people."

The statement from Duke said that the lake-lowering is necessary in order to comply with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) standards. Duke Energy must strengthen the three dams it operates on Lake James to increase dam stability in the event of a severe seismic event. In recent years, Duke Energy has completed work on two of the dams -- Paddy Creek Dam and Catawba Dam. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 on improvements to the third one -- Linville Dam. To facilitate the strengthening work on the Linville Dam in 2012, the dam's existing electricity generating station (Bridgewater Hydro Station) must be permanently removed. A replacement hydro station is being built several hundred yards downriver. At the peak of construction, the new hydro station project will employ a workforce of more than 150 people, coming largely from the local area, according to Duke's release. The work includes repairs to the station's intake structure, and that's what will require Duke to lower the lake level in November and December. Both Bear Creek and Burnette's rely on business picking up sharply between mid-March and April. Nanney has been managing Burnette's for 33 years. He said he has little faith the lake will be recovered for peak season next year. "It's gonna kill this little place," he stated. He said the loss of business due to the recession had been quite a burden on the lake industry as it has on all businesses. Duke plans for the lake to be 10 feet below full pond all summer next year. In May 2011, Lake James will be lowered from 92 feet to about 90 feet, 10 feet below full pond, to allow workers to connect the new hydro station to the intake pipe. Since neither old nor new hydro stations will be operating from late May through September 2011, one of the normal outlets that moves water downstream will be temporarily closed during this five-month construction period. Once at 90 feet, the lake will begin to immediately refill based on rainfall. Substantially lowering Lake James' water level -- in advance of the hydro station work -- will reduce the amount of water that otherwise could spill over the lake's Paddy Creek and Catawba dam spillways during the temporary closure of the normal Linville Dam outlet. Duke Vice President Carol Goolsby said this would provide added protection against potential high water for downriver residents and businesses in the event of lengthy periods of heavy rain during the May to September 2011 construction. "We do not take the decision to temporarily lower Lake James lightly, but it is necessary to complete the required dam and hydro station work," she stated. "We understand this work impacts residents, businesses and others who enjoy recreational activities on the lake, so we wanted to provide them as much advanced notice as possible."

Study: Lewisville Lake dam is 'very high risk' by STEVE STOLER, WFAA, wfaa.com, September 2, 2010

LEWISVILLE LAKE — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is calling the Lewisville Lake dam a "very high risk." The alarming assessment is based on several factors — including the dam's age and the catastrophic consequences downstream if it ever failed. The Corps says lives could be lost in addition to the economic and environmental impact. That’s troubling for communities south of the dam, including Carrollton, Farmers Branch and Dallas. Donnie Russell's pride and joy is his 1953 Chevy pickup. It was built the year before the Lewisville Lake dam opened. Like the old truck, the old dam is still operating as designed. “I never really worried about it," said Russell. But other homeowners are worried about the dam. Steve Glassinger calls the Corps' report “unsettling.”

The "very high risk" label is based, in part, by the downstream consequences of a breach, including lives lost and economic and environmental impacts. “Those aren't just some slight consequences. Things like 'lives lost' to top off the list is pretty scary,” Glassinger said. Army Corps officials stress the dam is not in imminent danger of failing. “With any dam, if you did have a failure and you released the pool that was behind the dam, you would have severe flooding along the channel downstream of that dam,” said Brian Phelps, who 4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu manages the lake for the Corps of Engineers. There are no plans to lower the lake level to prevent problems. Donnie Russell says even though his house is one of the closest to the dam, it is not in harm's way. “I believe it would miss me because I'm up on a little hill here," he said. "But Carrollton, Farmers Branch and downtown Dallas would probably flood." The Army Corps will continue to take a closer look at the dam. Its recommendations are expected sometime next year.

(Another “dam” removal) It's on: Dam removal begins this winter Smaller dams first, then Hofmann will go By BOB UPHUES, Editor, 9/3/2010, rblandmark.com Web Extra!

The first phase of a project resulting in the eventual elimination of the Hofmann Dam on the Des Plaines River will break ground this winter after commissioners of the Cook County Forest Preserve District board voted unanimously on Thursday to give the $7.7 million effort its blessing. Commissioner Tony Peraica (R- Riverside) sponsored the resolution, which grants a temporary easement to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources during their work over the next two years to remove two small dams and the notching of the larger Hofmann Dam, which spans the river from Riverside to Lyons. Details of the agreement between the county and the two other agencies will be worked out prior to the start of the project. Work could begin later this year or early in 2011. But the agencies needed the county's blessing before awarding a construction contract by the end of September. Failing to pass the easement resolution would have delayed awarding a contract, which could have jeopardized the entire project, said Riverside President Michael Gorman, who advocated for the project to the forest preserve district board prior to the vote. Gorman said he spent six weeks garnering support from 20 communities along the Des Plaines River Valley, along with support from citizen groups such as the Riverside Residents for Flood Prevention and the Hofmann Dam River Rats. Those communities and groups wrote letters of support for the project, which contributed to the unanimous support, Gorman said. "Both the IDNR and [forest preserve district] Superintendent [Steven] Bylina supported the project, but to ensure the county board supported it, they suggested I solicit as much support as I could along the Des Plaines Valley corridor," Gorman said.

The first phase of the project is the smaller of the two and involves the demolition of Armitage Dam, which is located near North and First avenues, and the Fairbank Dam which is about 300 yards downstream of the Hofmann Dam. Phase one also includes removal of the dam debris and stabilizing the river bank. Phase two, which would begin in the winter of 2011-12, includes removing the center 150 feet of the Hofmann Dam and narrowing the sediment pool west of the dam. Phase two also includes a major improvement to Swan Pond, the flood plain along the river in Riverside. Swan Pond will be re-graded to improve drainage. "I'm excited about the whole plan, but more excited about phase two and its more direct benefits for Riverside," Gorman said. "We can reclaim Swan Pond." Removing the dam will have several direct ecological benefits, according to planners, from limiting pollution to allowing fish to freely navigate the river for a distance of 20 miles. The projects should improve fishing and will eliminate a real danger by notching the Hofmann Dam, where more than one person has died going over the falls throughout the years. While the benefits of the dam removal projects will be mostly ecological, there will be a minor impact on flooding as well. "Whatever the flood relief, no matter how small, if it protects one home, it protects them from months of stress," Gorman said. The dam removal projects are being paid for jointly by the Army Corps of Engineers and the IDNR, which signed an agreement in May to allocate money for the effort. The Army Corps of Engineers has pledged up to $5 million, while the IDNR has allocated $2.7 million.

(And, several dams being built) Lake Wanahoo dam complete fremonttribune.com, September 4, 2010

It is finished. After much work and planning, the Lake Wanahoo dam was completed this week. Another year will pass before the recreation facilities - including roads, trails, restrooms camper pads, boat docks and ramps - will be finished, but this part of the $30.5 million project is done. "We anticipate that grass seeding in the recreation areas will occur a year from now and so we're anticipating (Nebraska) game and parks opening the recreation area in the spring of 2012," said John Miyoshi, Lower Platte North Natural Resources District general manager. The dam is part of the Sand Creek Environmental Restoration Project, designed to provide environmental restoration, flood control and recreation benefits for Saunders County residents. Already the project, situated a mile north of Wahoo, has shown benefits. "The contractor did close the dam itself last October and with rains in the spring, we estimated a savings - just on roads, bridges and crops - to 5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu be half a million dollars," Miyoshi said, adding, "Highway 77, which passes through Wahoo, normally would have been closed five days, and it wasn't closed any." The dam, which cost $12.6 million to build, is 3,900 feet long and has another 350 feet of trailing levee. When the 637-surface-acre lake reaches its normal level, the dam will have about 6,600 acre feet of water in storage. An acre foot is about 325,000 gallons of water. "It is a large dam," Miyoshi said. And it's big enough so that even if the area gets what's known as a 500-year flood, the dam would be able to contain 27,000 acre feet of water.

In the meantime, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has begun stocking bass, bluegill, walleye and northern pike, said Jeff Jackson, District Five fisheries supervisor for southeastern Nebraska. "We'll be stocking some black crappie this month and some blue catfish. That should get us off to a pretty good start," he said. Before the lake was stocked, however, streams flowing into it had to be treated to remove carp. The carp eat aquatic vegetation and stir up sediment which creates a muddy lake. "Bass, bluegill and walleye are sight feeders. They don't do well in muddy water," Jackson said. The treatment, which took place last November, appears to have been effective. "We got a pretty significant kill on the carp," Jackson said. "We feel like we're starting with a clean slate. That's pretty important for us." Fish that are now in the lake are pretty small and it will be a couple of years before it will be a good place to fish, but Jackson is already looking ahead. "It will be a great lake for that area," he said. Miyoshi noted that because of the project's environmental restoration benefits, no wake boating will be allowed on the lake. That means no power boats, water skiing or jet skis will be allowed. "It's a different type of recreation," Miyoshi said. "Game and parks is looking at this as being the premier fishery in eastern Nebraska and they have invested $1.4 million in fishery enhancements. "We have a lot of anglers who are very excited about fishing in this lake." Lake Wanahoo is being built as part of the U.S. 77 bypass, which skirts the west and north sides of Wahoo. The four-lane bypass will run across the top of the dam - but not for a while. Due to a lack of highway funds, the bypass isn't scheduled until 2017. It originally had been scheduled to begin in 2011. In the meantime, Saunders County officials have decided to open the roadway and put gravel on it, Miyoshi said. In August, State Senator Deb Fisher, chairman of the transportation committee, had a public meeting in Omaha to look at the roads situation in Nebraska. Ideas included increasing the gasoline tax and looking at bonding to complete the expressway system in the state. "The top project on the list, we're told, was the Wahoo bypass project," Miyoshi said. For now, area officials are pleased to see the dam's completion.

