11/29/2013

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Dams:

(It’s always the dam’s fault! I’d have to see a dam break study before saying it would affect such a large flood.)Olympus Dam's role in flood awash in questionsFederal officials faced two options during September's flooding: Hold water and face flooding Estes Park or release flows down the raging Big Thompson.Nov. 14, 2013, Written by Patrick Malone, coloradoan.com

Man stood by, mostly powerless, while nature imposed its will by flooding the Big Thompson Canyon for two days in September. The Olympus Dam at Estes Park was the lone exception. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation controlled its flows into the rising waters of the Big Thompson River. At its peak, the release rate from the dam was 66 times greater than normal for mid-September.Residents of the flood-ravaged canyon wonder how releases from the dam affected the magnitude of the flood. “I don’t have the answers,” said Windsor resident Ruth Brunner, who owns a cabin in the canyon. “I just have the questions.” In hindsight, people whose business is water say the dam releases were a negligible factor in the river’s rise, although emergency communications during peak flooding told a different story. “I don’t really think the releases had a huge impact on the flows,” said David Nettles, an engineer with the Colorado Department of

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

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And Other Stuff

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Natural Resources’ water division. “I think it may have had a small, positive impact. But overall, I think its impact one way or the other was probably pretty minimal.”

The Bureau of Reclamation released water from Olympus Dam at about the same rate that Lake Estes was filling with rain, according to spokeswoman Kara Lamb. “We were incrementally matching the inflow with the outflow,” she said, “step-by-step, hour-by-hour instead of the surges that Mother Nature was providing.” Essentially, Nettles said, that strategy resulted in a neutral relationship between dam releases and downstream flows in the Big Thompson River.“Once the reservoir is full and you’re passing inflows, it’s pretty much like the reservoir is not there,” Nettles said. “If you’re passing the inflows, the reservoir has no impact.” Olympus Dam holds up to 3,000 acre feet of water — less than 2 percent of the capacity at Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins. And Olympus Dam was not designed to mitigate floods.Since its construction in the late 1940s as part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, the dam has served as a conduit to send the Front Range water that almost entirely originates in the Colorado River west of the Continental Divide. Although it holds a modest amount of water, if the Olympus Dam had failed, Nettles said the consequences would have been dire. “Even in a big flood like this, if you drop 3,000 acre feet into the flow very quickly, that would have an adverse impact,” he said. The dam was never in jeopardy of overtopping or structural failure, according to Lamb. More than the Big Thompson below it, the banks of Lake Estes behind the dam concerned the Bureau of Reclamation. The possibility of further flooding from Lake Estes posed a significant threat to the town of Estes Park, which was already imperiled by its location in a natural, mountain basin with four rivers passing through it, Lamb said.

By regulating releases from the dam, Nettles said the Bureau of Reclamation may have prevented dramatic changes in the depth of the rising Big Thompson River. During the worst of the flooding on Sept. 12-13, that was not apparent. In communications between emergency managers and weather forecasters, releases from the Olympus Dam were repeatedly referenced as a factor in the swelling Big Thompson River. In an email to colleagues at 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, Thomas Aguilar, a maintenance supervisor with the Colorado Department of Transportation, expressed concern about plans to increase releases from Olympus Dam to 1,700 cubic feet per second from 1,400. “The first bridge east of Estes already has water going over the top,” Aguilar reported. At that point, some of the bridges were being overtopped and more water would make it worse,” CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford explained, putting the email in context. “(The Bureau of Reclamation) needed to handle their infrastructure the way they needed to handle it, and we are supportive of that.” At 9:20 a.m. on Sept. 12, the National Weather Service issued a bulletin noting that heavy rainfall filling Lake Estes would result in increased releases from the dam. It cited those flows as one factor in the worsening flood. “Over 1,700 cfs is being released from Olympus Dam at Estes Park,” it read. “This along with high flows from tributaries of the Big Thompson River has caused river levels on the Big Thompson River at the canyon mouth near Loveland to rise to moderate flood stage.” Releases from the dam were again cited as a contributing factor in the magnitude of the flood in a dispatch disseminated by the state emergency management office at 11:45 p.m. on Sept. 12, when river levels and releases peaked.“It was reported that 6,000 cfs of water was being released into the Big Thompson River from Olympus Dam in Estes Park, due to unexpected heavier rain fall above the dam,” it stated. “This increase in flow was expected to push the flow of the Big Thompson River to approx. 10,000 cfs, which will cause flooding all along the Big Thompson River from below the dam thru (sic) the City of Loveland to Weld County.” In fact, the releases from the dam topped at 5,280 cfs around that time, Lamb said. Correspondingly, the river’s crest exceeded 9.3 feet, the previous high on record from 1976, when more than 150 died in the Big Thompson Flood. National Weather Service forecasts during the critical period of the flood that spanned Sept. 12-13 consistently underestimated by about a half foot the rate that the Big Thompson River would rise. Meteorologist Bernie Meier said the weather service was in close contact with the Bureau of Reclamation and included Olympus Dam releases in its modeling formula to develop forecasts.“We had a little more control of the water flow (forecasts) than we would have otherwise,” he said. “It’s tough to say what would have happened if the dam hadn’t been there — worse or better — it’s just tough to say.” In the following hours and days, the Bureau of Reclamation gradually

