SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff

i 11/07/2008

Quote of Note: “To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government” - - Mark Twain

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Marquis Philips S. Australia Eastern Australia Cabernet, Shiraz, or Sarah’s Blend 2007

DDaammss Conference - FERC Dam Safety Program December 5, 2008, 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Location: Washington, DC Technical conference on FERC Dam Safety Program (AD08-11-000) (Washington, DC) (Free webcast is available)

Participants will discuss the major components of the FERC Dam Safety Program as well as current state and industry assistance efforts. They will also explore the challenges facing state dam safety offices to identify needed technical and resource assistance. A free live webcast is available for this meeting. Visit our Dam Safety website The conference will be held at: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commission Meeting Room 888 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20426

Contact: Natalie Leech @ (202) 502-6396

Erosion could cause western Pa. river dam to fail Associated Press, By DAN NEPHIN 10.28.08, Forbes.com

PITTSBURGH, PA - A dam on the Allegheny River is so eroded it could fail if it is hit by a barge or a large ice load, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it will seek bids to repair the damage. Inspectors found 1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu more erosion than they anticipated on a recent dive at the Allegheny River Lock and Dam No. 6 near Freeport, a concrete structure about 30 miles upriver from Pittsburgh. For now, there is no immediate threat to public safety and the lock is operational, said Corps spokesman Jeff Hawk. Should the dam fail, a 9-foot- deep pool above it that allows commercial and recreational traffic to navigate would dry up, as would some wetlands and the source of drinking water for some communities.

The Corps plans to solicit bids for repairs on Nov. 10. Six contractors attended a preconstruction meeting on Tuesday, but the Corps does not have a cost estimate, Hawk said. Work is expected to be finished in January and river traffic should not be affected. The dam's problems show the need for funding to upgrade the region's aging locks and dams, the Corps said. The Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers make up a sort of water highway upon which millions of tons of coal, chemicals, metals and other cargo are shipped annually. Locks are essentially water-driven elevators that lift and lower boats so they can pass through dams that control water levels. In July, the Corps outlined its infrastructure problems in the region, saying the 100-year-old lock and dam at Elizabeth, south of Pittsburgh, and those at Emsworth northwest of the city are "critically near failure." Several others are not much better, the Corps said. Much of the work has been deferred because of federal budget constraints.

(Wow, a new dam!) Wanahoo dam construction underway By Lisa Brichacek. 10/30/2008, Wahoo Newspapers.com

WAHOO, NE - With the sound of dirt mover engines purring in the background, supporters of the Lake Wanahoo project gathered Thursday morning for a celebration. "It's a good day for all of us involved," Lower Platte North Natural Resources District Manager John Miyoshi told those assembled for the groundbreaking ceremony at the site just north of Wahoo. Dirt work on the main embankment for the project began on Monday. Thursday's ceremony was a chance for local officials and area residents to celebrate tangible progress on a project that started back in 1990. "It's just unbelievable this project, with all its ups and downs, has finally come about," Wahoo Mayor Daryl Reitmajer said. Saunders County, City of Wahoo and Lower Platte North NRD are the local sponsors for the dam, lake and recreation area that is expected to cost over $24 million. The Wanahoo site consists of about 1,600 acres in a 2 1/2 mile area directly north of Wahoo.

Miyoshi pointed out this was truly a cooperative effort. "This is a community project," he said. "It's bigger than any one sponsor could do alone." In fact over the course of the last 10 years, additional sponsors from the state and federal level joined the project as well. Funding for the project is also being supplied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, Nebraska Environmental Trust, Nebraska Department of Roads, Department of Environmental Quality and the Nebraska Game and Parks. Representatives from these entities were also on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony. Following the ceremony, all in attendance had a chance to watch as crews from Commercial Contractors of Lincoln continued to move dirt from area of the site to the footprint of the dam. Construction on the embankment is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 31, 2010. Other activities going on at the Wanahoo site include the construction on a breakwater levee and a sediment trap/wetlands basin. Both of these structures are being contracted by the Corps. The levee will sit about mid-point in the lake. It will help to control wind erosion on the lake as well as provide a path for walking trail. The trap/basin is being constructed at the upper end of the lake and will help filter dirt and other sediment from the Sand Creek watershed before it can get into the lake. Bill Mulligan, Chief Civil Works Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Omaha Division, said the Corps is pleased to be a part of the project. "This is a unique project for us," he said. "We're building not just a project with a dam, it's an ecosystem."

Mass. sues over safety of 2 Taunton dams Associated Press - October 31, 2008

BOSTON (AP) - Concerns over the structural integrity of 2 Taunton dams has sparked a lawsuit from Attorney General Martha Coakley's office, who said the dams' owner has failed to comply with various safety orders. The complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court Thursday, seeks an injunction requiring the owner of the Morey's Bridge Dam and a temporary dam to fix the problems and to pay civil penalties. The two adjacent dams hold back the waters of Lake Sabbatia. Jefferson Development, the registered owner of the Morey's Bridge Dam, and the company's principal, David L. Murphy, of Chestnut Hill, are named in the lawsuit. Messages left at Jefferson Development and for Murphy were not immediately returned Friday.

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

Dworshak Dam in N. Idaho a little leaky, but safe By ERIC BARKER | Lewiston Tribune • Published November 01, 2008

OROFINO, Idaho – It's made up of 6.5 million cubic yards of concrete, weighs more than 26 billion pounds and holds back more than 1 trillion gallons of water. At 30 years old it leaks a little bit and has been declared "unsafe or potentially unsafe." That might sound frightening but officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say there is little to worry about - Dworshak Dam is solid and not in danger of failing. "It's as safe now as when it was built," said Dworshak Operations Manager Greg Parker. Then why the rating with such alarming language? Because Dworshak is so large and holds back so much water, a failure would wreak massive damage to life and property in downstream communities like Orofino, Lewiston and beyond. And while the chances of Dworshak failing are deemed low, the consequences are massive. So when corps officials completed a risk assessment of the dam last February, they rated Dworshak a 2 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the safest. "If the economic consequences are there, it's going to be rated a 2," Parker said. The safety assessment of Dworshak was conducted by a corps team from outside of its Walla Walla district. Members of the team did not visit the dam. Instead they looked at reams of data produced by local engineers. "It's an outside set of eyes," said Bob Hollenbeck, chief of structural design for the Walla Walla district. He said members of the team did debate rating Dworshak a 1 on the 1-to-5 scale. Such a rating would have meant the dam would not be able to operate at full pool. In the end, Hollenbeck said a rating of 2 was arrived at because the uplift pressures beneath the dam were not out of line with design criteria. "I believe it's a very appropriate rating," he said. "We need to be cognizant of everything that is downstream of us."

But since the rating was made public earlier this year, the corps has fielded numerous calls from concerned citizens. Joe Saxon, a spokesman for the corps' Walla Walla district, said the agency is aware of the concerns and is trying to be as transparent as possible. "If folks are concerned we'd like to know about it because we'd like to address those concerns," Saxon said. "If we need to talk to service clubs or through the media, we need to do that. We want to be up front as we can to assure the people of the safety here at Dworshak." The dam that blocks the North Fork of the Clearwater River near its mouth does have some issues. Water is squeezing through flex joints, known as water stops, on the front of the dam and even though that leakage doesn't immediately threaten the dam, it needs to be fixed. Many of the drains used to monitor water slipping beneath the foot of the dam are clogged and need to be cleaned so potentially dangerous uplift pressures can be monitored. An emergency action plan that would be employed if the dam were to fail is more than 25 years old and is in the process of being updated. And other programs used to assess the safety of the dam need to be completed. There is tentatively $1 million in the 2009 federal budget to continue the work corps officials say is needed. The money would pay for things like uplift drain cleaning and coming up with a way to stop the leaking. The current leakage does not threaten the structural integrity of the dam, Parker said. "If you ever go into a dam that doesn't leak at all, I'd head for the hills because they are all designed to leak." But the leaking does make it more difficult to carry out monitoring of pressures that give engineers a clue as to what is happening beneath the massive structure. When the dam was built, engineers included drains to pick up any water being pushed beneath it. Water slipping beneath dams can cause tremendous uplift pressure. If that pressure is high enough it can cause a dam to fail. The water that enters the uplift drains is piped through the center of the dam. Engineers monitor the amount of water carried by the pipes and if there is any sediment in the water that might indicate dangerous erosion of the dam's concrete or sub-dam bedrock. Many of those drains are clogged with mineral deposits. A scheduled drilling program will address that. But in some cases there is so much water leaking through the front of the dam that it is mixing with the water from the uplift drains. This makes it difficult for corps officials to tell how much of the water is coming from underneath the dam and how much from the front. To make matters more complicated, corps officials used sandbags to try to control the water and keep the two sources separate. Over time those bags have broken down and the rushing water has picked up the sand. That means they sometimes find sediment in water. They believe that sediment is largely, if not solely, from the sandbags. But they can't be sure.

"We need to clean it all out of there and monitor it and see if there are any concerns," Parker said. In the center of the dam, gutters along walkways are white with rushing water. The water is leaking through a handful of failed copper water stops placed between the dam's monoliths. Potential fixes being considered to stop the leaking include using a chemical grout to keep the water out or installing a curtain on the front of the dam that would also block the water. In August, corps officials joined with local emergency managers to run through a drill simulating what would happen in the event of a failure. They also completed an analysis of the ways the dam might fail. At the Lewiston Tribune's request, Jim Milligan, a retired University of Idaho professor of civil engineering, toured the dam and talked to Parker and others about its safety assessment, leakage problems and what is being done to address them. Milligan said he was impressed. "My overall 3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

impression is the dam seems to be more carefully attended to than many I have visited in the past," he said. "It appears to be under sound management with planning for dealing with situations as they unfold. The issues that have arisen there are not unexpected or out of the ordinary. They are fairly typical." He was not alarmed at the amount of water leaking through the dam. "I'd have to say, out of all of them I have been in, this one is pretty dry." Nor was he troubled by the rating the corps gave the dam. He said engineers are conservative and they expect other engineers to challenge their findings. He comes from a long line of engineers and has two sons who work for the corps as engineers. But he says that does not cloud his judgment. "The engineers' first obligation is to public safety. Only after that comes the obligation to the client. With that public safety concern being paramount they have a tendency to be conservative by nature and that conservatism is certainly reflected in the way (corps officials) deal with maintenance issues and operational issues there at Dworshak Dam."

HHyyddrroo Hydro Dam Delays Show Policy Flaws The Intelligencer, WV, October 29, 2008

An example of our country's distressing failure to implement a rational energy policy can be found in southern West Virginia - and it involves "green" technology. When the Bluestone Dam was finished on the New River at Hinton in 1952, it included provisions for equipment to generate hydroelectric power. Yet no generators were installed. For more than half a century, water over and through the dam has produced nothing but more water downstream. Now a coalition of three towns - Hinton, Philippi and White Sulphur Springs - is joining with a private company in an attempt to place hydroelectric generators in the dam. Hinton Mayor Cleo Mathews noted last week that "discussions regarding this project have gone on for about 20 years." Twenty years? That's absurd. It suggests strongly that government policy isn't doing enough to address energy needs.

State looks to rivers for clean energy Kentucky River site is first of several By James Bruggers • Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY • October 28, 2008

PLEASANT HILL, Ky. -- From a small, unassuming plant at Lock and Dam No. 7, not far from historic Shaker Village, the Kentucky River gushes across the propellers of a hydroelectric generator that will soon provide enough electricity for 2,000 homes. The plant, located under the limestone cliffs of the river as it moves through Mercer County, was built to generate electricity in 1927 for Kentucky Utilities, but became run down and was retired in 1999. Today, the newly named Mother Ann Lee generating station is one of four new hydropower facilities working or planned in Kentucky -- part of what some see as a step toward meeting the challenges of global warming and an increasing demand for energy security. "We are at the beginning of a renewable energy revolution," said the plant's co-owner, David Brown Kinloch, a Louisville engineer. "There will be others that follow." The plant emits no climate-warming pollution, and has been certified as having little environmental impact on the Kentucky River and its aquatic life. It sells its electricity to the Salt River Electric Cooperative, and renewable energy credits to LG&E and Kentucky Utilities. Even in coal- dominated Kentucky, renewable energy is getting more attention as federal and state tax incentives add up, and the federal government moves closer to capping carbon dioxide emissions and making coal power more costly. While other states have abundant wind or sunshine, making them good candidates for wind and solar power, Kentucky has substantial and consistent rainfall, and a lot of rivers. Many of the rivers are already dammed for navigation, flood control or recreation, giving the state a potentially rich hydroelectric resource. Brown Kinloch, who has worked as an energy analyst for past Kentucky attorneys general, said there are potentially dozens more places in Kentucky where existing dams could use water power to generate electricity safely and cleanly. In addition to the four under way, Brown Kinloch recently conducted a survey showing 20 other potential hydro projects at existing dams that have received preliminary permits from the Army Corps of Engineers or the Kentucky River Authority. Fifteen others also show potential to produce electricity, he said. The Mother Ann Lee plant is a project of Lock 7 Hydro Partners, which consists of Brown Kinloch, David Coyte of Louisville and Bob Fairchild of Berea, and Salt River Electric Cooperative. Two of its three units are working; the third should be up soon. The other projects already under way are at the Cannelton, Smithland and Melhdahl locks and dams on the Ohio River. Other sites are on rivers such as the 4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Green, Barren and Salt, and include dams that created such lakes as Taylorsville, Buckhorn, Fishtrap and Nolin. At the same time, LG&E is expanding the generating capacity at a McAlpine Dam power plant.

Challenges remain Taken together -- 2 megawatts here, 10 megawatts there -- Kentucky has enough lock-and-dam structures or flood-control dams that could be retrofitted to generate as much as 887 megawatts of electricity, according to Brown Kinloch's survey. That would be, for example, 137 megawatts more than the proposed new unit at E.On U.S's Trimble County plant. And added up, the new hydro potential could power as many as 877,000 homes. Brown Kinloch's contract with E.On forbids him from disclosing financial details about the Mother Ann Lee plant, and nobody has done an analysis of how much it would cost to retrofit all the dams he surveyed. But Brown Kinloch estimates the costs of developing the 887 megawatts of hydropower could range from $1.7 billion to $4.4 billion. By comparison, The Courier-Journal reported in July that the new 750 megawatt Trimble unit will cost $1.2 billion. Some hydro projects, however, could face questions about disturbing water reservoirs, interfering with flood control and slowing navigation. And there are significant engineering challenges for some, said Ken Lamkin, the Louisville-based hydropower coordinator for the Army Corps of Engineers. "There can be large initial costs," he said. "It just depends on the energy market and whether the long-term profits are there to make that initial cost worth it." Many of the 14 aging lock-and- dam structures on the Kentucky River cannot structurally support the addition of hydropower generation equipment, said Stephen Reeder, director of the Kentucky River Authority. The navigational gates at all but one are now permanently closed, and the pools behind them provide local drinking water. Maintaining those supplies remains the first obligation, Lamkin said. But he added that as the structures are repaired or replaced, hydropower could be added -- if it's determined that it won't interfere with each structure's primary purpose, such as navigation or flood control.