The Lake Wanahoo/Sand Creek Project began in the 1990s when the city of Wahoo and Saunders County officials approached the LPNNRD about the possibility of constructing a large reservoir north of town to help with flood control. The city also was interested in a recreation site that would help promote economic development, Miyoshi said. Saunders County, which has more bridges than any county in the state, also has had constant maintenance problems along creeks in this area. "The three groups formed an interlocal agreement in 1991 and over the next six years commissioned two separate studies looking at the feasibility of the project," Miyoshi said. "After the second study in 1997, the three entities got serious about looking at construction (of a large reservoir). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had a program that matched most closely, Miyoshi said. In 1998, Mike Murren was hired as project coordinator and work began on acquiring necessary land. The entities bought 1,600 acres north of Wahoo. Seven smaller dams will be built upstream on Sand and Duck creeks to help preserve water quality and extend the life of the lake. Funding is being sought for 10 small dams on Wahoo Creek to maximize sediment and nutrient retention and help with flood control.

State official says dam failure at Lake Delhi is creating major silt problem By Associated Press, August 31, 2010, wqad.com

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Environmental problems are growing at Lake Delhi, where a flood-related dam failure drained the lake in northeast Iowa in July. Department of Natural Resources Director Richard Leopold says the Maquoketa (muh-KO'-kuh-tuh) River is washing away 80 years of silt on the bottom of the lake. Leopold told The Des Moines Register on Monday that a stop-gap solution would be to spread a cover crop, such as oats, on the lake bed to help stabilize the sediment. Leopold also says there are divisions within the agency over whether the lake should be restored. Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the privately owned dam is not eligible for federal public assistance money. Leopold is leaving the department for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota.

(A few facts about Toledo Bend Dam and Reservoir: The largest man-made body of water in the South, the lake covers 205,000 acres, is 15 miles across at its widest point, and has 1,264 miles of shoreline. The reservoir has a storage capacity of 4,777,000 acre-feet, and it has an average depth of 60 feet. Power Plant Capability: The two hydroelectric power generators have a generating capacity of 92,000 kilowatts. The estimated annual energy output is 205 million kilowatt-hours.) 6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Toledo Bend board considers dam fix drawdown Sept. 2, 2010, The Times, oregonlive.com

TOLEDO BEND, La. (AP) — The board that runs the Toledo Bend dam and reservoir is talking about whether to draw the reservoir down for repairs on the dam. The Times reports that, if it's approved at Friday's meeting, the drawdown would begin after the Labor Day weekend. Engineers learned several weeks ago that a cavern has eroded behind vertical cracks in the soil cement section of the dam near the power house. Sabine River Authority Executive Director Jim Pratt says there's no immediate risk, but the repairs are needed. The water's already low because of low rainfall. Officials say it would take about two weeks to lower the reservoir 2½ feet, to the 165-foot depth needed for workers to reach all the voids.

Hydro (Give me some cheap hydropower and I’ll give you a handful of jobs! Everyone is not happy with this deal!) Yahoo! seeks low-cost hydropower Business First of Buffalo - by JAMES FINK, bizjournals.com, August 27, 2010

A plan to allocate low-cost hydropower to the new Yahoo! Inc. data center in Lockport will be the subject of a New York Power Authority hearing. The authority will conduct the hearing, beginning at 3 p.m., on Sept. 8. The hearing is set for the Niagara Power Project Visitor's Center at 5777 Lewiston Road in Lewiston. The hearing will go until 7 p.m. The power authority, as part of a regional and state incentive package offered to Yahoo! Inc., has promised 15 megawatts of low-cost hydropower for the center. Yahoo! Inc. selected a site in the Lockport Industrial Park after considering a number of locations elsewhere in New York and other states, thanks in large part to the incentive package and an intensive lobbying effort led by Sen. Charles Schumer. "Low-cost hydropower from the Niagara Power Project was a linchpin in the decision by Yahoo! to build its new datacenter in Lockport," said Richard Kessel, NYPA president and chief executive officer. "We're confident that the Yahoo! facility will be a magnet for other high-tech industries coming to Western New York." The 150,000-square-feet facility is scheduled to have its grand opening on Sept. 20. The $180 million project will employ 125 people initially. The first wave of workers has already been hired and are at the data center. We are all looking for the benefits of low-cost hydro power! The rest of us continue to pay exorbitantly high electric rates so that a select few are given a special low rate. Leaving more money in taxpayers’ pockets would allow them to spend more to get the economy going, as consumer spending represents 70% of economic activity. Yahoo simply gets to make more profit at our expense. Shame on them, and on NYPA for perpetuating a corporate welfare program for such a "select" group of recipients.

Free Flow Power Acquires Remaining Interest in 10 Ohio Hydroelectric Development Projects Aug 31st 2010, eprenergynews.com

Free Flow Power (FFP) is pleased to announce that it has acquired the remaining assets of Clean River Power, LLC that it had not previously owned. Clean River Power is a run of the river hydroelectric project developer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Free Flow Power’s acquisition includes 10 subsidiary LLCs which hold preliminary permits for conventional hydroelectric projects in southeastern Ohio; nine of the projects are located on the Muskingum River and one is on the Scioto River. The projects have a total nameplate capacity of approximately 40 MW and anticipated power production capacity of approximately 250,000 megawatt hours annually. Alan Skelly, Michael Skelly, Sr., and Tim Jones of Clean River Power have joined FFP’s, New Hydro - Project Development, management team. Alan Skelly has 26 years of experience in private utility law and development, including as past Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Clean River Power. Michael Skelly, Sr. has 32 years experience in law, utility and energy project development including as past Treasurer of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Tim Jones has more than 20 years of experience as a Certified Public Accountant with an international full-service accounting firm and as Chief Financial Officer / Controller of various construction and development companies.

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

Hydroelectric Project Planned for Smithland By Candi Freeland, Aug. 31, 2010, westkentuckystar.com

SMITHLAND, KY - American Municipal Power has planned a groundbreaking for Wednesday morning, September 1st, at Smithland Locks and Dam. This is one of six hydroelectric power projects being developed at existing dams on the Ohio River. Governor Beshear and U.S. Congressman Ed Whitfield are among the featured speakers planned for Wednesday. The ceremony will begin at 10 am. The projects are reportedly the largest undertaking of new run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects in the country.

Desert hydroelectric power project awaits federal decision By JANET ZIMMERMAN, The Press-Enterprise, September 5, 2010, pe.com

In the future, when Inland residents flip a light switch or turn on an air conditioner, the power could come from a desert hydroelectric plant that would create and store energy. Federal regulators are considering a license application for the proposed $1 billion-plus Eagle Mountain Pumped Storage Project east of Joshua Tree National Park. The 1,100-acre plant would be housed at the abandoned Kaiser iron-ore mine, near where another group wants to build the world's largest landfill. The power project north of Interstate 10 would use two pits at the former mine. At night, when electricity is cheaper and readily available, water would be pumped to an upper reservoir. When demand for power peaks during the day, the water would be sent to a reservoir downhill, passing through turbines to create power and supply it to the state's electrical grid. The water flow would generate 1,300 megawatts during peak hours, enough to power nearly 1 million homes at any given instant. Environmentalists and residents worry that the project would deplete the area's ancient underground water. Proponents say water is plentiful, and that the project would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by using clean energy, such as wind that is available in the off hours, to power its pumps. It also would use scarred land and be able to store intermittent power from wind and solar. "It's a more efficient use of our natural resources," said developer Steve Lowe, president of the private Eagle Crest Energy Co. in Palm Desert, which is funding the project with bonds. "In the future we will negate the need for a certain amount of additional peakers" -- natural gas- powered plants that produce electricity in periods of highest demand. A similar, 500-megawatt hydroelectric project has been proposed for Lake Elsinore. But plans have stalled because Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and developer Nevada Hydro are in a disagreement over whether the pumped storage and 30 miles of electrical transmission lines through the Cleveland National Forest should be built separately or as one project. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has called pumped storage hydroelectric a potentially "perfect system" for complementing the use of more renewable energy and urged investment in the technology. There are 24 licensed pumped storage plants nationwide, and 40 more have preliminary permits to study sites, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

WATER SUPPLY CONCERNS But Eagle Mountain pumped storage has numerous critics, primarily residents and farmers in nearby Desert Center who say the project would deplete their aquifer in the Chuckwalla Valley. The project would use about 2.6 billion gallons of water a year for the first three years to fill the reservoir, and approximately 586 million gallons a year after that to replace what is lost to evaporation, according to the company. "This area would dry up," said Johnney Coon, a 35-year resident. Coon and her husband own 300 acres of open land north of Desert Center, plus 5 acres where they grow table grapes for an organic distributor. They plan to preserve their holdings for future generations with a conservation easement. Decades ago, when the area was covered with jojoba farms, the couple had to deepen their water well several times, Coon said. She fears a repeat of that if the hydroelectric plant goes in. But Lowe said his project would consume only 1 percent of the available water in the basin. He has bought 40 acres there where he will drill several wells. The water would be moved to the reservoir by an underground pipeline that would run near existing

8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu transmission lines to minimize land disturbance. Lowe said his company is sensitive to the concerns of residents and vowed to pay them for any well problems caused by the project.

EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY The National Park Service, National Park Conservation Association, Metropolitan Water District and Kaiser Ventures -- the group proposing the Eagle Mountain Landfill that would receive Los Angeles County trash by rail and truck -- also filed objections. In addition to water shortages, they said the project would cause seepage of acid from mine operations into the water table and disturb wilderness lands, night skies and wildlife. The critics said the project encroaches on habitat deemed critical for the survival of desert tortoises, which are threatened with extinction, and would draw predators such as ravens and coyotes. Lowe said the project would include lining the pits with tailings and roller-compacted concrete to prevent seepage. And 200 acres would be set aside for tortoise habitat, he said. Critics also questioned a project that would use more energy than it produces. "Over the 50-year lifespan of the project, the combined loss of energy and highly valued drinking water does not seem to be consistent with the expectations of renewable energy," Park Service officials wrote. As technology evolves, the project will use less energy, and more of it will come from nonpolluting sources such as wind, Lowe said. SUPPLY AND DEMAND The California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's electrical grid, is eager for such projects to balance supply and demand, spokesman Gregg Fishman said. "To the extent that you can store the wind power overnight and use it when you really need it in the afternoon, that can offset natural gas or other carbon-based generation," he said. Construction of the project will take four years and will include 13 miles of 500-kilovolt transmission lines to move the power to a substation west of Desert Center. It would create about 500 jobs during construction and 50 long-term positions. The project was first proposed by Lowe's father in 1990, at the end of the nuclear power development. The rush to develop renewable energy projects and decrease the country's dependence on foreign oil breathed new life into the plan, he said. It's a project whose time has come, Lowe said. "We've been to the moon, we have wireless Internet and we have to consume energy the minute it's produced? That's ridiculous."

Environment (The price of gold is around $1,250 an ounce! What do they expect in these economic times, especially in the west where unemployment is very high? People gotta eat!) Where Dams Once Stood, Prospectors Spur Anger By FELICITY BARRINGER, nytimes.com, September 3, 2010

GOLD HILL, Ore. — When four dams on the Rogue River here were scheduled for removal, environmentalists predicted many benefits: more salmon and steelhead swimming upriver to spawn; more gravel carried downriver to replenish the riverbed; more rafters bobbing along 57 miles of newly opened water. What they did not bargain for was the arrival this summer of a clutch of people, eager to sift through the tons of gravel for flakes of gold once hidden behind the dams. Prospectors cluster slightly downriver from where the dams used to be. Their suction dredges blare together, in a discordant fanfare louder than lawnmowers. Resentment now flows as freely as the river. Environmentalists and some riverside homeowners see the gold dredgers as noisy invaders rearranging the riverbed without care for the insects, fish and people who live in and along the Rogue. A state senator, Jason Atkinson, has announced that he will introduce legislation to ban the practice of dredging for gold; three state newspapers have editorialized in support of a temporary ban pending further study. “This is interfering with the ambience, the sense of what the Rogue is about,” said Bob Hunter, a lawyer with WaterWatch, a nonprofit environmental group. He spent 23 years organizing, cajoling 9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu and filing lawsuits to bring down the four dams, the last of which was removed Aug. 11. The river, he said, “is about rafting and hiking and fishing.” “It’s not about industrial mining,” he added. “To have this adversely affect what this is all about is a shame.” Lesley Adams, who works for KSWild, another environmental group, said she feared for the health of the salmon runs that the Rogue has in more abundance than any other Oregon river but the Columbia. Dam removals “have made great strides in restoring the salmon runs,” she said. But, she added, “while we’re working so hard to restore this river, we’re letting gasoline-powered engines suck up the bottom of the river.” Bill Meyers, the Rogue Basin coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Quality, was less concerned, saying that new, tighter permit restrictions should protect the river, “provided the dredgers are following their permits.”

For their part, the miners, many of them escaping a temporary dredging ban across the state line in California, see themselves as citizens whose rights are under siege. Frank Werberger, 71, a retired pipe welder who drove up from his home in Ojai, Calif., to dredge the Rogue, said of his environmentalist adversaries: “They attack dredgers first because we’re the ones they dislike the most. Then they will attack fishermen and kayakers. Then rafters.” A nugget of gold weighing three-quarters of an ounce dangles from a leather string on his chest, a reminder of the thrill of finding gold winking amid the gravel in a sluice pan. Another prospector, Dave Bray, 47, is a native of the Rogue Valley. Emerging from the waters of the Rogue, he pulled down the top of his wetsuit and talked about his feeling that his hobby was “spiritual.” Fish, he said, come and swim around him, eating the insect life dislodged by his dredging hose. His friend Ken Kriege, 54, of Ontario, Calif., added that prospecting had environmental benefits, like loosening compacted gravel, which provides a better spawning surface for fish, and removing toxic metals, like the mercury left behind by Oregon’s 19th-century gold miners. As for damage, Mr. Kriege said that the dredges’ impact on the riverbed was “like fluffing a pillow,” and that the recent removal of nearby Gold Ray dam had turned the river into “chocolate milk,” creating more temporary turbidity than any dredger. Senator Atkinson and the environmental leaders point out that many cars parked along the river carry California license plates. But Beth Moore, general permits coordinator for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, said 1,205 dredging permits had been issued this year, up from 934 in 2009. Of 432 new applications, only about 54 — or 12.5 percent — of the permits went to Californians. The prospectors must follow newly stringent state rules aimed at keeping a distance between dredges and reducing the size of their hoses. The removal of dams in the area of the Rogue River near Grants Pass and Gold Hill, about 12 miles north of Medford, Ore., has been both a blessing and a curse to the miners. On the one hand, there is the possibility that the piles of gravel from behind the Rogue dams will contain previously overlooked gold. On the other, the rush of silt in the days after a dam breach makes dredging as pleasant as driving in a thick fog. Noise is the most obvious environmental impact of suction dredging, but not the most studied. Over the last 25 years, scientific studies have raised questions about other effects on riverine ecosystems, but have come to no clear conclusion. The dredges can suck up fish eggs and small fry. But the season for dredging is in the summer, when little or no spawning is under way. The miners also carve out what Mr. Atkinson called “massive holes” in the riverbed, leaving piles of gravel just below the dredge, and uproot the insect colonies that are the bottommost link of the aquatic food chain. But the sudden cloud of insects also draws fish in to feed, the insect colonies reform within weeks or months, and high winter flows on the river can rearrange and smooth out the gravel piles.

A 2009 review of scientific studies by the California Department of Fish and Game highlighted numerous concerns about dredging’s environmental effects, but found no unambiguous or lasting harm to a river’s ecosystem. Unless, that is, the neighbors in that ecosystem are included. Dave Christiensen, 66, a retired landscape construction manager, owns a second home just below Gold Ray dam. “This year, these guys are going seven days a week,” he said. “We’ve asked them, ‘Could you put mufflers on these things?’ They say, ‘We have a permit and the government allows us to do this.’” Mr. Bray, the dredger, said that his encounters with neighbors had been generally cordial. “I’ve converted some,” he added. Not Terrell and Sharon Smith of Gold Hill, who on Monday circulated an e-mail among the anti-dredging forces. “No one seems to be addressing what the homeowners are going through with fouled irrigation pumps from the silt and gravel the dredgers are kicking up,” they wrote.

10 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 from 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

9/17/2010

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss aanndd OOtthheerr SSttuuffff i

Quote of Note: One of the penalties of not participating in politics is that you will be

governed by your inferiors." - Plato

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: New Age White Blend – Argentina (Try this on the rocks with a twist of lime) “No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.” - - Thomas Jefferson

Dams (The complete report can be viewed from this web site: http://books.google.com/books?id=9HlQabu2u4MC. If you want a full copy, I’ve included below the contact info.) Regulatory frameworks for dam safety: a comparative study Daniel D. Bradlow, Alessandro Palmieri, Salman M. A. Salman, World Bank Publications, 2002 - Technology & Engineering - 159 pages

This study is a comparative assessment of the regulatory frameworks applicable to dam safety in 22 countries. The first section of the book describes the dam safety regulation framework in each of the 22 countries. The second provides a comparative analysis of these regulatory frameworks and details the different approaches used by the 22 countries. The final section offers recommendations on the contents of a dam safety regulatory framework.

1

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

(They’re going to wear us out with this dam removal success story. This will be the case that the dam removal advocates will point to, along with the Klamath River dams, to push for removing more large dams. Hydro is going back one giant step and moving forward with one baby step.) The Elwha River returning to life Long-held dreams of restoring the Elwha River became reality when the National Park Service signed a contract for the demolition work to remove two dams. seattletimes.nwsource.com, September 5, 2010

REMOVAL of two big dams on the Elwha River in Olympic National Park is amazing because of the scale of the demolition project and, simply, because it is finally going to happen. For years it has been lots of talk and wispy timelines, but mostly no action. Late last month that changed with the National Park Service signing a contract with a Montana firm to start dam removal a year from now, instead of 2012. The schedule was moved up with a $50 million infusion of stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Demolition of the 108-foot-high Elwha Dam and the 210-foot-high Glines Canyon Dam will take time, but work will get under way. America is sneaking up on a dozen years of dam removal. None match the scale of the demolition project on the Elwha or the grandeur of the reclamation to take place. Before the river was blocked to generate power for a pulp mill, the Elwha was the storied home of epic fish runs and enormous fish. In due time, the Elwha is expected to be repopulated with salmon and steelhead, Seattle Times reporter Linda Mapes recently explained. Reviving the Elwha River is not inexpensive. Total cost tops $350 million, and includes the expense of a new water system for the city of Port Angeles and a new hatchery and flood-protection levies on the Lower Elwha Tribes reservation. Taxpayers are paying the cost of corners cut decades ago, including a charade of a hatchery system installed to make amends for shortcuts in dam permitting. Efforts to remove the dams began with a push by the Elwha tribe. Others took up and sustained the charge, including environmental advocate American Rivers, which campaigned for the last money to get restoration of the river and fish runs launched. As Amy Kober of American Rivers noted, this region will get to see "a river coming back to life before our eyes."

(Well, was it really necessary to throw that sucker-punch at the Corps of Engineers? Typical Congress nonsense – authorize something, but never provide the money to do the job!) Funding is needed to fix Virginia dam By The Daily Progress, September 05, 2010, dailyprogress.com

We’ve just passed the fifth anniversary of Katrina, but there is a similar danger brewing in Virginia, although on a smaller scale. More than 30 years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — the same agency involved with the levees of New Orleans — assessed an earthen dam on the Little Calfpasture River and declared it a “high hazard,” reports the Roanoke Times. More recently, the government labeled the dam “at risk of failure” in the face of a once-in-200-years storm. The Corps estimated that a dam failure would kill 28 people and cause $25 million in damage along the Maury River downstream from the dam to the area of Rockbridge Baths. Another 265 people would be threatened.

The dam, its 425-acre lake and the surrounding land are privately owned by the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The Scouts say they don’t have enough money to upgrade the dam — estimated cost: $5-$6 million — but are keeping an eye on it with regular inspections. By law, the federal government is supposed to fix the dam. In 1996 legislation, it was put on a list designating which dams nationwide were to receive funding for improvements. Only in 2003 did Congress actually begin appropriating money to do the job, and that lasted only through 2006. Each year, says the Corps of Engineers, the money was insufficient for the work, so the Corps allocated it to other projects. We can understand the decision. If the money isn’t enough for one job, it can be added to that of another project which could be completed. At least then, hopefully, someone will have been protected. But we could wish that the Corps had let the money accumulate in anticipation of collecting sufficient funding to apply to the project as designated. A once-in-200-years storm may seem too rare to be much of a threat; but with the kind of extreme weather we’ve been having lately, that kind of deluge is not so implausible. Congress should keep its word and provide the funding to upgrade this dam. And the Corps of Engineers should make it happen.