Alternative funding Brown Kinloch and his partners have done the renovations for the Mother Ann Lee themselves -- and the work often was grueling because access is only by boat or by a 20-minute walk through the woods. For example, they used a boat, a crane, and ropes to swing a 2,300-pound circuit breaker onto a hillside ledge. When completed, the plant will be able to be run remotely by computer. During a recent tour of the plant, Brown Kinloch showed how one of the plant's three 20,000-pound rotors, turning 150 times a minute, runs so smoothly that he could balance a nickel on its edge. "They call that the nickel test," he said, beaming with the pride of a parent. Some of the work on the Mother Ann Lee is being paid for by some Kentucky Utilities and LG&E customers, through a voluntary "green energy" program. As part of the program, residential and business customers can pay extra in monthly increments of $5 and $13 to support renewable energy and offset their "carbon footprints" -- and a portion of that goes to the Mother Ann Lee plant. So far, 1,180 customers have signed up, said Chris Whelan of E.On U.S., the utilities' corporate parent. Centre College students have voted to assess themselves a $20 annual surcharge on their tuition to purchase the credits -- a decision approved by college board of trustees on Friday. The utility's biggest green energy customer is Hosting.com, a Louisville Web hosting services company, which purchased 208 of the business credits for $2,704 -- enough to offset its warming pollution, Whelan said. Hosting.com's purchase is the equivalent of removing 304 cars from the road, said Aaron Hollobaugh, a company spokesman. It's been a successful marketing tool, he said, adding, "We wanted to be stewards of the environment."

Legislative outlook Some states have adopted rules requiring utilities to buy energy from such sources as hydro, wind and solar. And governments, state and federal, have passed laws giving tax incentives to renewable energy development, including hydro. Also in play are promises by both presidential candidates to persuade Congress to limit greenhouse gas emissions as early as next year. Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, said his group plans to urge next year's General Assembly to add incentives to attract capital investment in low-impact hydro, and requirements that utilities operating in the state get some of their power from renewable sources. Kentucky House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, said he will keep encouraging a variety of approaches to broaden the state's energy development. "We're going to continue to expand our energy policy, not only in renewables like hydro, but in all opportunities," he said.

(Don’t usually use articles from this far away, but the size of the project is mind-boggling. It will produce the equivalent of about ¼ of the total U.S. output from hydro.) Giant hydropower plant fully operational By Zhang Qi (China Daily), 2008-10-30

The last generator of China's Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River went online yesterday, meaning that the world's largest hydropower plant has become fully operational. Launched in 1993, the project's original 5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu plan called for the 26 generators to produce 84.7 billion kWh of electricity annually after its completion. This was later expanded to include six more turbines installed underground by 2012 to reach a capacity of 22,500 MW. The project, operated by China Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC) at a total cost of 180 billion yuan, now provides a total installed capacity of 18,200 MW with 26 generators, each with an installed capacity of 700 MW. The electricity generated by the project fuels 15 provinces in central, eastern and southern China, easing power shortages in industrial regions. China is increasingly turning to hydropower as a clean, alternative solution to its growing energy demand. Hydropower is expected to account for 28 percent of the country's total power generation by 2015, up from the current 20 percent, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. "The Three Gorges Project indicates how far China has progressed in renewable energy, being the leader in the hydroelectric field in terms of unit design, manufacturing, installation and operation," said Lin Chuxue, vice-president of CTGPC. China now has a total installed hydropower capacity of 145 million kW.

(Absurdity prevails – take a look at the comment on hydro) Prop. C could make renewables part of state’s energy mix (by Tim Woodcock - October 29, 2008) West End Word (Excerpts – full article at: http://www.westendword.com/NC/0/1094.html)

A November ballot initiative that could shape Missouri’s energy policy — perhaps resulting in a proliferation of wind turbines and rooftop solar panels across the state — can trace its roots to a small law office in downtown St. Louis. Henry Robertson, a lawyer at the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, drafted the legal language in the ballot initiative. The ballot initiative, known as Proposition C, could result in mandating how much of Missouri’s energy should come from renewable resources over the coming years. It would force the state’s main utility companies to guarantee that 15 percent of its energy comes from renewable resources by the year 2021. It would also ensure that at least 2 percent comes from solar power. A series of intermediate targets also would be put into put into play, with the first being in 2011. Twenty-six states have similar measures, and Proposition C’s proposed standards would put Missouri roughly in the middle of this group. Columbia, Mo., already has a small-scale version of the same policy and that is working successfully, said Erin Noble, a spokeswoman on energy policy for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. Columbia’s head start can act as a case study for how this can play out for Missouri as a whole, she said.

The changing energy mix Currently 82 percent of Missouri’s power comes from coal, 10 percent comes from nuclear, 6 percent from natural gas, 2 percent from large-scale hydropower and less than 1 percent comes from renewable resources. ------. • Solar power — Robertson contends that although solar currently is “relatively expensive,” the price is likely to drop. The initiative’s additional rule to favor solar power will hopefully result in Missouri’s utilities working with customers to find ways to install solar panels on their roofs, he said. Robertson said he doesn’t envision the policy resulting in large-scale industrial solar plants as can be found in the Southwest. By contrast, AmerenUE, the utility that serves the St. Louis area, argues that the region’s climate does not justify the additional mandate for solar energy and “extensive solar energy development is not practical.” • Wind — although the state does not have the same potential for wind power as some of the Great Plains states, there is enough wind for it to be a viable source of energy, and wind farms are becoming more common, especially in northwestern Missouri. Most other states that have renewable energy mandates rely on wind power as the greatest contributor. • Biomass — the definition of biomass is a contentious one because it can include many things, the merits of which divide environmentalists. The fine print of the initiative specifies that the quota should only include energy from plant matter that cannot be used for food. Robertson, for one, recommends creating fuel from plants such as switchgrass, a fast-growing native Missouri plant that can be grown on non-agricultural land. Other favored biomass technologies include claiming energy from waste wood, such as pallets, and agricultural residues, such as the stubble left in a field after a harvest. But ethanol made from corn does not make the cut because one can argue that it’s better to use the corn for food for either humans or livestock, Noble said. The debate about corn ethanol’s merits does cause confusion, Noble said, but the initiative’s legal language is robust enough to ensure that only the “better” biomass-based technologies are included. • Hydropower — in reality this could only make a marginal contribution to the state’s energy needs because the construction of large new dams is forbidden and the initiative specifies that only small-scale dams should be included. Large-scale reservoirs and dams, such as Taum Sauk, are not good examples of environmental stewardship, Noble said. Although wind power is currently the most developed green energy option in Missouri, “renewable energy technology is advancing so rapidly that an unfamiliar technology might emerge to lead the pack,” notes a Missouri Coalition for the Environment analysis of the proposal. ------. 6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

(The last sentence has the right idea. Issue the license and worry about the flood control manual when it’s done) APC: Millions wasted By David Atchison, 11-02-2008, Pell City, AL, The Daily Home

An Alabama Power Company official said millions of dollars were spent and hundreds of man-hours were logged in moving forward the re-licensing of the Coosa River hydroelectric project, but it appears the process is dead in the water. Willard Bowers, vice president of environmental affairs for APC, said that after five years of meetings with local, state and federal stakeholders, APC Coosa River project license application was submitted to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “We submitted the application in 2005,” Bowers said. “Part of the application was a change in the rule curve so winter levels for Weiss, Henry and Logan Martin Lake would be raised.” The normal summer pool level for Logan Martin Lake is 465 feet above sea level, but the lake is drawn down to 460 feet during the winter months. The change in the rule curve will bring the lake level up to 462 during the winter. He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was involved in meetings pertaining to the rule curve change, and APC spent millions of dollars in flood studies supporting the change for Weiss, Neely Henry and Logan Martin lakes. “But it has now come to a grinding halt,” Bowers said. “The Corps of Engineers is now taking a stance that it cannot review the flood study until they complete their water control manuals. We do not agree with that.” He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, has to approve the changes in the rule curves for the three Coosa River lakes because the change can affect the Corps of Engineers’ flood control procedures.

But Bowers added that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should take advantage of a costly flood study that is already completed, and one that could help the agency establish new flood operating procedures for the Coosa River basin. Bowers said the new proposed changes in APC’s re-licensing package for Coosa River hydroelectric projects should be considered by the Corps of Engineers before master water control manuals are complete. “It doesn’t make any sense to write a manual and then go back and change it,” Bowers said. “At a minimum, they (Corps of Engineers) need to take a complete review of the study before they start making a bunch of other studies. FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is ready to move forward and process the license. It doesn’t make sense to implement a current flood control process and initiate new studies when a costly study is already in place. I don’t think it’s a very efficient way to go about doing things.”

He said millions of dollars went into the study. In addition, he said 150 to 200 people came together on numerous occasions, working long days on the re-licensing process. “These were not only people from Alabama Power, but people from state and federal agencies and from lake associations like the Logan Martin Lake Protection Association,” Bowers said. “This is not a matter of direct costs; it’s the amount of time spent by people who were there as ordinary citizens and representatives who were employees of state and federal agencies.” Bowers said there is much more tied into the re-licensing of the Coosa River hydroelectric project than just changes in rule curves for three Alabama lakes. He, like others, questions why it’s so vital to update a manual that’s more than 50 years old, while putting on hold the re-licensing process that began in 2000 and was completed and submitted to FERC in 2005. “We can’t implement the things we all agreed on,” Bowers said. “The people of the state of Alabama cannot reap the benefits of all the hard work that went into this, because this process is now being delayed. It (the re-licensing process) was a resolution of all the issues. Now a revision to a master water control manual is a major roadblock for us getting this process completed.” Bowers said it’s possible FERC could approve the APC Coosa River hydroelectric project license, with the condition that once the Corps of Engineers revises its water control manuals it will review the APC flood study and sign off on the rule curve change for Weiss, Neely Henry and Logan Martin lakes, which will raise the Logan Martin Lake level by 2 feet during the winter.

Firm to seek permits for hydro plan along Mohawk River By Edward Munger Jr., Daily Gazette, November 3, 2008

CAPITAL REGION — Eyeing eight dams that make up a portion of the state Canal System, an Albany engineering firm plans to pursue a permit to draw 42 kilowatts of new energy from the Mohawk River, enough to power roughly 40,000 homes. The Albany Engineering Corp.’s Middle Mohawk project proposes to place turbine powerhouses on the dams impounding water at Erie Canal Locks 8 through 15 on the Mohawk River in Schenectady and Montgomery counties. Under the name of its subsidiary, the Mohawk Hydro Corp., the company led by engineer James Besha first received federal permission to study the idea in 2003. Preliminary permits issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which allow for feasibility research, are set to expire next year. Besha this week said the company intends to carry forward 7 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu with the next step: a request for a license application. “We’re heading into the final stretch, as it were. Finally, the regulatory phase is coming to a head,” Besha said.

Since the process began, several agencies and one nonprofit submitted letters with intent to intervene, which enables them to provide input and seek information on how the project could affect their interests. These agencies include the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the state Canal Corp., the New York Power Authority, the U.S. Department of Interior and New York Rivers United, a non-profit river conservation organization. According to the proposal, each of the eight dams would be fitted with a powerhouse with generators that would create electricity from the water crashing down on turbines. The structures could be towed to each site seasonally, anchored to the river’s floor and hooked up to transmission lines. “The water is literally going over the dam to waste right now, so why not make some energy out of it?” Besha said. Renderings depicting what the powerhouses would look like can be seen on the company’s Web site at www.albanyengineering.com. The state and federal governments are putting an emphasis and funding toward the development of renewable energy sources, but Besha said he’s not interested in getting government aid for a project that could yield revenue on its own. “We have never sought, nor would we seek any kind of state or federal aid. I think [hydroelectric] projects can support themselves privately very well. If they’re meant to be economical, they’re meant to be economical without the government’s help,” Besha said. Albany Engineering already owns or maintains seven hydroelectric plants, some of which the company rehabilitated and put back into use. These include the Mechanicville and Green Island plants on the Hudson River, and the Watervliet Hydroelectric Plant on the Normanskill.

The plant in Mechanicville, built in 1897, is considered the oldest continuously operating hydroelectric plant in the United States. The company has two license applications pending for projects on Cohoes Falls and Stuyvesant Falls. It’s unclear how long the license application process could take before a final decision would be made, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Requirements to apply for a license are more in-depth than those involved in a preliminary permit the company received to research feasibility, said Celeste Miller, a spokeswoman at FERC.

WWaatteerr Water rights for Auburn dam could be revoked The Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News10/28/2008

AUBURN, Calif.—U.S. Rep. John Doolittle is upset that water storage rights for a long-stalled dam project could be revoked. The Republican lawmaker, who is serving his last year in Congress, says California should continue to support construction of the Auburn dam to help boost the state's water supply. The project is in his Northern California district but has been stalled for more than three decades. The California Water Resources Control Board has scheduled a Dec. 2 vote on whether to revoke water storage rights for the project. If the board approves the action, the federal Bureau of Reclamation could file a new application if Congress reauthorizes money for the project. Opponents of the dam, planned near the Sierra foothill town of Auburn, say the order would allow the state to pursue permits at other potential reservoir sites.

Lanier water levels not expected to get worse this winter By STACY SHELTON, MIKE MORRIS, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 29, 2008

If metro Atlanta’s drought deepens this winter, Lake Lanier could reach a new record low in January and head into the late spring at its lowest level ever for that time of year, when water use intensifies. That’s the worst-case scenario presented in a six-month projection released Wednesday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps, which operates Buford Dam at Lanier and four other dams downstream on the Chattahoochee River, considered four possibilities ranging from extreme dry conditions to normal rainfall. Under the best case considered by the corps a return to normal rain Lanier could rise as much as 10 feet above this spring’s level, but it would not completely refill. The corps’ projection shows Lanier rising to about 1,067.5 feet above sea level by May 1, or three to four feet below full. The corps’ projections do not factor in Georgia’s request to reduce the amount of water released from Lanier to feed the Chattahoochee. If the state’s request is granted, the lake could rise another foot. 8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

The National Weather Service’s forecast is mixed for the next four months, with near-normal rainfall expected in November, but below-normal precipitation December through February. Lanier, metro Atlanta’s primary water source, is currently about 18 feet below full. The water entering the lake from its feeder rivers and streams is less than one-third the normal amount for this time of year.

EEnnvviirroonnmmeenntt (You knew this was going to stir up a lot of controversy. Let’s face it, a whole lot of people and judges have a whole career at stake so it’s not good news to them if the study is right.) Salmon study under fire for minimizing effect of dams A new study says river dams make no difference to salmon survival, but a number of scientists — including several co-authors of the study — are questioning the results and cautioning about what conclusions can really be drawn By Warren Cornwall, Seattle Times environment reporter, October 28, 2008

It's a startling finding with potentially big political implications: Young salmon running the gantlet of dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers fared just as well as salmon on an un-dammed river. The dams, after all, are widely considered a chief culprit in the decline of endangered salmon in the West's biggest river. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent trying to make dams more fish-friendly, and environmentalists have poured out their wrath about the concrete walls. The online scientific journal PLoS Biology, which released the study Monday, jumped on the apparent contradiction with a news release trumpeting that "Dams make no damn difference to salmon survival." But even before the digital ink was dry, a number of scientists — including several co-authors of the study — were questioning the results and cautioning about what conclusions can really be drawn. There have even been charges that it's little more than a promotion for fish- tracking technology in which the lead author has a financial stake. "There's a huge mass of scientific literature that documents the impacts of dams. It's just huge," said Michele DeHart, manager of the Fish Passage Center, a government-funded agency that tracks and studies Columbia River fish. "It's like saying, 'Gosh, I just did this comparison and smoking does not cause cancer.' Would you change your mind?"