2

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

(For the dam safety technical folks – also received directly from Mr. Weiland) Dam safety and earthquakes International Water Power & Dam Construction, August 2010

This position paper sets out recommendations and guidelines for building dams and appurtenant structures that can withstand the effects of strong tremors. It also calls for effort to be made to collect, analyse and interpret observations of dam performance during earthquakes, and draws experience from the large Wenchuan and Chile earthquakes to improve the seismic safety assessment of existing dams and the design of new dams in the future. The paper was approved at the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) annual meeting in Hanoi in May 2010; and was prepared by the Committee on Seismic Aspects of Dam Design. • View full document [PDF 452.19 KB]

(This is a good way to deal with this issue. The State has taken an unfair beating over this project and this will serve them well.) National Panel in Iowa Next Week to Review Delhi Dam Breach iowadnr.gov: September 3, 2010

DES MOINES - A national panel of engineers assembled to determine the cause of the Lake Delhi dam breach on July 24th will be in Iowa next week to do a site visit, conduct interviews and begin review of records associated with the structure. The panel will hold a public briefing to discuss their work in Iowa so far and the other steps that will be taken in completing a final report at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9th at the Pizza Ranch, 1100 West Main Street, in Manchester. The expert panel was requested by Gov. Chet Culver and assembled under the auspices of the National Dam Safety Review Board. The panel will be issuing a report by Dec. 1 on the technical factors that contributed to the breach in the dam. Information gained from this study will be of use for dam safety not only in Iowa, but across the nation. Named to the panel are: • William R. Fiedler, P.E. , U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Technical Service Center, Denver, Colorado. Mr. Fiedler has over 35 years of experience with the Bureau of Reclamation. His career has been spent designing, analyzing and evaluating spillways, outlet works structures and concrete dams. He has served as a team leader on a number of dam safety modification projects. He is a member of Reclamation's Dam Safety Advisory Team and of the Risk Cadre. He has facilitated numerous risk analyses and helped develop methodologies for estimating risk for potential failure modes related to spillway structures. He is also leading an interagency team tasked with developing consistent risk management approaches within the Department of the Interior. • Neil T. Schwanz, P.E. , U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District. Mr. Schwanz has over 31 years of experience in the St. Paul District geotechnical design section including assistance to other district and division offices and Headquarters. The bulk of Mr. Schwanz's design experience has been in support of Civil Works projects focusing on flood control and dam safety concerns and has participated on many teams involving complex projects. • Wayne B. King, P.E., Deputy Regional Engineer for the Atlanta Regional Office of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Mr. King has 34 years of civil engineering experience starting with surveying and land development, graduate work in tailings dams, geotechnical investigations of the Gulf of Mexico seafloor , Corps of Engineers inspection, design and construction of flood control structures and dam safety evaluations. At FERC, Mr. King is directly involved with all aspects of dam safety for FERC licensed hydroelectric projects.

(Maybe it only took only 16 months to build the dam because they didn’t build much of a dam in the 1st place) Hope Mills manager: Repairs to dam to take 3 to 5 years By Rodger Mullen, Staff writer, Sep 08, 2010, fayobserver.com

HOPE MILLS, NC - Repairing the breached dam on Hope Mills Lake will probably take three to five years, Town Manager Randy Beeman said Tuesday. "In a perfect world, three years," Beeman said. Beeman said the timetable is based on discussions he had with state dam safety officials in Raleigh last week. He is 3

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu scheduled to report the findings to the town Board of Commissioners at a meeting tonight. The town has been without its centerpiece lake since the dam was breached June 17. Work since then has centered on stabilizing the remains of the dam. The dam failed less than two years after it was completed and the lake refilled. The $14 million structure replaced an 80-year-old earthen dam that was breached during heavy rains in 2003. Beeman said he met with state dam officials Aug. 31 to discuss progress on the repairs. He said the three- to five-year estimate is based on how long the work will take and how long the permitting, approval and bidding processes will take. Federal and state permits would have to be obtained from the Army Corps of Engineers, the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Dam Safety Program and other agencies, Beeman said. Beeman said he could not estimate how much the work will cost. He said the town has not spent anything since the dam failure. State dam safety engineer Steve McEvoy said the timetable is a realistic one.

"The effort now is to have final stabilization on the dam that would provide reasonable protection against (water) impoundment during storm events," McEvoy said, "after which time the town would have to either repair or permanently breach the dam." McEvoy said removing the dam is an option. However, that possibility has not been raised by town officials. Mayor Eddie Dees said he had not read Beeman's memo but expressed disappointment at the three- to five-year timetable. "It only took about 16 months to build the thing," Dees said. "Why would it take five years to repair?" Beeman said while the process of stabilizing and repairing the dam has been "slow and arduous," dam safety and other state agencies have been cooperative. "You've probably heard, all you have to do is fill the hole with concrete. Nope, not that simple," Beeman said. "It's going to be a long process. It's not short term; it's going to take time." Beeman said once the dam is repaired, refilling the lake would take only a couple of days because it is relatively shallow. In addition to meeting with state dam officials, Beeman said he has been meeting regularly with the engineers and construction companies that built the dam. "It's not an immediate fix. I've never said it was an immediate fix," Beeman said.

Hydro (Wait a minute – I use that water too for hydro generation!) Water power in question Official, Logan Municipal Council discuss canal project impact By Jay Patrick staff writer | September 8, 2010 12:15 am | hjnews.com

Some on the Logan Municipal Council (Utah) are concerned about getting shortchanged on hydropower with a proposed canal project resulting from the collapse of the Logan Northern canal last year. At a meeting Tuesday night, Light and Power Department Director Jeff White talked technical to the council about water flows, diversion points and power capacity, but it boiled down to this: The new $26 million canal system being considered would take water out of the Logan River above the city’s turbines at the mouth of the canyon, meaning less municipal hydropower would be produced. The canal company and the city have just begun talking about how the city might be compensated for the loss, which could reach up to $300,000 per year, said White. The city could take a hard line and seek to be compensated by the canal company dollar for dollar for the value of the lost hydropower, which to purchase on the open market is significantly more expensive than is power produced by coal-fired plants.

Canal company officials have said the company can’t afford the payments (the amount of which are undetermined) and has sought to work some other deal, including limiting irrigation and turning water over to the city when the city needs it during peak power-use times. Developing hydropower facilities along the new canal is another possible way to make up the loss, White told the council. Councilwoman Laraine Swenson indicated her skepticism at such arrangements and asked White to produce hard figures about lost revenues, which White estimated to be from $40,000 to $300,000 per year. Councilmen Jay Monson and Herm Olsen said they support efforts to restore irrigation water to farmers and cities up north but not if it means satisfying the canal company at the expense of Logan residents. “To just say, ‘Well, OK, it doesn’t matter anymore’ would be wrong,” said Monson. Earlier this year, the city filed a protest with the state over the canal company’s application for a change in the diversion. That issue must be resolved before the canal project can go ahead. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, a federal agency, is studying options 4

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu for rebuilding the upper canal, officially called the Logan, Hyde Park, Smithfield canal, and restoring water to former Logan Northern canal customers. Four possible construction scenarios are being reviewed for environmental and economic impacts. A $19 million grant was awarded to Cache County earlier this year to go toward the project; the canal company and cities served are anticipated to come up with the remaining $7 million. White said talks with the canal company are in a preliminary stage. “Everybody’s happy when there’s plenty of water,” he said. “When there’s not enough to go around, there is going to be a problem.”

(This is curious! There is no hint at what advantage this represents.) PPL to sell gas-fired plants, hydroelectric share for $381mn powergenworldwide.com, 9 September 2010

PPL Corp. agreed to sell interests in several non-core generating assets to LS Power Equity Advisors, a unit of LS Power, for $381 million in cash. The sale includes the 244 MW PPL Wallingford Energy natural gas- fired plant in Connecticut; the 585 MW PPL University Park natural gas-fired plant in Illinois and PPL's one- third share in Safe Harbor Water Power Corp., which owns the 421 MW Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Station in Pennsylvania. The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter pending regulatory approvals and third- party consents. The sale is expected to result in an after-tax special item charge against PPL's third-quarter earnings of $65 million to $80 million.

(Blackmail to deal with a problem unrelated to the hydro project. Typical – everybody agrees but one party, so they have the right to delay the whole process by going to court.) Judge To Decide On Key Certificate For Alcoa's Yadkin River License Julie Rose, September 9, 2010, wfae.org, WFAE 90.7 FM

Alcoa's quest to get another 50-year operating license for its dams on the Yadkin River faces a key hearing Friday in Raleigh. The company no longer needs the dams for an aluminum smelter in Stanly County, but wants to continue selling the electricity for a profit. Governor Perdue and Stanly County officials hope to block Alcoa's license renewal. But WFAE's Julie Rose reports the process is going forward.

Before the federal government will consider issuing another hydropower license to Alcoa, the company needs a certificate from the state Division of Water Quality. Alcoa spokesman Mike Belwood says it's the last piece of a puzzle that's taken years to assemble. "We have worked very carefully with a number of organizations in the state to obtain a relicensing settlement agreement," says Belwood. "We think everything is in position but this one document and as soon as we're able to achieve that we can move forward." Alcoa actually did get the document last summer - it's called a 401 water quality certificate. But an environmental group called the Yadkin Riverkeeper appealed, and a judge put the certificate on hold. The Riverkeeper's attorney is Ryke Longest of the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic. "It's time for a do-over on the 401 certification," says Longest. "The 401 certification needs to be sent back to the Division of Water Quality. It needs to follow the process outlined in the North Carolina environmental policy act." State water quality officials looked primarily at the status of the water as it passed through the dams in issuing the 401 certificate. But one of the reservoirs - High Rock Lake - has serious pollution problems. The Riverkeeper says Alcoa should be forced to fix that first. Alcoa argues the division of water quality was plenty thorough in issuing the certificate - with one exception. State regulators want Alcoa to post a $240 million bond as a guarantee it will make improvements to the dams. Alcoa says that's three times more money than the work will cost. Administrative Law Judge Joe Webster will hear arguments Friday morning. Approval of the water quality certificate will clear the way for quick renewal of Alcoa's 50-year license. A number of state and local officials - including Governor Bev Perdue - would like to see Alcoa's license denied completely and the dams placed under state control.

(Does anyone have a list of rivers that are over 250 feet deep? Where in the world can this thing be installed? Is there a video out there that shows how it works?) Inventor says his water turbine is green power source By Adrian Sainz • ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 13, 2010, tennessean.com

Geoff Greene saw the power of water currents up close 15 years ago, when a 25-foot boat he was riding in the Mississippi River was nearly dragged underwater when its anchor snagged on the bottom and pulled down on the back of the vessel. A question then popped into Greene's brain: How can I harness that underwater energy? Using water's movement to generate energy is certainly not an original thought — dams and hydroelectric power plants fill that role. But Greene's challenge was to create a new way to produce clean energy and avoid the costly and time-consuming effort of building a dam or power plant. Enter the 5

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Greene Turbine, a 15-year labor of science, engineering and love that will be exhibited starting today at the University of Memphis. Greene, a 46-year-old high school graduate and handyman, has a vision of installing his turbines in rivers and oceans to add juice to the nation's electrical grids.

'Water windmill' The invention looks a bit like a windmill encircled by a rim. It has a sealed middle structure and concrete blades that harness ocean or deep river currents to turn it. As the device moves like a Ferris wheel, large water tanks at the end of each "spoke" fill up. When a tank reaches the top of the wheel, water pours down to the center through the "spokes," which are actually pipes. The rush of water continuously spins the turbine inside the enclosed middle, generating power that then is transferred into a generator. Unlike a dam, no reservoir is needed, because the tanks refill on their own. Because the turbine uses only water and gravity to create renewable energy, it is pollution-free. The apparatus, which would be 250 feet in diameter, works underwater and would be built using materials that already exist. Greene, who estimates that one turbine could power 1,000 homes at a time, needs money to research and build a prototype. Seeking help, he approached mechanical engineering professor John Hochstein at the University of Memphis. Hoch-stein and Greene have been working together on the hydrokinetic energy turbine for about a year and have asked the Department of Energy for funding to produce a turbine that would be installed in the Mississippi River.

Water (Now, here’s a scary situation. Not enough water!) ENERGY: Hoover Dam could stop generating electricity as soon as 2013, officials fear Dropping water levels imperil power flowing to Southern California nctimes.com, staff writer Eric Wolff , September 11, 2010

After 75 years of steadily cranking out electricity for California, Arizona and Nevada, the mighty turbines of the Hoover Dam could cease turning as soon as 2013, if water levels in the lake that feeds the dam don't start to recover, say water and dam experts. Under pressure from the region's growing population and years of drought, Lake Mead was down to 1,087 feet, a 54-year low, as of Wednesday. If the lake loses 10 feet a year, as it has recently, it will soon reach 1,050 feet, the level below which the turbines can no longer run. Those hydroelectric generators produce cheap electricity for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which is responsible for pumping water across the Colorado River Aqueduct to hydrate much of Southern California. Without that power, Metropolitan's costs to transport water will double or even triple, a district executive said. That could result in a $10 to $20 a month increase in annual costs for residential customers, but could have greater impacts on business customers who use more water.

Federal and state water managers have been working to stave off that day, and two scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla who study Lake Mead believe that managers will never allow 6

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu levels to get below 1,050 feet. But Pat Mulroy, who runs the Las Vegas Valley Water District and the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said she has to worry about the worst-case scenario. One of two intake pipes that pump water to Las Vegas is at that same 1,050-foot level. "We're teetering on the first shortage right now," Mulroy said. "How quickly Mead goes down depends on which hydrology you look at; the Bureau (of Reclamation, which runs the dam) bases it on probability. But the whole probability analysis, because of climate change, has been thrown out the window. We’re experiencing anomaly after anomaly." The decrease in water already experienced at Lake Mead has reduced output from the turbines from 130 megawatts of peak capacity to 100, according to Peter DiDonato, who runs the Hoover Dam's hydroelectric generators. Each megawatt could power 650 homes.

Megawatts per foot For every foot of elevation lost in Lake Mead ---- about 100,000 acre feet of water, or enough for 200,000 households ---- the dam produces 5.7 megawatts less power. That's because at lower water pressure, air bubbles flow through with the water, causing the turbines to lose efficiency. "It was designed as a high- elevation dam," DiDonato said. The bureau is preparing for reduced elevations by testing a different type of turbine starting in 2012, one that can handle levels down to 1,000 feet, he said. DiDonato is concerned about falling levels, but not too concerned. The government's 24-month forecast shows lake levels returning to 1,100 feet next year. "The drought can't last forever," DiDonato said. "Eventually, the lake is going to fill up again. You have to hope it does." Actually, the drought may not be a short-term emergency so much as a feature of a new, drier American West. "To blame this on a drought that’s going to be over next year or something, that’s not correct," said Tim Barnett, a marine physicist at the Scripps Intuition of Oceanography in La Jolla. "This looks like the first harbingers of man's impact on the climate." Barnett and his Scripps colleague, climate researcher David Pierce, wrote several papers on the hydrology of Lake Mead.

In a 2009 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the pair calculated a 50 percent chance that by 2025, users would not receive their full request of water from the Colorado River. That would create water problems for Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico (which is at the end of the river), in addition to the lost megawatts from lower efficiency in the hydroelectric turbines. Pierce recalculated their figures to determine the effects of increased demand from development and of climate change. He determined that with no change in water management policy, there was a 20 percent chance that the turbines would have to shut off in 2025.

Wet century past Also, natural cycles exacerbate the problem, Pierce and Barnett wrote. The 20th century was the wettest in a millennium for the American West, based on research using tree rings. If a reversion to historical water levels combines with climate change and continued increases in demand, there's a 20 percent chance that Lake Mead will fall below 1,050 feet next year, Pierce said in an interview. But Pierce and Barnett don't think the government will allow that to happen. Federal water managers can release more water from upriver Lake Powell, although no water was released this year. And they can refuse to grant water requests in full, something that's never happened before, Pierce said. Losing power from the Hoover Dam would raise expenses for Metropolitan and for Southern California Edison, both of which buy power for the dam at low rates. Edison has already begun preparations for lower power generation from the dam, which represents 0.3 percent of its portfolio, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for the utility. The dam supplies 60 percent of Metropolitan's power needs, said Brian Thomas, chief financial officer and assistant general manager of the agency. Without power from the dam, Metropolitan would turn to the spot electricity market and pay double or triple the cost, depending on how much less power the dam is producing.

Government agencies aren't sitting around doing nothing. When Lake Mead falls to 1,075 feet, an austerity plan kicks in that reduces water deliveries by 10 percent. Metropolitan and the Southern Nevada Water Authority are storing excess water from other sources in Lake Mead, and the Mexican government is in negotiations to do the same thing. Metropolitan initiated a new energy policy last month that includes more efficiency and construction of 10 megawatts of solar panels, to offset loss of power from the dam. Still, Barnett and Pierce are worried. "It would be very foolish to think this is a short-term aberration due to a drought of three, four, five or even 10 years," Barnett said. "It's a resource that’s fully utilized. You can't get any more out of it. And nobody's talking about curtailing development."

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Environment (Guess the fish know that a square peg won’t fit in a round hole.) PUD project should help firm up fish By Christine Pratt, World staff writer, wenatcheeworld.com, September 9, 2010

WENATCHEE, WA — Early design and earthwork will begin in the coming months on a fish-rearing facility at Chelan Falls designed to produce physically fit summer chinook salmon with a better chance of survival. Chelan County PUD commissioners Tuesday approved an advance of $600,000 from next year’s budget to start the project, which will be built just north of Powerhouse Park at the tailrace of the Lake Chelan Dam powerhouse. The funds will be added to nearly $585,000 already budgeted for the project this year. The utility is counting on the project to help meet its federal requirements for fish survival around its Columbia River dams. The $8.2 million project won’t be a hatchery, but a facility for raising young salmon until they’re yearlings and ready for release and migration to the ocean.

It’ll use round rearing tanks, which contain a constantly circulating flow water, Joe Miller, hatchery program manager for the PUD, told commissioners Monday. The baby fish swim against the current by instinct and get a better workout than they would in the traditional rectangular tanks, Miller said. PUD biologists have observed higher survival/return rates of fish raised in round tanks built in recent years at its Eastbank and Chiwawa facilities, Miller said. They suspect it’s because these fish are stronger and more fit. The round tanks also have a more time-saving system for collecting and disposing of fish waste and uneaten food to keep the water clean. The funds this year will be used to finalize the design, buy equipment, relocate a water line at the site and do some earthmoving, Miller said. Most of the expense and high-profile construction will be next year toward a finish date in the fall. The facility is also an initial step in a process to close the PUD’s aged hatchery on Turtle Rock Island, in the Columbia. The hatchery, which dates to the late 1950s, raises steelhead and summer chinook using Columbia River surface water, rather than water specific from a more homing stream. PUD statistics show that 76 percent of fish raised in the Columbia River water at Turtle Rock “stray” into other, unintended tributaries, possibly threatening those streams’ native fish. The Chelan Falls facility will use water from the Chelan River and dam tailrace to help the fish “imprint” on that location and return there from the ocean to spawn. The facility will raise 600,000 fish to yearlings annually. Their release is designed to supplement lost fishing opportunities when the dams were built, Miller said. Summer chinook make their upriver run from mid-June through early November. PUD officials hope to close the Turtle Rock hatchery in 2012.

Bonneville Power Administration releases plan to protect 16,880 acres of Willamette Valley habitat oregonlive.com -- Scott Learn, September 11, 2010

The Bonneville Power Administration plans to spend more than $125 million over 15 years to protect at least 16,880acres of fish and wildlife habitat in the Willamette Valley. The draft deal with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, announced late Friday after years of negotiations, compensates for habitat lost with federal construction of 13 Willamette River basin dams and reservoirs. It also addresses damage done by the dams to fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. BPA sells electricity generated at the dams, built and operated primarily for flood control by the Army Corps of Engineers. The money would help the state, tribes and nonprofits buy land or conservation easements to protect rare habitat, including wetlands, oak savanna and bottomland forests. BPA and Oregon settled on a total of 26,537 acres for compensation. That’s a compromise between ODFW’s initial request for about 34,000 acres and BPA’s initial offer of roughly 18,000 acres, BPA spokesman Michael Milstein said. BPA-funded purchases have protected 6,699acres in prior years and another 2,958 acres are expected to be purchased soon, leaving 16,880 acres to be protected between 2011 and 2025.