Author defends report The study's lead author defends the report, saying it suggests that dams might not play such a big role today in the fate of endangered Columbia River salmon, and that conditions in the ocean are more important. But he warned against overstating what the study proves. "We're not saying that the dams have never had an effect," said David Welch, the lead author and founder of Kintama Research. "What we all have to ask ourselves is, if survival is up to the level of a river that doesn't have dams, then what's causing survival problems?" After Welch learned of the "no damn difference" headline, PLoS Biology rescinded its news release Monday afternoon and issued a new one without the headline. The study has already become a political football tossed around by groups that have fought over the dams for years. "I think it really does beg the question for those special interests that keep calling for removal of the federal dams," said Terry Flores, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, a coalition of electric utilities and industries. Environmental groups shot back that looking at the two rivers is like comparing apples and oranges. Welch's study compares the survival of young, ocean-bound salmon and steelhead, called smolts, in the heavily dammed Columbia and Snake rivers, versus the un-dammed Fraser River in British Columbia. Using fish outfitted with transceivers, scientists tracked how quickly the fish made it to the ocean and how many survived the trip. They found the Fraser River fish, on average, fared roughly the same as the Columbia River fish — approximately 25 percent survived. When the longer trip for the Columbia River fish was accounted for, those fish actually did better, Welch said. That surprised even him. "Everybody thought we would have lower survival in the Columbia, "he said.”And in fact we haven't."

The effect of dams But several of his co-authors warned that the similar survival rates don't mean anything about the effect of dams. If both rivers have serious problems for salmon, that doesn't mean either one is doing well, said co- author Carl Schreck, head of the Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Oregon State University. The study also could have missed fish that die in the ocean from the stress of passing through 9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu the dams. He and colleague Shaun Clements said they stayed involved in the study partly to make sure the findings weren't overstated. For example, "a focus on the dams having been solved. We don't believe that's the case," Schreck said. DeHart said she saw little in the study of substance beyond the finding of similar survival rates. "The rest is just an advertisement for David Welch's POST acoustic-tag study," she said. Welch is president of Kintama, a British Columbia company he founded in 2000 that helps design and manage networks of receivers that can pick up signals from tagged salmon even a long distance away — known as the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project. Welch said the new study does prove the value of the technology and that its expanded use could help answer further questions, like what's happening to fish in the Fraser River. But he said they were simply reporting the results, not trying to skew them. "What we're starting to see ... is that what all of us had as comfortable assumptions in the past aren't necessarily true when we start doing the measurements," he said.

(And, the debate is now in full swing. It looks like the study team is pedaling backwards, or should that say swimming.) Salmon science is not about sound bites by Jim Martin, Guest opinion, November 02, 2008, OreonLive.com

New scientific analysis on Columbia/Snake River dams and salmon survival emerges regularly. Since these salmon are endangered by extinction, this attention is merited. Having followed that science for 30 years, I have concluded that in the Columbia we should provide higher flows and more spill over dams, and in the Snake we should remove the lower Snake dams. Last Monday, the journal PLoS Biology published a paper entitled "Survival of Migrating Salmon Smolts in Large Rivers With and Without Dams," that compares salmon survival in the Columbia and Canada's Fraser River. The Oregonian covered it in both news and editorial sections. But the way the study was released generated confusion.

A press release misleadingly titled, "Dams Make No Damn Difference to Salmon Survival" was sent to media, but the study neither proves nor concludes that. Later, two of the study's authors issued their own release rejecting that statement, and the press release was subsequently withdrawn. But the damage was done; The Oregonian editorial's title echoed the inaccurate sound bite. It will now be hard to separate the study's actual results from confusion caused by a clumsy release. Those actual results are now part of a 30- year body of science documenting that Columbia/Snake dams are the largest human-caused mortality factor to the basin's salmon. Oregon's Department of Fish and Wildlife, whose fisheries division I once directed, has been a leader in that science, and its scientists are among the best in our region. I wish the Oregonian had consulted them while writing its editorial. A few months ago the Fish Passage Center released an analysis concluding that extra spill over dams ordered in 2006-07 by the U.S. District Court - spill that fishing groups and Indian Tribes asked for and federal agencies opposed - led to significantly more salmon returning this year. It is too bad the Oregonian chose not to report or editorialize on that report, given the light it sheds on how to manage Columbia dams so we have more salmon.

The PloS paper's most telling point to me is that the Fraser salmon stocks are doing more poorly than I realized. The Fraser and Columbia are very different rivers, but I think the study supports the conclusion that Columbia stocks are also doing poorly. While I agree with the Oregonian that salmon survival has improved at the Columbia/Snake dams, I don't think that improvement is or will be enough. The scientific case remains strong that we need more flow and spill in the Columbia, and we need to remove the four lower Snake River dams in order to restore 140 miles of productive, free-flowing salmon spawning and migratory habitats. Those conditions will produce more salmon than 140 miles of slow, steadily warming reservoirs interspersed with four large bank-to-bank dams, whose presence leads most migrating salmon to be sluiced into crowded, mixed-species barges and trucks for their downstream journey. Salmon science is a mosaic. Each new analysis is a piece added to a big picture. It is not about sound bites. Jim Martin is retired after a 30-year career in fisheries research and management, including a period as director of the fisheries division of Oregon's Department of Fish and Wildlife. He is a recognized leader in investigating the effects of global warming on Oregon Rivers and fish.

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

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

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

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff

i 11/14/2008

Quote of Note: “The politician is trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded because if they have a cutting edge they may

later return to wound him.” - - Edward R. Murrow

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Thorn-Clarke William Randell Shiraz, Barossa, Australia 2005

OOtthheerr SSttuuffffff::: (Is this the future competition for hydro and other renewables?) PORTABLE NUCLEAR 'HOT TUBS' COULD POWER AMERICA November 10, 2008, By Paul Wagenseil,

Yes, I DO want a nuclear reactor in my back yard. That's what Hyperion Power Generation, a small Santa Fe, N.M.- based startup, hopes lots of utility and energy companies say over the next few years as it prepares to build and market small, self-contained, portable nuclear reactors that need almost no oversight or maintenance. "Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world," Hyperion CEO John Deal told Britain's Observer newspaper in an article published Sunday. "They will cost approximately $25 million each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $2,500 per home." In fact, Hyperion claims its sealed, buried reactors, which would be 10-15 feet long and about 10 feet wide, could power 20,000 homes for 7 to 10 years. At that point they'd be dug up and hauled back to the plant for refueling. The portable, self-regulating nuclear reactor isn't a new one, and many companies and organizations have been trying to develop them. Based on the low-maintenance TRIGA research reactors found at many American universities, the various designs all use a form of liquid metal to both carry the excess heat away from the core reaction and to absorb stray neutrons, moderating the reaction should it approach meltdown.

Toshiba has been developing a portable reactor, dubbed Rapid-L, that uses liquid lithium-6 as coolant and moderator, while the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's SSTAR design (Small, Sealed, Transportable Autonomous Reactor) uses liquid lead hydride instead. Both use traditional solid low-enriched uranium as fuel. The Hyperion design, licensed from the DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory, takes things one step further by swapping out enriched uranium hydride for the chemically similar lead hydride. That means the same pool of molten metal is encased in a buried "hot tub" and acting

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

as fuel, coolant and moderator all at once. If the reaction gets too hot, Hyperion claims, the hydrogen atoms will chemically separate from the uranium, stopping the reaction. And as with the other designs, the Hyperion reactor's container would be tamper-proof so bad guys would have a hard time breaking in and stealing the nuclear fuel. Not that they would be able to, claims Deal. "Temperature-wise it's too hot to handle," he tells the Observer. "It would be like stealing a barbecue with your bare hands."

DDaammss (The State says the dams need repaired) State presses city on repairs work By Patrick Anderson, November 03, 2008, Gloucester Daily Times

Gloucester's 17 dams and dikes have seen better days, and state officials are pushing the city to move ahead on a potentially costly repair regimen on the structures it owns. Last winter, city-hired consultants performed visual inspections of the 13 dams and dikes owned by the city and in a report sent to the state concluded that the majority of then needed work. To find out exactly what needed to be done to the dams, the city was ordered to bring the consultants back to do a more thorough inspection by the end of July, called Phase 2 by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which oversees all dams and dikes in Massachusetts. But the inspection process, one of many projects on the city's capital to-do list, has not been finished yet and last month the state sent letters to the city threatening fines of $500 per day if the work was not done by Dec. 9. With little room to maneuver, the city brought back Weston & Sampson, the consultants who did the first dam inspections. The consultants are back in the field now and hope to file reports to the state before it starts handing down fines.

Director of Public Works Michael Hale, in charge of upkeep on the city's dams, said Friday that while none of the dams was an impending safety hazard, last winter's inspection made it clear that work on the dams would be inevitable at some point. "The Phase 1 report found it was bad enough that we had to do Phase 2, mainly because the city has failed to do any work to these things," Hale said. "The state uses some scary language, but it is very common throughout the country. It is about prioritizing capital projects. Dams are not always an awareness for city officials." The Phase 2 Weston & Sampson inspection is expected to cost around $100,000, Hale said, and he hopes it will be done before the new year. Hale said he personally thought the dam at Babson Reservoir was in the most critical need of repair because tree roots were visible around the structure and could eventually compromise its integrity. Fire Chief Barry McKay, the city's emergency management director, said he has monitored all of the city dams and is confident none of them represent a safety hazard. The dam he is most concerned about is West Pond dam in Magnolia, he said, one of four privately owned dams in the city. Several years ago he said he had seen water flow over the top of the dam during a heavy rain, something that can lead to erosion and structural problems. In 2005, state dam inspectors examined 186 dams in the state considered high risk, including 11 in Gloucester, in the wake of a 173-year-old wooden dam in Taunton almost collapsing. All of the Gloucester dams passed the inspections, but officials identified several causes for concern, including weakening in the Babson Reservoir dam. Mayor Carolyn Kirk said last week that the city would make sure the dams are taken care of, but expressed frustration that in dam repair, like many other government services, costs were being shifted to cities and towns.

(The City says it has no money) Editorial: State out of line harassing city over dam repairs November 03, 2008, Gloucester Daily Times

Gloucester officials should tell the state to mind its own dam business, pun intended. It is hard to believe that a state government that can't meet its own fiscal obligations is now harassing a fiscally strapped city over the condition of its 13 locally owned dams and dikes. There is, by all counts, no real imminent danger of a dam or a dike failing. Both Public Works Director Michael Hale and fire Chief Barry McKay have said some maintenance work will be necessary at some point, but none is a current safety hazard. That means there is no threat of a neighborhood being drowned by the catastrophic failure of

2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu one of these structures. Yet, with Gloucester drowning in debt, the state has threatened that unless a second round of inspections of the dams is completed by Dec. 9, it will start fining the city $500 a day. That work — the consultants who did the initial dam inspections last winter are now estimating exactly what repairs are needed at what cost — alone is going to cost the city about $100,000. It makes one wonder if the state is in the business of propping up consultants, if it is looking to the fines as another revenue source to help solve its own financial mess, or both.

If state officials think Gloucester dam and dike repairs are such a priority, they should provide some money to do it. As it is, this amounts to nothing more than another unfunded mandate. It might be defensible for the state to come down hard on the city if this issue was a true, immediate threat to public safety. But it is not. And the city simply cannot afford to spend on things that would be nice to do, but are not absolutely essential. The list of capital projects facing Gloucester is long and very expensive. It runs from the estimated $40 million combined sewer overflow project that closed down most of Washington Street for the better part of a year, to a $13.5 million overhaul of the sewer treatment plant; $3.5 million in improvements to the water treatment plant; $9 million in street repairs; a recommended $2 million overhaul of Newell Stadium; and a $7 million renovation of Sawyer Free Library that was put on hold last year when voters rejected an override of Proposition 21. That doesn't count the operating deficit of more than $1 million. It doesn't count the fact that Gloucester residents pay some of the highest water and sewer rates in the country. And it doesn't count the fact that Gloucester residents pay a host of fees that never existed a decade ago, covering everything from school busing to school sports to trash pickup to beach access. Gloucester is beyond tapped out. It is doing what it can with the assets it has. The state, while it has an obligation to monitor local infrastructure, utilities and public safety, has no business levying fines for things left undone that are not a clear and present danger to the public. City officials, with the help of the city's Statehouse delegation, should tell the state to get its own house in order before it further undermines the precarious fiscal stability of local cities and towns, state fines be dammed.

(Kinda long so here’s the short version, a fun story. Now, this has to be the prize winner! They rebuilt a dam that was washed out, but the washout really was a beaver dam built by beavers on top of the dam. Is that really a washout of the dam?) (Excerpts: full article at - http://www.thedailyreview.com/articles/2008/11/03/news/tw_review.20081103.a.pg3.tw03caranto uan_s1.2058827_loc.txt) Carantouan Greenway preserving nature, area’s local history BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN, STAFF WRITER, November 3, 2008, The Daily and Sunday Review, Towanda, PA

WAVERLY, N.Y. — A $20,000 project to reconstruct the dam at Wildwood Nature Reserve in the Town of Barton was recently completed, and the Carantouan Greenway has entered into discussions with a property owner in the hopes of expanding the nature reserve southward into Pennsylvania. Those were two of the more recent developments at the Carantouan Greenway, which is a not-for-profit land trust based in the Valley area, Carantouan Greenway President Marty Borko said in a presentation he gave Sunday at the Waverly Free Library in Waverly. During the presentation, ------.

The reconstruction of the dam has restored the lake at Wildwood Reserve, although the water level in the lake is not as high as it was before part of the dam washed out in a flood two to three years ago, Borko said. The dam had been constructed as a flood control project in the 1950s, but beavers had later added to the dam, raising the water level even higher than the flood control dam had, Borko said. It was on the section of the dam created by beavers that the washout occurred, and the reconstruction project completed last summer did not restore the lake to the height that had existed when the beaver dam was in place, he said. However, the lake continues to attract many fishermen, and the reserve is also a location where people go to bird watch, he said. ------.

The Wildwood Reserve, which a 50-acre site is owned by the Carantouan Greenway, now has a parking lot that is large enough to accommodate buses, Borko said. “We have a parking area for the community to use out there, without worrying about being stuck in the mud or a hayfield,” he said. While many fishermen use the lake, the Carantouan Greenway does not recommend that people eat the fish they catch in the lake. That’s because there is a former landfill site next to the nature reserve, and leachate from the bottom of the landfill does migrate into the wetlands in the nature reserve, he said. Borko also said that the Carantouan Greenway, which is charged in perpetuity for maintaining the nature reserve and its Forbidden Path site in Waverly, has seen its endowment fund at Community Foundation for the Twin Tiers grow from $5,000 to $20,000. ------.