Under the agreement, BPA commits to baseline funding of $103.5 million for habitat protection in that period and another $23.2 million to help ODFW maintain and restore the land. Inflation adjustments beginning in 2015 would increase those totals. Milstein said the agency plans to manage the costs so it doesn’t have to raise power rates to cover them. The costs are similar to Willamette Valley habitat spending in recent years, which have already been built into rates, he said. The draft agreement is open for public comment through 8

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Oct. 12. To read the agreement and submit comments to BPA, go to www.bpa.gov/commentand scroll down to the “Willamette Mitigation Settlement Agreement” entry. Submit comments to ODFW by e-mail at [email protected].

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 from those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

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9/24/2010

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss aanndd OOtthheerr SSttuuffff i

Quote of Note: “A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real

on real issues." -- Theodore Roosevelt

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Santa Carolina Reserva de Familia, Rapal Valley, Chile, 2007 “No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.” - - Thomas Jefferson

Dams (Excerpts) Delving deeper into budget cuts: Part 3 bllogs.suntiimes.com, Sept. 13, 2010, By Jamey Dunn

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has been the target of controversial budget cuts in the past, when former Gov. Rod Blagojevich closed state parks in what he said was an effort to save money. ------. ($2.4 million) Lump Sums This includes the elimination of the Environment and Nature Training Institute for Conservation Education (E.N.T.I.C.E.) program and the Wildlife Prairie Park subsidy. Funding for the Dam Safety Program, aimed at communicating drowning risks at run-of-the-river dams will be reduced. ------. The Safety at Dams program would take a $100,000 hit. The program places buoys and signs at state- owned dams and waterways to reduce the risk of drownings. McCloud said the program has built up the number of such safely measures since its inception in 2008. He said funding for this fiscal year is at a “sustainable level for supporting this program.”

TC Commission Deciding Fate of Dam 9and10news.com, 9/14/2010

This Traverse City Dam could be a thing of the past. The Boardman River Dam Implementation Team is recommending that they use locally raised funds for their dam removal project. The project is looking to remove or upgrade the Boardman River Dams, in hopes of improving the environment. Monday night, the city commission looked at a joint resolution that would speed up the dam removal 1

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process. It would focus their attention on the Brown Bridge Dam, and that dam would be removed first. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working on the removal of the dam, but it's going to take a while to begin the process. They say removing the Brown Bridge Dam first makes more sense, since it's furthest up stream. By removing this dam first, they'll be restoring 156 acres of wet lands.

County to spend $300K on dam James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer, 09/14/2010, sbsun.com

San Bernardino County will spend more than $300,000 this year on upgrades and a stability study of Lake Gregory dam. The study and upgrades are necessary to meet state safety standards, officials said. If those standards aren't met, the county won't be able to bring the lake up to its full water level next spring. San Bernardino firm Tetra Tech will perform a seismic stability study of the dam. Similar studies have been done several times in the past 20 years, but the studies did not fully comply with state regulations, meaning the county earlier this year had to remove metal boards that raise the level of the lake by several feet. County supervisors on Tuesday approved an $84,430 contract with Tetra Tech to do the seismic study.

The dam upgrades - the county must install equipment that will shorten the time it takes to drain the lake after an earthquake - will be costlier: a price tag of $250,000 to $300,000. To help pay for the upgrades, the county plans to hold off the building of a second water playground area at the lake, saving $124,648. "Putting the water playground on hold will allow us to complete the state-required repairs well before the next Lake Gregory swim season begins on Memorial Day weekend 2011," Supervisor Paul Biane said. "I still plan on bringing a second water playground to Lake Gregory because I believe the playgrounds are a great tourist draw, but for now, we must put the focus on complying with the state's conditions as soon as possible."

DWR Director Responds to U.S. Army Corps levee inspection results aquafornia.com, Aqua Blog Maven on September 15, 2010

From the Department of Water Resources: “Sacramento, CA – Department of Water Resources (DWR) Director Mark Cowin responded today to the release of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers periodic levee inspection report. “Today’s levee inspection results announced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, although not a surprise, reinforces the need to proactively manage our flood risk. We have been and will continue to work closely with the Corps through our FloodSAFE Initiative to address flood risk on a system-wide basis. This includes any deficiencies in the five levee systems the Corps identified today. To that end, since voters approved nearly $5 billion in flood bonds in 2006 the state has completed 118 of the most critical levee repairs and completed repairs on 146 proactive levees sites. Four critical levee repairs are currently in progress, while 76 proactive repairs are under way. In addition, Gov. Schwarzenegger expedited over $740 million in state and local money for eight Early Implementation Projects that include the soon to be completed Natomas levee project. We must remember that once the levee maintenance deficiencies the Corps identified today are resolved, and after the FloodSAFE Initiative completes its Central Valley Flood Protection Plan, there will always be risk of flooding in California. We will continue to work with the Corps and our local counterparts to ensure that our levees are maintained to the proper standards for the safety of our residents, the environment and the economy.” “The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.”

(You have got to be kidding. Spending $1.5 Billion dollars on dam removal isn’t cheaper than relicensing. The OR PUC is out to lunch I guess – to put it kindly! If you need to justify removing these dams, they could at least be honest – it’s a salmon issue.) Ore. Public Utility Commission: Klamath dam removal cheaper than re- licensing By Emily Wood & KDRV Staff, September 16, 2010, kdrv.com

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - The Oregon Public Utility Commission says removing four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River will be cheaper than re-licensing them. The PUC, a state agency designed to protect utility customers, says PacifiCorp, who owns the dams, will save ratepayers' money by not going through the 2

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re-licensing process. PacifiCorp customers are already paying a dam removal surcharge on their bills. That money is being saved for potential removal based on the approval of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement by the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar. Supporters of the KBRA and dam removal say this ruling is a major milestone.

"By the PUC making its ruling today, it confirms the fact that evidence is clear that dam removal is in the interest of the customers, and that what we have been saying for these many years is in fact true," said Steve Rothert, California Director of American Rivers. "They had a very predetermined agenda in mind from the very beginning. They are refusing to look at the other options that are available. Siskiyou County had a very good proposal on a couple of those options where they can bypass the dams using the existing stream beds," KBRA opponent Tom Mallams said. Siskiyou County and Klamath County both have initiatives on the November ballot to determine if the voters are for or against dam removal. Long-running battles over sharing scarce water between salmon and farms in the Klamath Basin led to two landmark agreements earlier this year, the KBRA and KHSA. The KBRA and KHSA were signed by more than 30 groups in February, including Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. If approved, it would be the largest dam removal in U.S. History. In total, both agreements amount to $1.5 billion, including $200-million funded by Oregon and $250-million by California. With the agreements signed, the fate of dam removal lies in the hands of Congress and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who has until 2012 to determine if dam removal is economically and environmentally safe. Actual removal of the dams would not start until 2020. In addition to the signing the KBRA and KHSA, the removal of the dams is contingent on a water bond that is before California voters.

US Army Corps plans more Roush Lake Dam monitoring THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • SEPTEMBER 19, 2010, thestarpress.com

Huntington, Ind. (AP) — Contractors working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to install sensitive instruments to monitor the operation of the 91-foot tall Roush Lake Dam near Huntington. The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne reports the 40-year-old earthen dam is getting shorter as it settles, and also bends and leaks. Officials, however, say the dam is operating in a way that is considered normal. The monitoring work is expected to cost about $200,000 and could begin this week. The Corps has given the dam increased scrutiny since 2005. A breach could threaten homes and an industrial park on the west edge of the city, as well as communities downstream on the Wabash River.

Hydro (Somehow this one slipped through the search network so here it is a little late. It doesn’t generate much power, but it is interesting. I think you’ll need somewhere around a Bazillion of these things to power a small city. Sounds like something that would fit well in undeveloped areas.) INVENTION AWARDS: A FISH-FRIENDLY TIDAL TURBINE An underwater energy extractor that doesn't harm sea life By Rena Marie Pacella, 05.20.2010, popsci.com

Today's featured Invention Award winner is the ECO-Auger, which accesses tidal energy without harming marine life.

W. Scott Anderson spent the past five decades creating complicated machines for manufacturing, including a lipstick labeler and a plastic-straw maker. So when two years ago the 77-year-old industrial engineer invented a fish-friendly underwater turbine that looks like a giant screw, it seemed a cruel twist of fate that every manufacturer he approached said it was too complex to produce economically. But that didn’t stop him. • Invention: ECO-Auger • Inventor: W. Scott Anderson 3

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• Cost: Undisclosed • Time: 5 years

Is It Ready Yet? 1 2 3 4 5 There are a handful of companies using windmill-like turbines to capture the untapped energy in tidal streams, bays and inlets and convert it to electricity. But these projects tend to be huge and expensive, and require permanent installations that can disrupt marine life.

How the ECO-Auger Works: The auger creates enough torque to drive a hydraulic pump, which moves oil out of a storage tank through pipes to drive a generator located outside the water. Excess oil pumped in strong currents is diverted to an accumulator tank until the current slows, when it's used to keep the generator turning at the proper speed. Paul Wootton

Anderson’s ECO-Auger is based on a much different design, enabling it to access energy that regular water turbines can’t. Rather than using blades, it produces power when the current spins a drill-shaped device called an auger, which has tapered ends that don’t harm fish. Instead of using gears to drive an attached generator, a hydraulic pump in the nosecone pumps high-pressure oil to turn a generator outside the water. The arrangement lets the turbine capture energy in shallow waters, and to tether to bridges and other structures so that the auger is relatively easy to lift out of the water for maintenance. Whereas most bladed turbines need at least 30 feet of water to operate, Anderson’s smallest units need only 10. Anderson had used a revolving horizontal corkscrew to feed plastic to machines in his New Jersey factory and knew that ancient Egyptian farmers used augers to irrigate high ground. To see if a water-driven auger could do the job of conventional turbine blades, he tested an eight-inch plastic prototype in a pool, measured the torque, and ran it in a tank of minnows. When he saw that it worked without affecting the fish, he spent four months in his garage handcrafting a two-foot-diameter polyurethane-and-fiberglass auger that in a test captured 14 percent of the water’s energy—not as much as the 25 to 45 percent that huge propeller-driven turbines can get, but Anderson says that percentage will go up as the auger’s diameter increases, and for a fraction of the cost. Recently the inventor bought two cast-aluminum molds to make the first few six-foot-diameter prototypes and has persuaded a plastic-molding company to produce them in segments. If he gets approval, he will have them spinning in inlets around the world this year. In a 10-knot current, each will generate five to seven kilowatts, enough to power four to six homes. Most important, he wants to show that his method of mass production is sound, so he can move on to the full-scale, 16-foot-diameter augers. “We already know it will work,” he says. “Now it’s just a matter of doing it.”

(It won’t take much before there is no hydro development) Aspen may water down plan for hydropower Staff to consider compromises involving removal of less water for project Aaron Hedge, The Aspen Times, Aspen, CO Colorado, September 14, 2010

ASPEN — City staff coordinating the effort to build an Aspen hydropower plant on Castle Creek that would divert 25 cubic feet per second from the stream said Monday night they would weigh compromises that would potentially divert less water. The move is an effort to find middle ground with a group of residents who oppose the current proposal. The residents, many of whom live along the creek, say it could harm the ecosystems of Castle and Maroon creeks. Talks started last week between the City Council and the group to postpone the council's decision, originally scheduled for Monday, to Oct. 16. The staff bases its opinion that the stream would remain healthy on a city-commissioned study of its complex ebb-and-flow cycle done by an environmental consultant. Dee Malone, who ran for a Pitkin County commissioner seat in 2008 and was among the people who voiced opposition to the project at 4

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Monday night's City Council meeting, said that study is “at best questionable” because it only lasted a few months. “It's like putting the stream on life support,” she said.

Currently, Castle Creek runs at its minimal stream flow — about 14 cubic feet per second, or cfs — in February and March. The hydropower plant could extend that period to six months. Malone asked the City Council to entertain commissioning a three-year study of the stream that she said would more accurately portray its diversity. She said parts of Castle Creek are flat and some are steep, while some are narrow and others are wide. “Each type of stream is going to respond differently to the dewatering,” she said. The main incentive the city cites in building the hydropower plant is that it would save the city from paying energy fees to a Nebraska power authority. The project, they say, would localize Aspen's energy economy and move it closer to its goal of becoming completely carbon-neutral. But City Manager Steve Barwick said if the city were to divert less water from Castle Creek than originally planned — not letting it go below 19 cfs — the project would still have a huge economic benefit. The city has already spent about $400,000 on the project, building a drain line from Thomas Reservoir that would feed the power turbines, as well as purchasing the turbines for the power plant, which would be located under the Highway 82 bridge that spans Castle Creek on Power Plant Road. The money is coming from bonds that are meant for the energy center, but if the City Council does not approve the proposal, those funds would have to be allocated to something else, or paid back. Aspen has not received permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to start the project. Spokeswoman Sally Spaulding has said no permission is required from FERC to build the drain line. The city plans to apply for a conduit exemption from the agency, which is basically permission to build a hydropower plant using existing infrastructure such as the intake valves on Castle and Maroon creeks and the pipelines that take water to Thomas Reservoir for Aspen's drinking supply. But Maureen Hirsch, who lives on Castle Creek just below where the water would be returned to the stream, said that only half of the infrastructure is existing. She said FERC might deny the exemption on those grounds. The FERC license for a hydropower plant involves years of red tape and applications.

(The dam is just a bit too small for much power, but we’ll take what we can get) Hydroelectric may come to Gardiner New Mills Dam potential site of small power plant By Mechele Cooper Staff Writer, kjonline.com, September 14

GARDINER -- City officials are considering the potential benefits of a small hydroelectric power plant at the New Mills Dam. New Mills Dam is owned by Gardiner, Litchfield and Richmond; the pump station and equipment belong to the Gardiner Water District. Last Wednesday, the water district Board of Trustees and city officials met with Abigail Parker, a representative of Osprey LLC, to discuss the potential. "We're trying to get it back to energy generation," Parker said of the New Mills Dam site on Cobbosseecontee Stream that includes an old pump station. "We're still in the very early planning process and have met with the Water District trustees, the owner of the power station and turbine equipment, but nothing was decided. We discussed some options, but nothing concrete." City Manager Scott Morelli said the city would benefit in two ways: If Osprey used the dam for power generation, he said the liability would shift to that company; the city would no longer have to insure or maintain the property and could gain an annual percentage of the net sale of electricity. Osprey is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Phoenix Renewable Energy, an affiliate of Woolwich- based general contractor Reed & Reed Inc., which has erected windmills across New England.

The proposed project would consist of "an existing 12-foot-high, 91-foot-wide concrete dam with a 58-feett- wide spillway; an existing 140-acre reservoir; an existing powerhouse penstock and outlet structure; new turbine generator units with a total installed capacity of 250 kilowatts; a new transmission line connecting to an existing Central Maine Power distribution line located 3,000 feet downstream of the dam; and appurtenant facilities." The project could produce an average annual generation of about 1,300 megawatt- hours that could be sold directly to a local utility, according to the company's estimates. "They haven't made any sort of an offer or anything like that," Morelli said Monday. "They want to meet with the communities that have an inter-municipal agreement to maintain the dam." Gardiner Water District Superintendent Paul Gray said the water district Board of Trustees loved the idea. He said the water district had looked into a hydroelectric project before, but decided it was too expensive. There are a number of small electric- generating sites around the state. "I'd like to see something done with this dam and old building," Gray said. "It's a little piece of Gardiner history. They're going to come back with a more detailed proposal and the board is going to look at it seriously." Gray said Osprey could either lease or purchase the site. Osprey only wants to use a small portion of the old brick pump station, he said: a 16-feet-by-24-feet section that houses the generation equipment on the stream side. "We would like to find a way to restore that building so it could stay up for another 100 years," Gray said. "But this is pretty early in the process. When they come back we'll

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make a decision. We're shooting to meet with them again at the November meeting." He said board meetings are 5:30 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month in the water district's office at 46 Water St.

(Can these people ever make a decision?) NC judge sends dispute over Alcoa permit to trial (AP) – Sept. 15, 2010

RALEIGH, N.C. — A dispute that Alcoa Inc. needs resolved before it can get a new license to operate a series of hydropower dams in the state is headed to trial after a judge on Wednesday rejected requests for a quick decision. State Administrative Law Judge Joe Webster said he'll need a trial later this month before he can decide the dispute over a certificate issued last year by the Division of Water Quality. The division certified that if conditions it set were followed, Alcoa's wholly owned subsidiary, Alcoa Power Generating Inc., can operate the dams while protecting nearly 40 miles of the river and its reservoirs. "Based upon the evidence presented it appears that multiple material and factual issues are in dispute," Webster wrote in his ruling on a request for summary judgment in the case.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa is fighting to renew an expired license to operate Yadkin River dams built decades ago to supply electricity to an aluminum smelting plant. The Stanly County plant once employed hundreds but is now shuttered. The fight centers on whether Alcoa can keep selling electricity to high-paying commercial customers. The company estimated in 2006 that the dams generated almost $44 million a year in revenues from hydroelectric power generation, a figure that could multiply as demand for clean power booms. Gov. Beverly Perdue, her predecessor Mike Easley and Stanly County officials have opposed the company's relicensing bid. They hope to encourage local job growth attracted by dam-generated electricity and greater freedom to draw river water. Once the fight over the state certification is settled, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could consider renewing the company's license for up to 50 more years.

(A very positive hydro article) PRODUCERS Water Surge Hydropower, once shunned because of environmental concerns, is making a comeback online.wsj.com, SEPTEMBER 13, 2010, By STEPHANIE SIMON

LEADVILLE, Colo.—The giant pipes wheeze and rumble, the whoosh of water coursing through them as noisy as a freeway. The Mount Elbert hydropower plant high in the Rocky Mountains isn't much to look at—or listen to. But to true believers, it's a road map to a greener future. Hydropower, shunned just a few years ago as an environmental scourge, is experiencing a remarkable resurgence in the U.S. Dams are still viewed warily; in fact, Congress is considering dismantling four hydroelectric dams blamed for depleting salmon in the Klamath River basin in southern Oregon and northern California. But engineers and entrepreneurs are pressing an alternative view of hydropower that doesn't involve new dams. They argue that plenty of efficient, economical energy can be wrung from other water resources, including ocean waves, free-flowing rivers, irrigation ditches— even the effluent discharged from wastewater treatment facilities. There's a surge of interest, too, in adding small power plants to dams built years ago for flood control or navigation—as well as in turning reservoirs into battery packs of sorts, releasing energy when the grid needs it most.

Globally, hydropower provides 16% of electricity, slightly more than nuclear power and closing in on natural gas, according to the London-based International Hydropower Association. In the U.S., by contrast, hydropower now provides about 7% of electricity generation. All other renewable sources combined account for about 3%. Even without building large dams, expanding efforts to draw power from water could add 40,000 megawatts to the grid by 2025, says the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit research firm in Palo Alto, Calif. That's the equivalent of putting at least two dozen new nuclear power plants online.

Pouring It On Such estimates are stirring action. The U.S. Department of Energy spent nothing on hydropower research as recently as 2007 but allocated $50 million this year. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued 50 preliminary permits for small hydro projects last year, up from 15 in 2007. At least two dozen states have 6

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mandated that utilities draw more power from renewable sources—and many include small hydropower as an option, along with wind and solar. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter recently announced an agreement between his state and the federal government that will streamline the permitting process for developing small hydropower projects in Colorado. The Department of Energy estimates a new hydro project in 2016 would generate power at a cost of $120 per megawatt-hour. By contrast, the cost per megawatt-hour would be $150 at a wind farm going online that year and nearly $400 at a photovoltaic solar array. (Those figures don't take into account various tax incentives meant to offset the cost of renewable energy, especially wind and solar.) Hydro also has technical advantages over other renewables. Daily water flow in many areas is far more predictable than wind or sunshine. It's relatively easy to store the energy pent up in water so it can be released when the grid needs it most. And certain types of hydro plants can rev up from low power to full capacity within seconds. "There remains tremendous untapped potential in North America," says Don Erpenbeck, a vice president at MWH, a global hydropower construction and engineering firm in Broomfield, Colo. "After decades of delay, we are starting to realize that potential." But Mr. Erpenbeck adds that years- long waits for federal permits and high capital costs make hydropower a tough sell to some utilities and investors. Maximizing water energy in the U.S., he says, "is going to take some guts."