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

Army Corps identifies leaking dam near Walla Walla By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER, November 5, 2008, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The leaking Mill Creek Storage Dam near Walla Walla poses an "unacceptable" risk to the public and will be specially managed until it can be repaired, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday. The 67-year-old dam is seeping water and is especially dangerous when Bennington Lake is more than 17 percent full, the agency said. It is typically kept just 5 percent to 10 percent full. Mark Lindgren, engineering chief with the corps in Walla Walla, said the dam can still be used to prevent floods in the Walla Walla area, but will be more closely monitored to make sure it does not collapse. "We basically made the decision for this flood season to use the dam, and this one-time exposure should have a relatively low risk," Lindgren said in a telephone interview from Walla Walla.

The corps is in the process of evaluating all 610 of its dams nationwide for safety. Dams get a rating of 1 to 5, with 5 being safest and 1 being the most at risk. The Mill Creek Dam is the only one in the Walla Walla District - which covers portions of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah - to be rated a 1. That rating means the risk to public safety is unacceptable when Bennington Lake is more than 17 percent full for an extended period of time, the corps said. It requires the corps to take action to reduce risk. The problems are that gravel and silt materials in the dam may be washing away, which promotes water seepage and could lead to collapse. The dam is also prone to earthquake damage. The earthen dam was built in 1941 and is 120 feet high, 3,050 feet long and 800 feet wide at the base and normally contains little water. It sits above and just east of the city of Walla Walla and is used to catch water that flows from the Blue Mountains down to Mill Creek. The creek overflows about once every three years, and the reservoir was last filled in 1996. If it collapsed, most of the water it holds back would spill into Mill Creek, but some could flood outlying portions of Walla Walla. For now, the corps will increase monitoring of the dam while seeking money to make improvements. The cost won't be known until any damage can be fully assessed. The corps is also working with Walla Walla County to create an alert system and to place emergency supplies in advance of any problems. "While we cannot completely eliminate risk, we can reduce risk," Lindgren said.

(This is dam good news) Five-year, $30 million safety upgrade Deer Creek Dam reinforcement wraps up early It can now better withstand a quake and U.S. 189 is removed By Donald W. Meyers, The Salt Lake Tribune, 11/05/2008 (Excerpts from full article: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10902378) DEER CREEK RESERVOIR - When Deer Creek Dam was first built, the main concern was: Could the dam hold back water and support a roadway. "Those were the [dam] safety issues of the 1940s," said Gordon Bell, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's construction representative, while standing atop the dam's massive spillway late last month. "We're a lot smarter now." The bureau just completed a five-year, $30 million safety upgrade on the 67-year-old earthen dam, reinforcing the structure so it can continue to protect Provo from flooding during a natural - or man-made - disaster. The project ends this month, one year ahead of schedule. Work included strengthening the dam's foundation, reinforcing its spillway and stiffening the dam so earthquakes can't tear it apart. For added safety, the bureau, working with the Utah Department of Transportation, moved U.S. Highway 189 off the top of the dam. It also raised the dam's crest six feet to counteract any slippage during an earthquake. The dam holds back the Provo River to form Deer Creek Reservoir, which provides drinking and irrigation water for Utah and Salt Lake counties. ------.

HHyyddrroo Press Release: DOE Funding for Advanced Hydropower Published on Nov 3, 2008

Seattle, WA) The US Department of Energy announced funding for the development of two new National Marine Energy Research Centers, one in Hawaii and one in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest Marine Energy Research Center will be formed by Oregon State University and the University of 4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Washington. The competitive award is for $1.25 million annually, for up to five years. The new Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center will be one of only two new DOE-funded marine renewable energy centers in the nation. BioSonics, a Seattle company founded in 1978, is part of the OSU/UW team and will be providing expertise and technology for the monitoring of biological activity at proposed and operational marine energy sites. The purpose of this monitoring is to better understand the biological activity and behavior under normal conditions and to better plan, design, and operate marine energy projects and minimize negative interactions with marine life. BioSonics advanced digital hydroacoustic technology has been used by scientists and resource agencies around the world in many applications, both in marine and fresh water. From tracking individual fish, to assessing the behavior and biomass of everything from zooplankton to tuna, hydroacoustics provides a minimally invasive means of continuously monitoring relatively large areas without altering the behavior of fish and other aquatic life. BioSonics has been involved in monitoring traditional hydropower dams around the world since 1978 and marine energy projects in New York, Alaska, Washington, and Europe. Other members of the team include: the Electric Power Research Institute, the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, and Verdant Power. ####### For more information, contact: Bob McClure, Business Development BioSonics, Inc (206)782-2211 [email protected] www.biosonicsinc.com Other relevant sources: See OSU release at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2008/Sep08/waves.html See DOE release at http://www.energy.gov/news/6554.htm Snohomish County PUD at http://www.snopud.com/about/CustomerNews/NewsReleases.ashx?3164_na=31064&p=1842

(Interesting hydro news from the UK. Is this similar to the experimental turbine at Alden Lab? Does anyone know the efficiency of one of these things?) 100 Year Old Dam Will Generate Green Power by Peg Fong, 04 November 2008, ecogeek.com

Linton Falls, a hydroelectric dam in Grassington, Archimedes Screw England, was first built in 1909 - a time when oil lamps were the norm. It was decommissioned in 1948 after light bulbs became commonplace and the region got a main power supply. Since then, it's been kept as a historic monument. Recently, though, Linton Falls is being reexamined. A study published by English Heritage (a group dedicated to protecting and promoting English historic sites) argues that the dam, as well as other historic sites, can play a significant

1909 Original Plant Current Photo

role in carbon reduction. And so, the Linton Falls dam will run once again and produce emission-free electricity. The technology being used is an adaptation of the ancient Archimedes Screw (pictured above), a large screw that was designed to carry water upwards as it turned. The Linton Falls plant will reverse that concept: the adjacent Wharfe River will flow downwards through two screws, spinning them fast enough to generate energy for 100 homes. Each screw is 35 feet long and six feet wide. The plant will generate about

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

510,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year, saving around 216 tons of carbon dioxide emissions compared to equivalent fossil fuel-powered generation. The project is scheduled to be finished by next summer and up to 50 other old mill sites could be up and running next if the Linton Falls site is successful

(The proposed installed capacity is 4.5 MW. The FERC license estimates an output of 17,500 MWh/year) Dorena Dam to begin producing hydropower By Susan Palmer, The Register-Guard, Nov 7, 2008

COTTAGE GROVE, OR — The Dorena Lake dam will start producing electricity soon, thanks to federal approval of a project proposed by the Emerald People’s Utility District. EPUD announced on Thursday that it received a final license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this month for the Dorena Lake Dam Hydroelectric Project. Design work will begin immediately with construction to follow in about six months, said Richard Jackson-Gistelli, the utility’s power resources manager. The electricity-generating turbines should be operational in about 18 months, he said. The project will cost between $12 million and $15 million, and will generate an estimated 14,500 megawatt-hours per year, enough to power about 1,000 homes. The hydropower will bring the utility closer to meeting its goal of providing for increasing energy needs with renewable resources, Jackson-Gistelli said. State law now requires all utility companies to procure 5 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025.

EPUD expects to obtain 15 percent to 20 percent of its power from renewable resources by 2011. The customer-owned utility has almost 20,000 customers, the majority of them residential. Some of the utility’s power comes from wind turbines and some from a plant that burns the methane generated at Short Mountain Landfill. EPUD also buys power from the Bonneville Power Administration. EPUD teamed up with Symbiotics, a Utah-based company, for the project. Symbiotics operates 30 power projects across the United States. The 58-year-old earth and gravel dam located on the Row River was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and recreation. EPUD and Symbiotics are working on a second hydroelectric project on Fall Creek, another Army Corps flood-control dam. If they gain FERC approval, construction on that project could begin in 2013.

Canadian Hydropower Association Celebrates Ten Years Hydropower's contribution to Canada focus of new booklet

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 4, 2008) - Today over 100 industry leaders and experts gathered in Ottawa to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Canadian Hydropower Association (CHA) at a reception in the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. To mark the event, the association launched a booklet highlighting hydropower's social, economic and environmental contribution to Canada over the course of 127 years. Dignitaries present to support the booklet launch included Pierre Fortin, CHA President, and Colin Clark, CHA Board Chair and Executive Vice-President at Brookfield Renewable Power. "We are very pleased to be celebrating ten years and proud to play a role in the development of an energy source that has so extensively contributed to building our country," commented Pierre Fortin. "Since the 19th century, hydropower has met the energy needs of Canadians, while creating jobs, and powering industries and business - without adding to air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. 127 years after the first hydropower generator was built, we can still say hydropower is the most efficient, reliable and clean energy source available."

Hydropower is the leading source of electricity in Canada, with an installed capacity of over 70,000 MW. Hydropower has an important potential for development in all regions - over 163,000 MW of technical potential, excluding the potential from refurbishment and upgrading of existing facilities. Hydropower contributes to the economy by creating tens of thousands of jobs for the development, maintenance, upkeep, and refurbishment of hydropower installations. It represents a major financial investment. Indeed, over the next ten years, over $50 billion will be invested in hydropower development. The booklet, Hydropower in Canada: Past Present and Future, reveals the social and economic benefits that hydropower has brought to Canada for over a century, as well as the environmental advantages of hydropower as a source of electricity. With a glance to the future, the beautifully illustrated booklet makes clear that hydropower is essential to Canada's economic prosperity and to the nation's fight against global warming. The Chair of the CHA Board Colin Clark declared, "The CHA can look back with satisfaction on its accomplishments and on the successes of the hydropower industry in Canada. That said, we must continue to advocate for the responsible development of Canada's untapped hydropower potential and raise awareness of the many benefits of this clean, renewable source of energy." Published by the Canadian Hydropower Association on its tenth anniversary, the booklet is available for free. To order send your

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

request to [email protected] or download a copy at http://www.canhydropower.org/hydro_e/p_what.htm. Canadian Hydropower Association - Founded in 1998, the Canadian Hydropower Association (CHA) is the national association dedicated to representing the interests of the hydropower industry. Its principal mandate is to promote hydropower nationally and internationally as a source of renewable energy, to make the economic and environmental advantages of hydropower better known, and to publicize the benefits of hydropower in the search for sustainable energy solutions. CHA members represent more than 95% of the hydropower capacity in Canada. Over 60% of Canada's electricity comes from hydropower. www.canhydropower.org.

Tidal barrage projects to require conventional license By: Rupak Thapaliya, November 10, 2008, Hydropower Reform Coalition

Through a letter issued to Tidewater Associates on November 3, FERC has determined that tidal barrage projects do not qualify for a hydrokinetic pilot license but will have to obtain a license as conventional hydropower. This type of technology requires construction of a dam, which is the reason for such a decision by FERC. A tidal barrage project involves building a barrage (dam) across a body of water such as a bay to retain water during tidal events. As tidal water flows into and out of the barrage, the reversible turbines installed in the barrage wall generate electricity.

Tidewater is proposing to install a tidal project at the entrance to Half-Moon Cove in Washington County, Maine between Eastport and Perry. The dam would be 1,210 ft long with a maximum depth and elevation of 40 and 27 feet below mean sea level. It is expected that the three generating units will have a total installed capacity of 13.5 MW. Tidewater is also exploring the possibility of adding hydrokinetic component to the project. Due to this combination of conventional and hydrokinetic technology, a combination of ILP and pilot licensing process was requested at FERC. However, FERC has determined that the pre-application document filed by Tidewater did not contain adequate information to initiate an ILP; the Commission’s licensing process for conventional hydropower. For the hydrokinetic component, a pilot-license would be required. Tidewater has until April of next year to submit either a pre-application document for conventional hydropower or an application for hydrokinetic pilot license. Although there is an increasing interest, there are no commercial tidal energy projects in the United States yet.

WWaatteerr Calif. to cut water deliveries to cities, farms By SAMANTHA YOUNG, The Associated Press, October 31, 2008

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California said Thursday that it plans to cut water deliveries to their second- lowest level ever next year, raising the prospect of rationing for cities and less planting by farmers. The Department of Water Resources projects that it will deliver just 15 percent of the amount that local water agencies throughout California request every year. Since the first State Water Project deliveries were made in 1962, the only time less water was promised was in 1993, but heavy precipitation that year ultimately allowed agencies to receive their full requests. The reservoirs that are most crucial to the state's water delivery system are at their lowest levels since 1977, after two years of dry weather and court-ordered restrictions on water pumping out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This year, water agencies received just 35 percent of the water they requested. Farmers in the Central Valley say they'll be forced to fallow fields, while cities from the San Francisco Bay area to San Diego might have to require residents to ration water.

Mike Young, a fourth-generation farmer in Kern County, called the projections disastrous. "For the amount of acres we've got, we're not going to have enough water to farm," he said. Young said he will be forced to fallow a fifth of his 5,000 acres. Water will go to his permanent crops — pistachio, almond and cherry trees — but most of his tomatoes and alfalfa will not get planted. "We've got to start spending money on next year's crop now," Young said. Jim Beck, general manager of the Kern County Water Agency, noted that fewer plantings would yield fewer crops and a decrease in the number of farm hands hired. "We're seeing a phenomenon in the Central Valley where growers who have been in the business of agriculture are laying off

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

workers who have been with them for 20 or 30 years because they don't have the water," Beck said. "It's one thing to see brown lawns and shorter showers in urban areas. The real impact in the Central Valley is people are having to find new jobs." In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District — the agency that supplies water to about half the state's population — has depleted more than a third of its water reserves. The agency's general manager, Jeff Kightlinger, said Californians must immediately reduce their water use to stretch what little water is available. "We are preparing for the very real possibility of water shortages and rationing throughout the region in 2009," Kightlinger said, adding that his board will consider rationing during its meeting next month.

The State Water Project delivers water to more than 25 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland. In 2006, water agencies received their full allotment, in part because of heavy rains and a thick Sierra snow pack that year. But last year, a federal court limited water pumping out of the delta to protect the threatened delta smelt. Even with Thursday's dire projection, a wet and snowy winter could mean that cities and farms ultimately get more water, said Ted Thomas, a spokesman for the state water department. But that wouldn't affect the court order. "We are anticipating drastically reduced water supplies, regardless of weather conditions," Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors, said in a statement. Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said the bleak outlook underscores the governor's call to retool California's massive water storage and delivery system. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger favors building more dams and designing a new way to funnel water through or around the environmentally fragile delta. The proposals have failed to gain traction in the Legislature. Schwarzenegger this year called on water agencies to voluntarily cut water use 20 percent by 2020. He stopped short of issuing a mandatory conservation order, a strategy yet to used by the state, Snow said. "The governor has sounded the wake-up call, and the clock is ticking," Snow said in a statement.

Georgia Groups Fight Alabama Dam Re-Licensing On Coosa RomeNewswire.com, 11/4/08

Alabama Conservation Commissioner Barnett Lawley says that opposition from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and the Atlanta Regional Commission, to Alabama Power’s re-licensing application for its hydroelectric dam projects on the Coosa River is out of line. Lawley said the re-licensing was never an issue for the two Georgia agencies until recent droughts, and after lawsuits were filed by Alabama to get its fair share of water from upstream Corps of Engineers impoundment projects. Lawley requested that the FERC reject Georgia EPD and ARC motions to intervene and protest the Coosa River projects application, and to issue a new license “as soon as possible so that the people of the state of Alabama can begin to realize the full value of the environmental, recreational and cultural resource enhancements agreed to by the stakeholders in the Coosa re-licensing process.

EEnnvviirroonnmmeenntt GIGANTIC SALMON FOUND IN CALIFORNIA RIVER Oh yeah, that's a big one. FoxNews.com, November 05, 2008

Wildlife officials in northern California last week came across one of the biggest Chinook salmon ever found in the state — a monster more than 4 feet long and weighing 85 pounds. "We see lots of big ones," Doug Killam, a biologist in the California Department of Fish and Game's Red Bluff office, told the Redding Record Searchlight, "but this one was just bigger than most big ones — it was just spectacular." The big fish had recently spawned and died, Killam said, and probably weighed about 90 pounds when it began its 100-mile swim upstream from the Pacific to the spot where it died on Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River near the town of Anderson. The California sport-fishing record for a Chinook salmon is 88 pounds. In Alaska, where they're called king salmon, they

8 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu get even bigger — the record sport catch is 97 pounds, while the largest commercial catch was a truly phenomenal 126 pounds. "If someone would have caught this one, it probably would have been a state record," Killam told the Record Searchlight. Ironically, the sad state of salmon spawning in the Pacific Northwest probably helped this one live a full life. Ocean commercial catches were canceled this year, and the river sport season on the Sacramento drastically shortened.

EDITORIAL Saving Salmon 11/5/08, Bangor Daily News

Nearly a decade after listing Atlantic salmon in eight small Maine rivers as an endangered species, the federal government proposes to expand that designation to include the state’s three biggest rivers — the Penobscot, Kennebec and Androscoggin. In the years since the first listing, it has become clear that a cooperative approach to helping the fish is the best approach. A threatened designation, rather than endangered, is likely the best way to continue that approach. In their proposal, released this summer, to include the large rivers in the endangered species listing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration identify dams as the largest threat to salmon habitat. This threat is being addressed on the Maine river with the largest salmon population through the Penobscot Restoration Project, which will remove two dams and modify five others on the river to re-open 1,000 miles of habitat for salmon and other fish. The project recently announced it has raised the $25 million needed to purchase the dams in Veazie and Old Town that will be removed. A dam in Howland will be decommissioned, but remain in place with a new fish passage system. Fish passage will be improved at the remaining dams, which will increase their power generation to largely make up for the electricity lost from the dams to be idled. Similar cooperative agreements have resulted in dam removals on the Kennebec as well. The Penobscot project was touted as “perhaps the most significant step to restore the Atlantic salmon in the past century” by former Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton in 2004. Yet it took years for the federal government to commit funding to the effort. The $15 million in federal funding for the Penobscot Project is much appreciated, but is a tiny fraction of what is spent on salmon restoration nationally.

The best way to continue and expand such efforts is to fund them and to ensure that important backers, such as dam owners and industries that rely on the river, are not turned against restoration efforts through unnecessarily stringent regulations. In 1999, when the federal agencies proposed an endangered listing on eight Maine rivers, most of them in Washington County, state officials reacted with “the sky is falling” hysteria. The listing required changes in aquaculture, blueberry growing and forestry, but those industries were not doomed by the listing. Adding the larger rivers to the Endangered Species Act listing will require changes for hydroelectricity and paper mills. In this realm, the Penobscot project is model for compromise. By removing some dams and building fish passage on others, the work will open hundreds of miles of salmon habitat while continuing to allow hydroelectric generation. Public hearings on the latest proposal are scheduled for Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center and Thursday at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer. Both are from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Penobscot River, where more than 2,000 salmon returned this summer — dozens of times the number of returning fish in all the other rivers combined — is the centerpiece of salmon restoration in Maine. Building on the flexibility of the Penobscot project is the best way to ensure the survival of the state’s Atlantic salmon population.

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

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

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff

i 11/21/2008

Quote of Note: Today’s economic times are just as confusing as the following stated during the tough recession of the late 1950s – “Listen; there is no courage or any extra courage that I

know of to find out the right thing to do. Now, it is not only necessary to do the right thing, but to do it in the right way and the only problem you have is what is the right thing to do and what is the right way to do it. That is the problem. But

this economy of ours is not so simple that it obeys to the opinion of bias or the pronouncements of any particular individual, even to the President. This is an

economy that is made up of 173 million people and it reflects their desires, they're ready to buy, they're to spend, it is a thing that is too complex and too big to be affected adversely or advantageously just by a few words or any particular - say a

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Hanna Slusser Road Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2007

OOtthheerr SSttuuffffff::: (Now, this is really important!) Wine bottle plant opens, adding jobs to SW Wash. By Thom Jensen KATU News and KATU.com Web Staff, Nov 11, 2008

KALAMA, Wash. – The first bottle maker to open in our region in more than 30 years will start operations this week, adding 90 jobs to the troubled economy. The 175,000 square foot plant at the Port of Kalama will operate 24 hours a day, churning out more than 230 bottles per minute. One worker said he felt very lucky to have the job; not only was the work interesting but it doubled his wage to $24 an hour. The local construction company that built the factory said low-cost hydropower and available workers attracted Cameron Family Glass of Pennsylvania to open the plant. And the ingredients are there for more factories just like it. "Industry-wise, this could be potentially a place to have glass industry," said Matt Ouellette of JH Kelly Construction. "If we can really convince people that this is the place to build, that's what we 1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

want." He adds that his company is already in talks with other bottle manufacturers interested in building more glass factories to serve the region's wine industry.

DDaammss (Well, that settles it. More people want to keep the dams than not, so that means they’ll be removed – huh?????) Final recommendation on dams due BY SHERI MCWHIRTER, TRAVERSE CITY Record-Eagle, November 11, 2008

TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- The public had its say and now a final recommendation is due on what to do with the four dams on the Boardman River. The Boardman River Dams Committee will meet Wednesday to begin to finalize their recommendation to Traverse City and Grand Traverse County officials on whether to retain, modify or remove Union Street, Sabin, Boardman and Brown Bridge dams. The only structure with a clear consensus among those who participated in a public opinion survey is Union Street Dam, where 72 percent of respondents want it retained. "I just wish they'd leave them alone," said Shelley Wesley, a kayaker who lives along the river between the Brown Bridge and Boardman dams. "I don't want to see them remove the dams." She's not alone. Survey results showed about 57 percent of those who participated want the Brown Bridge Dam retained and repaired, while about 51 percent and 52 percent want the same for the Sabin and Boardman dams, respectively. Additionally, as many as 54 percent believe modification of the three most upstream dams for electric power generation is important, or very important. About 750 people completed the public opinion survey and 63 percent of those want wildlife habitat preserved and 41 percent want an increase in cold water habitat for fish, said Sandra Sroonian, project coordinator. "There are many areas that people felt were very important," she said. Sroonian said there were 278 respondents who said it's important to keep water impoundments for waterfowl, and 117 who said the exact opposite. Another split vote was on the return of the river to a more natural state, with 292 who listed that as important and 205 who disagreed.

Costs of each option also will be a factor in decision-making, Sroonian said. Financial estimates run the gamut: as little as $1 million to retain and repair all four dams and as much as $30 million to modify Union Street dam and completely remove the other three. There is still time for the public to weigh in as the final recommendation is determined, said Sroonian and Todd Kalish, committee chairman. Wednesday's meeting at 6 p.m. at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center will involve discussions about the options among groups of the public, before a final recommendation is determined at the Dec. 16 meeting. Then city and county officials will take up the question of what to do with the dams. "If anybody out there was waiting for the time to get involved when a decision is going to be recommended, now is the time," Kalish said. Union Street and Brown Bridge dams are owned by the city, while Sabin and Boardman dams belong to the county. Union Street Dam was the only one never used for hydroelectricity and is not being considered for removal.

(I guess everyone knew this was inevitable! This IS a big deal. This is a severe blow to hydro development in the U.S. The anti-dam and anti-hydro groups are in control of hydro’s future. The Snake River Dams are next!) Groups briefed on pact to remove Klamath dams 11/12/2008, By JEFF BARNARD, The Associated Press, Oregon Live

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The Bush administration announced Wednesday a nonbinding agreement with PacifiCorp that details how the utility can turn over control of four Klamath River hydroelectric dams so they can be removed to help struggling salmon. While not a final answer, the deal reached in Sacramento, Calif., represents a milestone toward what would become the biggest dam removal project in U.S. history and help resolve issues at the root of the 2001 shut-off of irrigation to thousands of acres of farmland under enforcement by U.S. marshals and the 2002 deaths of 70,000 adult salmon in the river after irrigation water was restored. The agreement in principle was to be signed Thursday by the U.S. Department of Interior, PacifiCorp and the governors of Oregon and California. 2 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

Though the Bush administration has opposed removing hydroelectric dams in the Columbia Basin, Interior Department Counselor Michael Bogert said from Sacramento that it recognized that removing the four Klamath dams was a key to resolving the Klamath Basin's long-standing problems balancing water between farms and fish. "The president and the secretary (of Interior) were determined in the aftermath of 2001 and 2002 to come up with a comprehensive approach to deal with the issues and images we saw in the Klamath Basin," Bogert said. "This represents our best effort to negotiate what is a business decision for the company." Pressure has been building for years on PacifiCorp to make a deal. California and Oregon's governors pressed for dam removal after commercial salmon fisheries collapsed in 2006. Federal biologists mandated that fish ladders and other improvements costing $300 million be added to the dams before a federal operating license could be renewed. California water authorities have been taking a hard look at the dams' role in toxic algae plaguing the river, and river advocates have sued PacifiCorp to fix the algae problem. Dean Brockbank, vice president and general council for PacifiCorp Energy, said though the agreement was nonbinding, the utility was committed to seeing it through to removal of the dams. He added the company's four key concerns were all met: PacifiCorp is protected from liability, there is a $200 million cap on removal costs to be born by ratepayers, dam removal is far enough in the future to avoid a scramble for replacement power, and PacifiCorp's capital expenditures were held to a minimum. According to a copy obtained by The Associated Press, the agreement is a roadmap for turning the dams over to a nonfederal entity and starting to remove them by 2020. Deadline for a binding agreement is June 30, 2009, and farmers, Indian tribes and other parties that endorse the agreement in principle get a place at the table. Then the federal government undertakes studies to be sure dam removal is feasible and cost-effective. Operations continue without having to clean up toxic algae blooms that are a roadblock to renewal of a federal operating license.

The deal embraces a $1 billion environmental restoration blueprint for the Klamath Basin that has been endorsed by farmers, Indian tribes, salmon fishermen and conservation groups. Besides restoring fish habitat, it guarantees water and cheap electricity for farmers, as well as continued access to federal wildlife refuges for farming. Besides the $200 million in removal costs to be born by ratepayers, the state of California will ask voters to approve a $250 million bond. Surcharges would be about $15 to $20 a year to PacifiCorp's 500,000 customers in Oregon and 45,000 customers in California. Any dam removal costs over $450 million must be worked out later. PacifiCorp also committed to paying California $500,000 a year for fish habitat improvements until the dams are removed. "The health of the Klamath River is critical to the livelihood of numerous Northern California communities, and with this groundbreaking agreement we have established a framework for restoring an important natural resource for future generations," Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. The Karuk Tribe had led demonstrations at PacifiCorp stockholder meetings demanding dam removal, but spokesman Craig Tucker said the agreement represented a new working relationship with the utility, "and we are looking forward to working with them as partners in the future." Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen, also voiced support. "It is a break out of gridlock into a dam removal pathway that shows great promise." Oregon Wild, a Portland-based conservation group kicked out of basin restoration talks, blasted the deal, saying the Bush administration was imposing a lot of conditions favorable to PacifiCorp and punting a problem it had failed to resolve in eight years. Built between 1908 and 1962, the four dams block salmon from 300 miles of spawning habitat while producing enough electricity to power about 70,000 homes. MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a subsidiary of billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owns PacifiCorp, which serves 1.6 million customers in six Western states.

Statement by the President on Conservation of Klamath River Basin November 13, 2008

I congratulate the many people of the Klamath River Basin in Oregon and California who recently put forward a shared vision for conservation of the river. The agreement my Administration announced today with Oregon, California, and PacifiCorp, the company that owns four hydropower dams on the Klamath River, will advance that vision. Federal, State, and private partners will now begin studying the feasibility of removing four hydropower dams on the river. This is the first phase of a long-term conservation program for 3 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

upriver salmon habitats. This agreement turns what was a conflict into a conservation success. For years, there had been disagreement among irrigators, States, tribes, conservationists, and others. Beginning with the drought of 2001, the community, working in partnership with the Federal government, rallied together to find a long-term solution. Since 2002, my Administration has requested and Congress has provided approximately $90 million annually - a total of more than $500 million - for Klamath Basin activities. Working together, the Federal government and its partners have restored irrigation and more than 10,000 acres of fish habitat and banked for conservation more than 800,000 acre-feet of water. These actions have provided adequate water for farmers while also helping species recover. Together, we have produced an agreement that will greatly reduce the risk of future shutdowns of the irrigation system. I applaud this example of Cooperative Conservation and thank everyone who worked to bring it about.

Dam may not be feasible By Angus M. Thuermer Jr., Jackson Hole, Wyo., November 17, 2008, Jackson Hole News & Guide

The Wyoming Water Development Commission director told Sublette County irrigators Friday that smaller projects, not a main-stem dam on the Green River, are the solution to water woes they might have. Mike Purcell told a gathering of approximately 110 people in Pinedale that even smaller dams and reservoirs are difficult to finance and that his commission is trying to lower the cost to ranchers to help get those built. He spoke at a University of Wyoming forum attended by engineers, stockmen, environmentalists, bureaucrats, politicians, geologists, economists and climate specialists. Sublette ranchers have pushed for a Green River dam, and county commissioners there have endorsed the idea. Proposed sites are as close as an hour from Jackson, where anglers prize sections protected by special regulation and in-stream flows by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Purcell said if irrigators want more water, “the solution is to build smaller, environmentally responsible reservoirs,” not a main-stem dam. Studies by his agency say a dam on the Green could cost $386 million. Asked to justify an almost $400 million expense in a state with perhaps 500,000 people, Purcell refused. “I was not trying to justify it,” he said. “I was suggesting smaller projects on the tributaries.”