Countries such as Brazil and China remain committed to large hydroelectric dams and are forging ahead with big projects. Yet they are also looking at smaller solutions favored by environmentalists. The International Hydropower Association estimates that North America has developed nearly 70% of its available hydropower resources and Europe 75%. But the group sees huge potential in South America, Asia and especially Africa, where just 7% of resources have been developed.

Dam Smart In the U.S., one strategy gaining popularity is to add power plants to some of the 80,000 existing dams that don't have hydroelectric capacity. Technological advances like turbines that are gentler on fish and oxygen- injection systems that help balance aquatic ecosystems have won favor even among some environmental groups. In one such project, American Municipal Power Inc. is spending $2 billion to add power plants to three dams on the Ohio River and invest in additional hydropower elsewhere. The utility's CEO, Marc Gerken, says the new hydropower will cost more initially than coal or natural gas. But after the construction costs are paid off in 30 years, the utility will enjoy cheap power for several decades because the fuel—the rushing river—is essentially free and the plant is designed to run without much maintenance for 60 or 70 years. AMP, based in Columbus, Ohio, is a nonprofit corporation owned and operated by municipal utilities in the six states the company serves.

Other technologies are more speculative. A much-ballyhooed experiment that involved suspending a turbine from a barge in the Mississippi River didn't prove to be worth expanding. The turbine is generating power, but Hydro Green Energy LLC, the Houston-based start-up that developed the device, says it has moved on to more promising ventures. "It's still a power-producing, money-making device," but the economics don't support expansion, says Vice President Mark Stover. Several companies are experimenting with "low-head" turbines that can pull energy from relatively small volumes of water dropping as little as five feet over natural or man-made falls. One such project, launched by Natel Energy Inc. of Alameda, Calif., uses low-head technology to extract energy from an Arizona irrigation canal. Federal scientists say some of these approaches look promising but need more study. "With these new technologies, nobody knows what their environmental impacts might be," says Doug Hall, who manages the water-energy program at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory.

Pump Action A less-experimental technology, dating back more than a century, is also gaining currency as a means to store energy and back up the grid: pumped storage, the system used by the Mount Elbert hydro plant outside Denver. The plant, sitting on the jewel-like Twin Lakes and managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, plays a key role in keeping lights on and air conditioners humming across the West. At night, when demand on the power grid is low, the Mount Elbert plant sucks water from the lakes, sometimes using wind power to pump that water up into a reservoir above the plant. The reservoir acts as a liquid battery—a huge pool of potential energy. As the day warms up and the grid shows signs of strain, workers begin to release the water down a 470-foot drop, through devices that turn the pent-up energy into usable electricity. The water eventually pours back into the lakes, where it can be recycled into power again the next evening.

Pumped storage is quite popular abroad; China has 2,200 projects under construction, and India and Ukraine aren't far behind. An analysis by MWH shows that countries as varied as Romania, Thailand, Switzerland, South Africa and Italy are also moving heavily into pumped-storage construction. The U.S. has lagged, but federal authorities saw a surge in permit applications in 2008 and again so far this year. "No new dams are being built," says Dave Sabo, a senior adviser with the Bureau of Reclamation. But just about 7

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every other approach to hydropower, he says, is being studied and tested intensively. Says Mr. Sabo, "All this stuff is in play right now—pretty heavily."

Water (Whether you agree or not on climate change it’s always good to plan and stay ahead of the curve – up or down) Managing Hydropower Systems in a Changing Climate Republished from a January, 2010 press release by University of Washington News September 19, 2010, geology.com

Climate Change and Reservoir Management Civil engineers at the University of Washington and the U.S. Bonneville Dam Army Corps of Engineers' Seattle office have taken a first look at how dams in the Columbia River basin, the nation's largest hydropower system, could be managed for a different climate. They developed a new technique to determine when to empty reservoirs in the winter for flood control and when to refill them in the spring to provide storage for the coming year. Computer simulations showed that switching to the new management system under a warmer future climate would lessen summer losses in hydropower due to climate change by about a quarter. It would also bolster flows for fish by filling reservoirs more reliably. At the same time the approach reduced the risk of flooding. The findings are published in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management.

Changes in Snowpack Affects Water Arrival Dates "There are anticipated dramatic changes in the snowpack which ultimately will affect when the water comes into the Columbia's reservoirs," said co-author Alan Hamlet, a UW research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering who works in the UW's Climate Impacts Group. "We were trying to develop new tools and procedures for changing flood control operating rules in response to these changes in hydrology, and to test how well they work in practice." "Changes in flood control operations constitute only one climate- change adaptation strategy," Hamlet added, "but our study shows that incorporating climate change in flood management plans can improve the performance of existing water systems in future climates."

Historical Records vs Long-Term Forecasts Predicted hydrologic changes for the Pacific Northwest, and other mountain regions, include less springtime snowpack, earlier snow melt, earlier peaks in river flow and lower summer flows. Water managers currently use a system based on historical stream-flow records to gauge when to open and close the floodgates as part of a legally binding system that seeks to balance hydropower generation, flood risks, irrigation and other needs between regions. The authors created a computer program that uses long-term forecasts rather than historical records to recalculate when to begin Seven-Sisters, Can. filling and emptying the major storage reservoirs in the Columbia River basin in a warmer climate. They compared historical conditions with a scenario where temperatures are 2 degrees Celsius higher on average than today, a change expected in the Pacific Northwest by the second half of this century. The simulations suggested water managers could successfully deal with warmer conditions by refilling the system's reservoirs as much as one month earlier in the spring.

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Reduced Flooding Hazard? "For some locations, due to the reduced snowpack and spring peak flow we don't need to worry as much about the floods during the springtime," said lead author Se-Yeun Lee, who did the work for her doctorate at the UW and is now a UW postdoctoral researcher. "With reduced flood risk we can release less water and refill earlier. As a result we can supply more hydropower in summer and more storage for other needs like fish flows." The project aims to help regional water managers develop methods to deal with changes in the hydrological cycle. "In talking to water resource managers, they often feel stymied because currently there are no established analytical procedures that can be used to rebalance their system for a different climate," Hamlet said. "They see the problem, but the tools to deal with the problem are not in place."

Formal Changes in Management Practice It likely will be years before these management practices are formally changed, the authors said, but this study is a first step in that direction. "We need to develop the tools to be able to handle a changing climate now, so we're not rushing when it becomes a problem," said co-author Stephen Burges, a UW professor of civil and environmental engineering. Carolyn Fitzgerald, a UW graduate who is now at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle, also is a co-author. Research funding was provided by the UW Climate Impacts Group.

Environment Restoration Partners Break Ground for Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project yubanet.com, Sep 16, 2010

By: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Sept. 15, 2010 - Today’s 2 p.m. groundbreaking ceremony for the Battle Creek Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Project culminated in representatives from the Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Gas and Electric, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and California Department of Fish and Game symbolically turning a wheel at Coleman Dam along the banks of the South Fork of Battle Creek near Manton, Calif. This signifies a decade of commitment and dedication to this important effort. About 100 people attended the ceremony and all attendees were invited to the Battle Creek Water Conservancy annual meeting and dinner in the evening. Speaking at the event was Monica Medina, Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration together with Michael Connor, Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation; Randy Livingston, Vice President of Power Generation, PG&E; Neil Manji, Regional Manager, Northern Region, California Department of Fish and Game; and Robert Clarke, Acting Assistant Regional Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. PG&E’s Livingston said “PG&E’s early and full participation in the project is a reflection of our commitment to environmental stewardship.”

"Reclamation and its partners and contributors are embarking on a historic restoration of valuable habitat in Battle Creek," said Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor. "And by improving fish populations, the reliability in state and federal water operations as well as the salmon harvest will also be improved." Robert Clarke, Acting Assistant Regional Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, added "It is because of the continuing stewardship and support of natural resources of the Battle Creek watershed by the local community, that this project is now being implemented." PG&E is foregoing of nearly one-third of hydroelectric production of this facility, or 69 gigawatt hours of generation per year, and will maintain the newly built infrastructure. The utility also bore costs of a federal license amendment to allow the restoration work. The restoration project is among one of the largest cold-water anadromous fish restoration efforts in North America. The project will restore approximately 42 miles of habitat on Battle Creek and an additional 6 miles of habitat on tributaries to Battle Creek while maintaining the continued production of hydroelectric power. This is a unique opportunity because of the geology, hydrology, and habitat suitability for threatened and endangered Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead trout. The project is in Shasta and Tehama counties near Manton, Calif. In 1999, a Memorandum of Understanding between PG&E, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Game was signed committing each to the restoration project. In addition, numerous partners have played an important role in bringing this project forward. Funding for the restoration project 9

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has been provided by federal and state agencies, including $6.8 million by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and through private donations. Additional financial support was provided by CALFED; the Packard Foundation (via The Nature Conservancy); the California Wildlife Conservation Board; the California Department of Fish and Game; the California Department of Transportation; the Battle Creek Watershed Conservancy; the Greater Battle Creek Watershed Working Group; the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; the California Department of Water Resources; and the Iron Mountain Mine Trustee Council. PG&E is contributing to the restoration project in the form of foregone energy generation, voluntarily pursuing amendments to the Battle Creek Hydroelectric Project’s federal energy generation license, and transferring certain water rights to the California Department of Fish and Game. Two construction contracts were awarded late 2009, and on-site construction began at the Wildcat, Eagle Canyon and North Battle Creek Feeder sites on North Fork Battle Creek in April 2010. Wildcat Dam has recently been removed, and construction crews are installing fish ladders and screens at the Eagle Canyon and North Battle Creek Feeder Diversion Dam sites. A third construction contract was awarded in June 2010, and includes building a bypass and tailrace connector at the Inskip Powerhouse/Coleman Diversion Dam site on the South Fork of Battle Creek. The construction phase of the project is anticipated to be completed in 2014. The adaptive management phase for the project will begin after construction is complete. More information about the project is posted on the Battle Creek Watershed Conservancy’s Web site.

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 from those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

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