The commission staff on Friday unveiled studies on nine dam sites and reservoirs in the Upper Green River basin. Two of the potential sites were on the main stem of the Green, another two were at existing but abandoned dams on national forest land. The other five, one a pumping project, are on the west side of the basin, stretching from Merna to Big Piney. Now, those who want projects developed must step up as sponsors, Purcell said. New dams may be hard to justify solely for agriculture because “hay, it can’t offset a great deal of debts,” he said. That is why the commission is trying to lower the cost in order to attract reservoir sponsors, reducing the traditional 25 percent obligation to less. The federal government won’t permit water storage simply for the sake of storage, Purcell reminded the group. One must demonstrate a need and use to pass federal muster. Also, state grant money for reservoir construction can’t go to individuals, only public entities like irrigation districts. “We still haven’t found the type of project that will elicit participation,” he said. One exception is the Eden water district, where there is interest in enlarging the Big Sandy reservoir, he said. An existing but abandoned dam at Middle Piney Creek appears to be a good candidate for rehabilitation, state dam-section leader Mike Besson told the group. The state hasn’t found the ideal project, one that would benefit a variety of users, enhance environmental values and attract sponsors, despite scouring the basin, Purcell said. As a model, he pointed to the High Savory Dam, a 140-foot structure built in 2005 that impounds 22,433 acre-feet in the Little Snake River drainage near Rawlins. “Can we do a High Savory in the Upper Green?” he said. “We keep looking for it but haven’t found it.”

HHyyddrroo (I think they mean a preliminary permit from the FERC) Fairlawn Company examining W.Va. dam The Akron Beacon Journal, Nov 15, 2008, Beacon Journal staff report

A Fairlawn-based company is studying whether a West Virginia dam could be retrofitted to produce electricity. Advanced Hydro Solutions LLC has received a three-year permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate the Tygart Dam on the Tygart River near Grafton, W.Va. The dam could produce 25 4 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

to 28 megawatts from water-driven turbines, company president David Sinclair said. The company is looking at three other out-of-state projects plus the Ohio Edison Co.'s Gorge Dam on the Cuyahoga River between Akron and Cuyahoga Falls. That project has been blocked by strong opposition from Metro Parks, Serving Summit County and other agencies. The other projects are on Mahoning Creek in West Virginia's Armstrong County, on the Jennings-Randolph Dam on the North Fork of the Potomac River on the Maryland-West Virginia border and on the Guyandotte River in southwest West Virginia.

Niles considers reviving dam to supply electricity 11/16/2008, The Associated Press, Michigan Live

NILES, Mich. (AP) — The Niles dam on the Dowagiac River has been idle for more than a decade, but that could change. Officials in the city located in Michigan's Berrien's County, about 166 miles west-southwest of Detroit, say they're looking into turning the dam back into an electrical power generator. Today, the dam mainly serves as the source of a fishing pond and an occasional cause of flooding problems as happened in September. But Niles officials tell Indiana's South Bend Tribune they're considering hiring a consultant to see if the dam can resume its work producing power. City Administrator Terry Eull says interest in renewable energy is growing because of a new Michigan law requiring utilities to get 10 percent of their power from green sources by 2015. He said the consultant also may look at the feasibility of harnessing the St. Joseph River to produce electricity in Niles.

The Niles utility is exempt from the state law because it buys it from American Electric Power Co. But Eull said green power could become a hot enough commodity to make it worth the investment. "If we can do that and save electricity users in Niles some money, that's what we should do," Eull said. Electricity produced in Niles wouldn't necessarily be used by the city's utility customers but could be sold on the open market, Eull said. He said that would help offset the electricity costs for city customers. William Gallagher, a member of the Niles Utilities Board and an advocate of hydroelectric generation, said such low-velocity turbines now produce power on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In-water turbines are relatively small, don't require powerhouses and don't necessarily require even dams, he said. "But if you have a dam, it helps," he said. "To make them turn, you have to have water flowing." In northern Michigan, two Boardman River dams also could get new life. Charles Peterson of Peterson Machinery Sales said he will pay for all needed upgrades to three Boardman River dams if he is allowed to operate the structures for hydroelectric power generation. "We've had this plan in mind for some time. We knew finances would make a big difference," Peterson told the Traverse City record-Eagle. A committee has been reviewing the dams since Traverse City Light & Power abandoned operations of them several years ago.

WWaatteerr Auburn Dam may really be dead this time If California rescinds the water rights it granted to the federal government, the troubled project might never be revived By Nancy Vogel, November 16, 2008, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Sacramento -- Use it or lose it is the rule of California water rights, and after 43 years, the would- be Auburn Dam -- subject of one of the state's bitterest water feuds -- is about to lose it. The proposed plug on the gold-sprinkled American River northeast of Sacramento has been declared dead many times since Congress authorized it in 1965, and there may be no reviving it now. The state is poised to take back the legal right it granted to the federal government to store water behind the dam. Without that right, the federal government cannot build a reservoir, and the state has 5 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

never been inclined to build one itself."Auburn Dam" are fighting words in Northern California, pitting river rafters and other nature lovers against those who say that California's thirst and the Sacramento area's vulnerability to floods demand the trapping and storing of more Sierra snowmelt. Money is at the heart of the fight. Dam opponents argue that the multibillion-dollar price of an Auburn Dam would outweigh its benefits, while backers say a dam would eventually pay for itself and save untold lives. The struggle has played out for decades in Congress and in the halls of Sacramento and Placer County governments.

The nation's taxpayers have sunk $325 million into the project, with little to show beyond stacks of reports and a scarred canyon where construction was halted in 1975. So the state Water Resources Control Board is expected soon to finalize a draft decision to revoke the federal government's rights. At the same time, the Auburn Dam's most powerful advocate prepares to retire from Congress. Republican Rep. John T. Doolittle of Roseville, who garnered tens of millions of federal dollars for study of a big dam at Auburn during his 18-year congressional career, decided this year not to run for reelection. He faces federal scrutiny of his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Doolittle will leave Congress in January. The race to replace him was so tight that elections officials aren't sure yet whether the winner is Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, who vows to keep pushing for a dam, or Democrat and Air Force veteran Charlie Brown, who opposes it. If McClintock wins, his quest for construction of an Auburn Dam would face steep odds that would be even higher after a revocation of water rights. The project would have to be reauthorized by Congress, because costs have grown tremendously since 1965, and the agencies most likely to buy water and power from the dam project have shown little interest in sharing construction costs. And the federal government would have to apply anew for state water rights. "You'll never get the water rights back" once they are revoked, Doolittle said in a recent interview. He predicted that an Auburn dam would be built some day, but not the kind he sought, with a big lake to provide water, electricity, recreation and flood control. Sacramento will eventually require a dam to guard against floods, Doolittle said. But without water rights, the federal government would be limited to building a "dry" dam -- a concrete wall with a big hole in it to let the American River flow unimpeded most of the time and hold back water temporarily only in the event of a gigantic flood. Dry dams were proposed by Sacramento flood-control officials twice in the 1990s but not funded by Congress. "For heaven's sake, we ought to be storing water," said Doolittle. "We're the ones who supply Southern California with their water."

A dam at Auburn was long planned as part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project, an audacious network of dams and canals that provides subsidized water to farmers from Redding to Bakersfield. But construction at Auburn stalled after an earthquake made federal engineers rethink the seismic safety of a thin-arch concrete dam. Work was not resumed amid concerns about cost and the submersion of nearly 50 miles of river canyon. Various incarnations of the dam have been touted by federal dam builders, valley farmers and Sacramento flood control officials for decades, all of them attacked by local river enthusiasts and national environmental groups. Doolittle faulted "conniving environmentalists" for persuading the State Water Resources Board last month to revoke the Auburn Dam water rights under a state law that requires rights holders to exercise "due diligence" in putting their water to good use. Last month, in the draft revocation order, the water board noted that the federal government was supposed to finish the dam by 1975 and put all the water to "beneficial use" by 2000. "Reclamation has failed to meet these deadlines and subsequently failed to diligently pursue a request for an extension of time," the board wrote. "Accordingly, cause for revocation exists." The water board rejected the federal argument that California should let Washington keep the water rights out of deference to Congress, which has not undone its 1965 dam authorization.

Still, dam backers do not concede defeat. Earlier this month, 18 persistent members of the Auburn Dam Council met, as they do the first Monday of every month, at a Coco's coffee shop in suburban Sacramento. Mostly white-haired retired engineers and water board directors, they resumed an ongoing discussion about winning over reluctant city and county officials to the merits of the dam. "They should have this right on the wall in [Sacramento] City Hall," said Joe Sullivan, who held up a newspaper graphic showing where hundreds of people perished in the 2005 Hurricane Katrina flooding of New Orleans. After the meeting, Sullivan, president of the Sacramento County Taxpayers League, called the expected water rights revocation "temporarily the end." "They'll build Auburn Dam," he said, "right after Sacramento is flooded to 7 feet and people have died." And defenders of the North Fork of the American River are not claiming victory. They figure the fight will continue as long as inundation threatens Sacramento and Southern California

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

needs water. Ron Stork has argued against the dam for 21 years at the nonprofit group Friends of the River. The controversy, he said, "will never go away."

(Seems people in Iowa need the kinda help they did in LA) Iowa Flood Victims Still Sinking in Debt Stormwire, November 18, 2008

BOTTOM LINE WEATHER POINTS – Iowa flood assistance program unable to meet all of victims needs. – Many flood victims now struggling to get flood insurance for new homes. – Historic flooding in June cost Iowans hundreds of millions in property damages.

While several months have passed since historic flooding in June wiped out millions of dollars of Iowa property, some of the worst affected residents have yet to receive adequate government assistance. The state's Jumpstart Iowa program, which was spearheaded in the wake of the devastating floods, was designed to help homeowners cope with mounting mortgage payments and property damage costs. However, demand for housing assistance quickly outpaced available funding in parts of the state hit hardest by the disaster, according to the Globe Gazette in Des Moines, Iowa. The Holmans, who lost all their possessions and had no flood insurance, have received $28,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance. But the couple says that will fall drastically short of the total cost to fix their two-bedroom home, which needed a new furnace and septic system. "It’s like building a new house all over again,” said Barb Holman, a resident of La Porte City, south of Waterloo, Iowa. The couple has been living in a trailer issued by FEMA since August, and say assistance hasn’t come fast enough to make repairs to their home.

While government initiatives are in place, Sen. Bill Dotzler, a Waterloo Democrat who was a victim of this year’s floods, still sees a lot of need in the state. It gets tremendously frustrating for somebody who in June had a disaster and here we’re close to December and they’re still waiting for some kind of financial help,” Dotlzer said. Joe Myhre, executive director of the North Iowa Area Council of Governments, said they have received 331 applications requesting a total of more than $6 million for housing repairs, home down payment assistance and interim mortgage assistance – far more than the $1.7 million initially designated to the region. The same is true with the Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments, which includes Waterloo and Black Hawk County. Their region received $2.1 million in state funding, but has had 375 applications requesting a total of $8.5 million. While state officials claim that more funding will become available through federal sources, many residents remain in dire need. “When [they've] got their whole lives overturned, and they’re sitting there and every day they can’t move forward because they don’t have the resources, and they know that money’s been promised, it’s tough,” Dotzler said.

EEnnvviirroonnmmeenntt (This just doesn’t seem like a good idea. Now, someone with no experience is going to get hurt. These people need Tuffboom!) Kayakers plunge down Britain's tallest dam spillway Thrill seekers have described it as the ultimate log flume challenge. At 300ft tall and almost 1,150ft long, the Llyn Brianne Dam, near Llandovery, Mid Wales, is the tallest dam in Britain By Richard Savill, 17 Nov 2008, Telegraph.co.uk

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

These images show a group of kayakers hurling themselves down the spillway at speeds of 40mph. They drag their kayaks to the top before propelling themselves down the 1:3:6 gradient slope. It takes just a matter of a few seconds for the kayaks to plunge to the bottom. The man-made dam was constructed in the late 1960's and early 1970's to regulate the flow into the river Tywi and its reservoir supplies water to the South Wales coast. The reservoir was created by excavating the surrounding area and using the crushed rock to create a mountain to block the valley. Canoeists have long used the sedate expanse of water, set in dramatic scenery, for training purposes. An onlooker said there was group of three men aged in their teens and early 20s took part in the stunt. They were watched by a girl of similar age. ”They launched into the reservoir and went over the lip and down the spillway. It was bizarre to see someone shooting down this type of water. One of them went about 12 feet into the air when he hit a wave at the bottom. He landed upside down in the water.” Welsh Water has warned the action is illegal and it would prosecute offenders for trespass if they were caught. Similar stunts have been recorded and posted onto YouTube and other multimedia websites. A video of a man kayaking down the same dam, received over 30,000 views.

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

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

SSoommee DDaamm –– HHyyddrroo NNeewwss and Other Stuff

i 11/28/2008

Quote of Note: “Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare. They are consumed in 12 minutes. Halftimes take 12 minutes. This is not coincidence." --

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: Hogue Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

OOtthheerr SSttuuffffff::: Is Obama's Energy Plan Enough? No, Many Environmentalists Say By BRYAN WALSH, Nov. 22, 2008, Time Magazine

Full article: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1859040,00.html?iid=tsmodule (Unbelievable, I thought the economy was the first priority. What planet are these people on? Quote from article: “That's why renewables-industry leaders say Obama's first priority has to be energy.”

DDaammss (An Eerie story from the deep) Bones in the Holyoke Dam

1 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu by Hotspur, New England Republican, November 22, 2008 From Careers of Danger and Daring (1903) by Cleveland Moffett. Moffett recounts stories told to him by deep sea divers while aboard a wrecking tug in the East River, at the turn of the 20th century.

“Last of all they told the story of old Captain Conkling and the Holyoke Dam, a story known to every diver. It seems there was a leak in this dam, and the water was rushing through with so strong a suction that it seemed near certain death for a diver to go near enough to stop the leak. Yet it was extremely important that the leak be stopped - in fact, the saving of the dam depended on it. So Captain Conkling, who was in charge of the job, induced one of his divers to go down, and reluctantly the man put on his suit, but insisted on having an extra rope, and a very strong one, tied around his waist. “What’s that for?” asked Conkling. “That’s to get my body out, if the life-line breaks,” said the diver. “Go on and do your work,” replied Conkling, who had little use for sentiment. It happened exactly as the diver feared. He was drawn into the suction of the hole, and when they tried to pull him up both hose and life-line parted, and the man was drowned, but they managed to rescue his body with the heavy line, just as he had planned. Then Conkling called for another diver, but not a man responded. They said they weren’t that kind of fools. “All right,” said the captain, in his businesslike way; “then I’ll go down myself and stop that hole.” And he called the men to dress him. At this time, Captain Conkling was seventy-five years old, and had retired long since from active diving. But he was as strong as a horse still, and no man had every questioned his courage. In vain they tried to dissuade him. “I’ll stop that hole,” said he, “and I don’t want any extra rope, either”. He kept his word. He went down, and he stopped the hole, but it was with his dead body, and today somewhere in the Holyoke Dam lie the bones of brave old Captain Conkling, incased in full diving-dress, helmet and hose and life-line, buried in that mass of masonry. No man ever dared to go down after his body.”

Dam 14 at top of list for rehab By RICHARD KERNS, Tribune Staff Writer, Mineral Daily News-Tribune, Nov 19, 2008

NEW CREEK, WV – Owing to the risk to life and property in the event of a structural failure, federal officials have put Dam 14 at the top of the list for dam-rehabilitation projects in West Virginia. Meeting with city of Keyser officials recently, TJ Burr, a civil engineer with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, said the dam on New Creek that serves as a reservoir for Keyser’s water system will be strengthened to withstand a “Noah’s Ark” storm event. “The reason this project rose to the top is basically the downstream population, in the event of a catastrophic failure,” Burr said. No timeline has been established for the upgrade of the dam, located 14 miles upstream from Keyser and built in 1963 for flood control and water supply. Funding for the project – estimated to cost about $2 million — would come from the federal Farm Bill, which included funds for dam improvement. Under the cost scenario outlined at the meeting, the federal government would pay about two-thirds and the state one-third, with the city spared any contribution. While the NRCS has put Dam 14 at the top of West Virginia’s 170 dams, the project will have to compete for funding against similar projects nationwide. “We have to get in line with this project and compete with others across the United States...” Burr said. “Fatal risk”

The project will improve several structural components of the dam, including lining the spillway pipe, installing drainage around the dam site and building a concrete pool-area where the water flows from the dam. The most noticeable feature will be a concrete parapet wall atop the dam embankment to prevent overflow. The rehabilitation design is based on construction standards for new dams, which are built to withstand a catastrophic storm that would dump 35 inches of rain over a short period of time. The devastating West Virginia floods of 1985 were sparked by 9 inches of rainfall. “That’s the design standard we have to build our new dams to,” Burr said. While extreme, the calculations are driven by the devastating consequences of a failure. According to NRCS planning documents, an unexpected “sunny day” failure of the dam would unleash a wall of water 93 feet tall that would threaten 384 homes and businesses, and expose just over 1,500 people to “fatal risk.” Economic losses would exceed $65 million. Dam to be drained The rehabilitation project calls for the entire 37-acre reservoir to be drained, creating challenges for both water supply and the fish that inhabit the lake. Draining the lake will take two to three months, work on the upgrade will take another three to four months, and refilling the reservoir an additional three. Dam 14 serves as a rarely used but invaluable backup for the city of Keyser, which provides water to about 5,000 customers. City officials said that through the dry months of the recent summer and fall, the dam was never tapped to increase flow in New Creek. However, no one is willing to roll the dice on the dam being offline for nine months, without a backup plan in the event of a drought. “That’s one of my concerns, is the water supply ... ,” said Sonny Gank, water distribution supervisor for the city of Keyser. “I just don’t want to be the one responsible if Keyser runs out of water.” Burr said one alternative might be a temporary pipeline to draw water directly from the Potomac River, “just in case you guys got low on water supply during that period.”

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

As for fish in the reservoir, Dam 14 is home to year-round populations of channel catfish, largemouth bass and sunfish, as well as stocked trout. NRCS will work with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources to salvage as many of the fish as possible and relocate them to other areas. Once the project is complete, the fishery will be restored using stocked fish. The project is entirely dependent on funding from Congress, and Dam 14’s priority among other similar projects nationwide. Burr said it would be the first such rehabilitation funded under the program in West Virginia. “This would be the first one in the state,” he said. “It would be kind of a pilot project.”

State to remove dams for spawning fish By Kaitlyn Seith, 11/20/08, Howard County Times

About 15 years ago, Maryland spent more than $3 million to make it easier for spawning fish to swim upriver past three aging dams along the Patapsco River. The structures they built -- known as "fish ladders" -- were part of a statewide effort to bring once-prolific shad and herring back to the rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay. Now, however, state officials say the ladders didn't work as well as they hoped and that they are seeking to remove the dams instead, a solution they considered 15 years ago, but rejected as too costly. Although the fish spend most of their lives in the ocean, they return to the rivers of their birth to spawn. The dams, many of which were built in the early 1900s to serve now-defunct mills, have blocked those spawning runs, leading, throughout the 20th century, to precipitous declines in the number of shad and herring that were being caught in Maryland. Destroying the dams is the best way to clear the way for spawning fish, said Nancy Butowski, program manager in the fisheries department of the DNR. The ladders, she said, "are not 100 percent effective. ... There's a lot of maintenance and upkeep to keep ladders working. "Renewing or restoring the stream flow and water conditions and curves of the river is a better holistic approach. For the ecosystem, it's better to remove." In all, the state built 19 ladders on 19 dams. DNR officials could not provide information about how much the state agency spent on the projects. From 1993 to 1997, the Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave more than $1.7 million to DNR for fish ladder projects.

Three targeted On the Patapsco, officials are seeking to remove three of the river's four dams, including two that have fish ladders -- Simkins, south of Ellicott City, and Bloede, near Elkridge. The third, Union, north of Ellicott City, has no ladder but was breached in a 1990 storm that allowed the passage of spawning fish. Removing the dams would cost about $5 million, officials say. A fourth dam, Daniels, which is north of Union Dam and has a fish ladder, is scheduled for routine repairs and a study to determine the best option for its future. Officials expect to start removing Union Dam by the beginning of next summer at a cost of about $1.5 million, including design. DNR is seeking a contractor to remove it, said Michelle Hurt, an engineer at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Although DNR would like to remove Bloede, cost and historical factors could prevent complete removal, and DNR is studying the best options for the dam. As for Simkins, a citizens group dedicated to the Patapsco Valley State Park -- in concert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, DNR and American Rivers, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the country's rivers -- is studying ways in which the dam might be removed. A design for the removal of Simkins could be done by next spring, said Serena McClain, an associate director for American Rivers.

Costly removal Fifteen years ago, officials considered knocking down the dams rather than building the ladders. They decided against that because of the high cost of removal, which includes paying to pump out the large amount of silt that has built up behind the dams over decades. Removing the dams presents other problems, officials said. DNR spent eight years getting approval for permits to remove Union Dam from local, state and federal agencies, Hurt said. Officials believe Simkins Dam will be removed relatively soon because it is a private dam and the owners have given permission to have it studied for removal, McClain said. American Rivers and NOAA gave $50,000 to Friends of Patapsco Valley State Park, a citizens group, to look into a design assessment for dam removal, said Mary Andrews, an environmental engineer with NOAA. A few years ago, members of the Friends group started questioning the purpose of the dams along the Patapsco, said Jim Palmer, the vice president of the group. Simkins Industries, which owns the dam, gave the group permission last year to have the dam studied to be removed, Palmer said. Simkins' owners could not be reached for comment. It is common for citizens' groups to apply for grants for dam removals because NOAA often gives money to volunteer projects, Andrews said. The Friends will contract with an engineering firm to complete design of a removal project. The work won't take place until the design is completed, permits are obtained and funding is secured, she said.

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

Safety also a factor Bloede likely will cost DNR millions to remove -- if the department decides to do that. Currently, DNR is writing a proposal to hire an architectural engineer to study the options for the dam in regards to "repair or removal," said Wiley Hall, spokesman for DNR. DNR does not have Bloede listed to receive money in this fiscal year's budget, he said. Improving safety around the dam also is an argument for removal, said Jim Thompson, a fisheries biologist at DNR. "We always wanted to take it out, but it seems to be such an expensive project," he said. "The safety part of it along with the fish in collaboration made it a worthwhile thing to do. It justified the expense." Daniels Dam has yet to have its Daniels Dam future set. DNR and Maryland Park Service officials met in July and decided to wait on removal of the dam because it's a popular canoeing site. DNR also is seeking a consultant to study the best future for Daniels, Hall said. In 2006, DNR estimated it would cost $340,000 to remove the dam, though that cost is now predicted to be higher.

Hawaii dam break leads to 7 manslaughter counts By Associated Press, November 22, 2008, Boston Herald

HONOLULU, - A Kauai grand jury on Friday indicted an 82-year-old landowner on seven counts of manslaughter in connection with the deadly failure of dam on Kauai two years ago. James Pflueger, a former Honolulu car dealer, was also indicted on one count of first-degree reckless endangerment. The century-old earthen dam broke March 14, 2006, sending 300 million gallons of water rushing to the sea, sweeping seven people to their deaths. "The grand jury determined that there was probable cause to believe that Mr. Pflueger recklessly caused the deaths of seven people. And now that case will go to trial," state Attorney General Mark Bennett said. Defense attorney William McCorriston said the state is trying to make Pflueger a scapegoat because it had failed to inspect the dam. McCorriston said the state, without any investigation, decided the day of the dam break that the landowners of the dam were responsible and not the state. "And the state from that moment on has done everything in its power to obfuscate its own responsibility and to blame everything on Jimmy Pflueger," McCorriston said. In response, Bennett said his goal from the beginning was to try to determine whether or not the evidence justified presenting the case to the grand jury. Bennett declined to comment on specific evidence. But he has said the case against Pflueger includes the covering of the dam’s emergency spillway, which is designed to keep water from flowing over the top of the dam. Pflueger has repeatedly denied accusations he filled the spillway. McCorriston also disputed news reports that have called Pflueger the owner of the dam. He said the dam is owned by Kilauea Irrigation Co., while Pflueger and the Lucas Estate own the land beneath the reservoir. Kilauea Irrigation’s telephone has been disconnected or is no longer in service. McCorriston said Pflueger "has serious health problems and is now being called from his sickbed to answer these charges." Arrangements were being made for the octogenarian to surrender to authorities.

Dam law stricter, but budget short By Derrick DePledge, Honolulu Advertiser Government Writer, November 22, 2008

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources made an embarrassing concession after the fatal Kaloko dam breach on Kaua'i in 2006. Not only was there no record that Kaloko was ever inspected by the state, but the department's short-handed dam safety staff focused at the time on tsunami mapping and flood control and had not conducted inspections of any of the state's 136 dams and reservoirs in the year before Kaloko failed. In the weeks that followed the fatal breach, the department, state Civil Defense and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did visual inspections of all state dams, and most dams were inspected again after the October 2006 earthquakes off the Big Island. Last year, the state Legislature passed a bill, signed into law by Gov. Linda Lingle, that gives department inspectors expanded rights to enter property to examine dams and imposes stronger penalties on property owners or dam operators who violate dam safety laws. Laura H. Thielen, the department's director, declined through a spokeswoman yesterday to answer questions about the status of the state's dam safety program. The department spokeswoman referred questions to state Attorney General Mark Bennett. State Adjutant General Robert G.F. Lee, who was involved in the inspections after Kaloko, said those inspections provided baseline data that helped inspectors better assess dams after the earthquakes and during the past two years. State law requires that dams be inspected once every five years. "I think they're a lot better than the conditions we found the dams in after the Kaloko disaster," Lee said.

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

THE INVESTIGATION The state's response has been guided by the lessons of Kaloko and by a January 2007 report by engineer and attorney Robert Godbey, who was appointed by the state to conduct an independent civil investigation of the breach that killed seven people. The department had attempted to contact landowner Jimmy Pflueger, a retired auto dealer, several times to schedule a visual inspection of Kaloko but was unsuccessful. Pflueger was indicted by a Kaua'i grand jury yesterday on seven counts of manslaughter and one count of reckless endangering stemming from the Kaloko failure. Godbey, in his report, recommended that the state increase funding for regular inspections, conduct periodic reviews of dam hazard classifications, establish stronger enforcement penalties, and create a special fund to help the department pay for dam monitoring. The report said that Kaloko was mistakenly categorized as a low-hazard dam by the Army Corps of Engineers after the National Dam Inspection Act of 1972 and never properly reclassified. State lawmakers agreed last year to authorize department inspectors to enter public or private property without notice to investigate dams. In cases of emergency, the department can take immediate measures — at the expense of dam owners — to protect life and property. The law created a special fund and required the department to submit annual reports to the Legislature on the status of dam safety. Dam owners and operators are required to have a certificate of approval to impound water, and an operation and maintenance plan that includes a monitoring program. Owners of both high-hazard and significant-hazard dams are also required to have emergency action plans. Civil fines for violating the law had been $500 a day. Lawmakers increased the administrative penalties for violating the law to up to $25,000 a day. Lawmakers also created a third-degree felony with criminal fines of up to $25,000 a day for a first conviction, and up to $50,000 a day for subsequent convictions.

BUDGET CONSTRAINTS State Rep. Hermina Morita, D-14th (Hanalei, Anahola, Kapa'a), said lawmakers want to do more to improve dam safety but have been constrained by a lack of state money. "I think the state is moving as methodically as it can with the amount of resources that we have, given the budget situation," she said. "We're struggling because of everyone's financial situation, but it's something that you can't neglect because it involves safety." State Sen. Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u), said he wants feedback from the department about the challenges of implementing the law and about what more is necessary to ensure that dams are inspected and safe. "For us, I think we need data, and we're relying on them to provide that data," he said.

(There are always two sides to an issue.) Dam deal still stokes controversy Critics from all sides assail new deal on Klamath Basin water Mateusz Perkowski, Capital Press, 11/20/2008

The planned removal of four hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River is a bitter pill to swallow for the basin's agricultural industry. Some farmers regard the plan as an unpleasant but ultimately necessary remedy that will help heal divisions over the competing water needs of farmers and fish. Others say dam removal will only inflame the Klamath Basin's ills over the long term. "Common sense says, 'What are they thinking?'" said Tom Mallams, a hay farmer and president of the Klamath Off-Project Water Users, who opposes dam removal. "It's an absolute disaster, the way they're trying to do this." Though disassembling power infrastructure is not something farmers in the region like to see, dam removal is a crucial step in resolving the long-standing dispute between farmers, tribes and conservationists, said Steve Kandra, a farmer and board member of the Klamath Water Users Association. "It's a milepost in the process, and we've still got a way to go," he said. "We keep developing and fine-tuning the system." Earlier this year, the Klamath Water Users Association negotiated a settlement with tribes and conservationists, known as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, to end legal battles over water rights in the region.

Removing dams was the key component of the agreement, but that decision ultimately lies in the hands of PacifiCorp, the utility that owns them. Throughout the year, PacifiCorp negotiated with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about re-licensing the dams. At the same time, the company discussed removing the structures with the Department of the Interior. On Nov. 13, PacifiCorp announced it had brokered a deal with the Interior Department, as well as the states of Oregon and California, to dismantle the dams and re- open the Klamath River to fish passage by 2020. Removal will be paid for with $200 million in surcharges on PacifiCorp customers in Oregon and California, as well as $250 million in general obligation bonds from the state of California. Art Sasse, spokesman for PacifiCorp, stressed that the deal is not yet final. Dam removal is contingent on several conditions, he said, including an independent environmental review of the consequences. The 12-year horizon will also be needed to find other ways of generating electricity, he said. The dams provide enough electricity to serve 70,000 homes, he said. "This allows us enough time to plan for

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

the replacement power," Sasse said. The Klamath Off-Project Water Users believe the agreement is "ridiculous" because PacifiCorp would rather tear down a dependable source of renewable energy than build fish ladders, Mallams said. "There are other options besides dam removal, but they don't even want to talk about that," he said, referring to removal proponents. He also said the settlement agreement is unfair to farmers outside the Klamath Project irrigation system.

The agreement calls for the retirement of 30,000 acre feet of off-project water rights, but doesn't provide off-project growers with reasonable assurances regarding water rights and electricity costs, Mallams said. "We are not opposed to a settlement, but it's got to be equitable," he said. "They've basically abandoned us." Kandra said PacifiCorp's decision to remove the dams was fundamentally a business decision. The company determined that dam removal was the most feasible alternative, he said. As for the overall settlement agreement, maintaining the status quo was not an option, and compromise is unavoidable, Kandra said. For Klamath Off-project Water Users to gain traction in the settlement agreement, they need to become part of the process instead of throwing rocks at it, Kandra said. "If people have things that need to be polished up and updated, they need to make a decision to be in the program," he said. Mallams said that his group wanted a seat at the table but its ideas were consistently overruled by the other groups. Discontent with the agreement isn't limited to off-project farmers, he said. Many KWUA members also believe the deal concedes too much to the tribes without gaining adequate protections for farmers, Mallams said. "There is no widespread support in the Klamath Basin," he said. There are defectors on the off-project side as well. The Upper Klamath Water Users' Association represents off-project irrigators who support the deal, said Becky Hyde, a rancher and member of the group. The settlement agreement simply offers the most stability for agriculture, so it doesn't make sense to stand in its way, she said. "The train has left the station," Hyde said. "There are really only two options: settle or litigate. Litigation, to me, is a pretty big gamble." Craig Tucker, spokesman for the Karuk tribe, said that tribes have faced opposition to the agreement as well - albeit for the opposite reasons. The Hoopa Valley tribe, for example, opposes the deal because it believes farmers are given water-use priority. The deal has adversaries in the environmental camp as well. Groups like Klamath Riverkeeper, Trout Unlimited and American Rivers applauded PacifiCorp's announcement, but Oregon Wild wasn't impressed. "It's a pretty bow on a package that's intended to pass the Bush administration's priorities into the next administration," said Steve Pedery, conservation director for the group. In effect, the settlement agreement weakens protections for fish in return for dam removal, he said. Despite such contentiousness within stakeholder groups, Tucker believes the coalition of farmers, tribes and conservationists is strong enough not to be pulled apart by detractors. "I think we've staked out a sizable portion of the middle ground," he said.

(Could this be another benefit of dams?) Submerged Ghana forest In Forest, Hydroelectric, - from reutersToMl on November 22, 2008

Logging of a Ghanaian forest submerged 40 years ago by a hydroelectric dam could point to an underwater timber bonanza worth billions of dollars in tropical countries, a senior Ghanaian official said on Monday. Exploiting submerged rot-resistant hardwoods such as ebony, wawa or odum trees in Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in Africa, can also slow deforestation on land and curb emissions of greenhouse gases linked to burning of forests. Logging will be led by a privately owned Canadian company, CSR Developments, which says it aims to invest $100 million in Ghana. Cutting equipment can be mounted on barges, guided by sonars to grab trees below water. There were “5 million hectares (12.36 million acres) of salvageable submerged timber in the hydroelectric reservoirs in the tropics with the potential to supplement global demand for timber.” “The trees are still strong,” Robert Bamfo, head of Climate Change at the 6 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

government’s Forestry Commission said, even though they had been under water since construction of the Akosombo Dam in the 1960s. Harvesting would cost more than on land but was still commercial because of the value of the timber.

HHyyddrroo Alaska energy agency gives Susitna dam another look By Christopher Eshleman, November 18, 2008, Daily News-Miner

FAIRBANKS — Energy specialists have put a flashlight to 25-year-old plans for building a massive dam between Fairbanks and Anchorage. The Alaska Energy Authority is updating the Susitna Dam cost estimates, using $1.5 million from the Alaska Legislature, project manager Bryan Carey said Monday night in Fairbanks. It’s using another $1 million from the state to figure out how well the project, if ever built, would fit with existing power transmission lines in Alaska, he said. Carey said his agency is simply updating a much larger body of research conducted by the state decades ago. He said it will show the results this summer to the Legislature, which ordered the work during its most recent session. Lawmakers could then consider options, including whether to pursue a federal permit for a dam project.

The Legislature recently has focused on other major energy prospects, most notably a proposed natural gas pipeline. But for a stretch of time in the 1970s and 1980s, it spent well more than $100 million on documents needed to build a dam system on the Susitna River, using an estimate from Carey, who spoke at a public lecture at the Noel Wien Library. The state in 1983 applied for a federal license for the project — then estimated to cost about $10 billion in today’s dollars after adjustments for inflation. But the Legislature shelved the proposal in 1985 after a major slide in international oil prices stymied cost models used to plan the dam and left the Legislature questioning how to help finance it. “That had a lot to do with Susitna dying,” Carey said of plummeting oil prices. The proposed Susitna hydropower project could be the biggest ever mentioned for Alaska, outside of one considered briefly by the U.S. Corps of Engineers for the Yukon River at Rampart. Numerous smaller hydropower projects exist across the state, including the Bradley Lake project in Homer. Some communities have tinkered with small-scale, experimental approaches to hydropower. But Dennis Witmer, a research assistant professor at the University of Alaska, said such small- scale hydropower technology has yet to prove itself reliable on the open market. “We need a couple of demonstrations, I think, to get some information on costs and reliability,” said Witmer, who also spoke Monday of some smaller “hydrokinetic” projects. “And I think we need to better understand the environmental impacts.” At last look, the Susitna hydropower project would supply as much power in a year as the state uses as a whole, Carey said.

As originally envisioned, the project would have consisted of numerous dams along the river. Carey said his agency is updating cost estimates for four alternatives, including a focus on a one- or two-dam system including part or all of a tall, rock-fill “Watana” dam near the Tsusena Creek in the Matanuska Valley and, if needed, a second “Devil Canyon” dam downstream from Watana. Carey said plans from the 1980s estimated the Watana dam alone could require a 3,000-plus-worker camp and take a decade to build. Monday’s presentation was part of an ongoing monthly series of lectures organized by the Alaska Center for Energy and Power.

(Darn, is it dam or damn?) Black Hawk Buys, Decommissions Hydroelectric Plant Georgetown Lake Improvements Result From Partnership With Georgetown November 18, 2008, ABC News, Denver, CO

GEORGETOWN, Colo. -- The city of Black Hawk has partnered with the city of Georgetown to store and release water from Georgetown Lake for municipal purposes. As part of the agreement, Black Hawk has purchased the Jerry B. Buckley hydroelectric plant that siphoned water from the lake, causing unpredictable lake fluctuations. The plant has been decommissioned and no longer takes water from the lake, or generates electricity. The plant had only been in operation a few years and generated 300 kilowatts of electricity, which were sold to Xcel Energy. The Black Hawk partnership gives the town 25 acre-feet per year of consumable water from Black Hawk, as well as a cost-sharing partner. In return, Black Hawk may store up to 100 acre-feet of its own water in Georgetown Lake. That is about one-fourth of the lake's total volume.

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

Georgetown and Black Hawk plan to remove the siphon and other pieces of the hydroelectric plant to modify the lake outlet, and to make other improvements to the dam in order to facilitate reservoir operation. "This will also allow the Georgetown to finalize its water court decrees and to enhance the reliability of its water supplies, while also assuring that downstream water rights will receive water they are entitled to, even during droughts like 2002," according to a press released issued Tuesday. Decommissioning the Buckley plant will also have beneficial environmental effects in and around Clear Creek, on which the damn is built. Water temperatures in the creek are expected to be lower and dissolved oxygen in the water is expected to increase. Anglers will also have an additional fishing area between the dam and the powerhouse.

(The new hydropower) World's first wave farm now generating power for 1,500 homes By Charlie White, 10/22/08, SciFi There's power in them thar waves! That's why Portugal built Agucadoura, the world's first wave farm off its coast, consisting of three Wave Energy Converters generating a total of 2.25MW. The elongated metal contraptions bob up and down with the waves, while internal pistons, attached to the sea floor, remain stationary and pump hydraulic fluid. This drives electric generators, whose power is brought ashore by underwater electrical cables. The wave farm is now tapping into enough constant, renewable energy to power 1500 homes. Who knew there was so much power in the ocean waves? If we laid these 459-foot orange caterpillars all over the world's oceans, we could tap 2 terawatts of power, twice the consumption of the entire world. That's not exactly practical, but a smaller-scale rollout of such generators might be a clean power alternative, ready to be snapped up by an energy-starved planet.

(Interesting. The licensee is not any owner to support because it violated its license. This sounds like a move out of frustration that didn’t go by the rules. In the end, however, Maine DEP will get what it wants.) Friends of Sebago Lake Catches Maine DEP Commissioner Illegally Amending Five Presumpscot River Hydro Dam Licenses

SEBAGO LAKE, MAINE -- On Thursday, Nov. 20, the Maine Board of Environmental Protection ruled that the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection violated Maine law by amending five state hydroelectric dam licenses without telling the public. "The Department's decision has no legal basis and must be reversed," wrote the Maine BEP in its two page order, which relied on legal counsel from the Maine Department of Attorney General. The Maine BEP is an independent, citizen board which reviews the legality of decisions made by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. On August 28, 2008 Friends of Sebago Lake appealed the DEP Commissioner’s decision. Friends of Sebago Lake appealed a July 29, 2008 Order by Maine DEP Commissioner David Littell which amended the licenses for five hydroelectric dams on the Presumpscot River, the outlet of Sebago Lake. The dams are owned by the South African Pulp and Paper Company (SAPPI).

The license amendments removed requirements that SAPPI conduct scientific studies to ensure its hydroelectric dams are not killing and mutilating fish in the turbines of its dams on the Presumpscot River between Sebago Lake and Casco Bay. SAPPI was required to have completed the studies in the fall of 2006, but has refused to do so. Instead of ordering SAPPI to comply with their license requirements at the five dams, on July 29, 2008 the Maine DEP Commissioner abolished the license requirements that SAPPI has been violating for the past five years. The 9-member Maine BEP unanimously ruled that the Maine DEP Commissioner broke Maine law because he amended the five licenses even though SAPPI never filed any applications to amend the licenses and never paid its mandatory application fees. The Board wrote: "Because no application for modification had been filed, the Department had no authority to modify the certification." Under Maine and federal law, owners of hydroelectric dams must file an application to amend their state and federal dam licenses. These applications trigger a mandatory public notice process and

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

opportunity for the public to comment on any proposed change in license. Federal and state licenses for hydro dams have terms of 30 to 50 years. In this case, the Commissioner Littell abolished critical sections of the state licenses for five of SAPPI's Presumpscot River Dams without any public notice or opportunity for public comment. Friends of Sebago Lake found about these secret changes by accident and only 24 hours before the appeals deadline was set to expire.

"This rebuke makes us wonder if David Littell knew what he was signing," said Roger Wheeler, president of Friends of Sebago Lake. "To amend a DEP license you have to file an application and pay the application fee. Everyone in Maine who owns a shorefront camp knows this. Here, the DEP Commissioner re-wrote five 40-year dam licenses for a multi-billion dollar corporation and did not ask them to fill out an application or pay the $127 permit fee." At the Nov. 20, 2008 Maine BEP meeting in Augusta, Dana Murch, the Maine DEP staff member who wrote the order, told the Board, "No good deed goes unpunished. If I’m guilty of anything, it is of trying to be efficient.”

EEnnvviirroonnmmeenntt Fishery officials optimistic about effects of Elk Creek Dam project By Ron Brown, November 18, 2008, News Watch12

ELK CREEK, Ore. -- A Rogue River tributary that was blocked for 20 years by a partially completed dam is now flowing free. An eight million dollar project to blast a notch out of the half finished Elk Creek Dam was recently completed to help restore native fish runs. As landscapers work to restore the banks, fisheries managers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hope that restoring the creek to its original streambed will allow salmon and steelhead back into prime spawning grounds again. "Elk Creek is a very productive watershed, and it supports very good numbers of Coho salmon, steelhead, both summer and winter run steelhead... and other native fish, including our native suckers and Pacific lamprey. A small number of Chinook salmon also utliize Elk Creek. So, as it stands this year, they have free access to swim into the upper watershed in Elk Creek on their own," says ODFW Fish Biologist Dan Van Dyke. In July, the USACE blasted out the center of the roller-compacted concrete dam and excavated down to the streambed. They also removed a trapping weir used to corral fish and haul them around the dam structure. Its foundation is now a riffle for fish. Dyke says this provides "the best situation for fish to be able to reach the spawning grounds and thrive". "That'll provide just a fantastic nursery stream... for those small salmon and steelhead to survive, head downstream, and then again contribute to those really economically important fisheries as those fish return to the Rogue as adults," says Dyke. The USACE is interested in wehether the project they did this summer will survive through the winter. If there's damage that needs to be corrected, that will be the first priority. If not, they'll extend on upstream for further habitat restoration.

More bad news on the fish front Posted by: Ed Stoddard, November 19th, 2008, Reuters Blogs

There’s more bad news on the fish front. According to a new report the advocacy group California Trout, 65 percent of the state’s native salmon, steelhead and trout species may be extinct within the next century. To see the whole report click here. It was written by Dr. Peter Moyle of the University of California, Davis. “The report’s findings indicate that the state’s native salmonids are in unprecedented decline and are teetering towards the brink of extinction - an alarm bell that signals the deteriorating health of the state’s rivers and streams that provide drinking water to millions of Californians. It’s also a sign that fish are likely to be struggling nationwide in this era of global warming, water diversions, and rapid development into previously uninhabited areas,” the organization said. Salt and freshwater fisheries almost everywhere are in decline. Over-harvesting, poor management of commercial fisheries, habitat destruction, climate change, dams – you name it, the inhabitants of our aquatic ecosystems are in trouble. Anadromous fish such as salmon — which spawn in freshwater but spend most of their adult lives in the sea — have nowhere to run (well, swim). They get hammered by trawlers at sea and by pressure on their spawning grounds when they return to freshwater. The salmon’s life-cycle is one of the most arduous but compelling narratives in nature, from its birthplace in streams to the open sea and back again. It is a journey that is increasingly fraught with danger from California’s coast to the Baltic Sea. But the report also highlights the success of restoration efforts

9 Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu which show that when blocked flows are reinstated and migration barriers removed, native fish stocks show signs of recovery.

Environmental group opens Edgewood field office By the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 11/24/08

Environmental group American Rivers announced today it has opened a Western Pennsylvania field office in Edgewood. The nonprofit group, which improves water quality largely by campaigning for the removal of old dams, said Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy will serve as associate director for river restoration. Hollingsworth- Segedy will use federal, state and private foundation grants to help Pennsylvania communities dismantle old dams. In Pennsylvania, American Rivers has supported removing more than 80 dams, the most of any state. Removing dams that are no longer needed allows fish access to more of the rivers and improves water quality that can be deteriorated by sediment that dams hold back. Hollingsworth-Segedy used to work at the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center in Georgia, where she was executive producer of a documentary highlighting the Chattahoochee River's water-quality challenges and opportunities.

Invasive mussel found at dam in Susquehanna River The Evening Sun, The Associated Press, 11/24/2008

HARRISBURG, Pa.—Pennsylvania state officials say an invasive mussel that could be very costly to control was found in the lower Susquehanna River. The half-inch zebra mussel was found in recent weeks inside a water intake at the Conowingo Dam hydroelectric plant in Maryland. Above the dam is a nine-mile lake that stretches into Pennsylvania. A Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection spokesman says authorities are trying to find out if more zebra mussels are in the water there. The zebra mussel is native to Eastern Europe, but traveled to American lakes on ocean-going ships. The mussels compete with native mussels and fish for plankton, and their sharp shells can create problems on beaches. They also ruin water quality and clog water intakes.

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

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