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu2

slowed its releases as rainfall decreased. Now that the floodwaters have subsided, Brunner said she and others who own property or live in the Big Thompson Canyon want a formal, scientific assessment of the dam’s role in the magnitude of the flood. I want to know what effect the releases from the dam had in relation to historic floods,” she said. “Before it was built, how did the river handle floods? Would it have been better if the water wasn’t built up and released in surges?” The Bureau of Reclamation has questions of its own, and plans to assess how the disaster was managed at the Olympus Dam. “We’re conducting an after-action review that we’ll be using internally,” Lamb said. No completion date for the report has been identified, and Lamb said it remains to be determined whether it will be released to the public because it could contain sensitive information about dam security. While the Bureau of Reclamation had more control of the situation in the canyon than most did during the flood, Lamb emphasized that it, too, was at the mercy of the weather. “Mother Nature was guiding what happened,” she said. “We did the best with what we had.”

(Where’s all the money going to come from?)Dams, diversion damage lingers By Chris Woodka The Pueblo Chieftain, November 16, 2013, chieftain.com

The state is working on repairing a projected $2 billion damage to infrastructure caused by flooding in September. While roads, homes and other buildings were lost to raging waters, mainly in the northern part of the state, there was also severe damage to water structures. “A lot of the focus is on the recovery of water structures,” Alan Hamel, chairman of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, told the Arkansas Basin Roundtable Wednesday. “The CWCB is spending a lot of time there.” Structures were damaged both in the South Platte and Arkansas River basins and low-interest loans are available from the CWCB in both areas, said Rebecca Mitchell, of the CWCB staff. The storms lasted for several days and damaged at least 27 dams, 25 stream gauges and 220 diversion structures, Hamel said. “Many of those diversion structures are owned by private ditch companies and are not covered by any federal funding,” Hamel said. In some cases, stream courses changed, making diversion structures useless, he added.

(This ought to be interesting, It’s already 100 years old! I’m betting on removal.)Dam lifespan estimate comingNewport Avenue Dam central to Mirror Pond’s futureBy Scott Hammers / The Bulletin, November 17. 2013, bendbulletin.com

An estimate of the realistic lifespan of the Newport Avenue Dam should be available in early- to mid-December, a spokesman for PacifiCorp said Friday. PacifiCorp inspectors spent several days examining the condition of the dam two weeks ago, nearly a month after the utility discovered a hole in the dam that quickly dropped water levels in Mirror Pond. The water dropped further when the dam gates were opened to accommodate inspectors. Due to the hole, water levels remain roughly 2 feet below where they would typically be this time of year. The future of the more than 100-year-old dam is central to ongoing discussions of whether Mirror Pond should be dredged to remove excess silt, or whether Bend should plan for a post-dam future with a more natural flowing river. Until now, PacifiCorp has said only that the dam will eventually become uneconomical to operate as a hydroelectric generation facility, at which time the dam may have to be removed.

Spokesman Bob Gravely said PacifiCorp expects to have a better idea of when that could happen once it completes a report on the recent inspection. “I’m not sure we’re going to come out and say it’s going to be three years and four months; I’m not sure how specific a time frame, but when we consider the results of the inspection and the economic analysis is also finished, we will be able to come out and give a much more clear picture of our intentions than we’ve been able to do," Gravely said. Don Horton, executive director of the Bend Park & Recreation District and one of nine members of the Mirror Pond ad hoc committee, said establishing a semi-fixed date from PacifiCorp will help narrow the discussion surrounding Mirror Pond. If the dam is expected to remain in place for several years, dredging to preserve the pond, more or less as is, is a viable option, he said. If PacifiCorp plans to shut it down soon, Horton said, the discussion shifts toward

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu3

the removal or replacement of the dam. “I think that’s one of the thing’s the community has been waiting for," he said. Questions surrounding the ownership of the land beneath Mirror Pond may also be nearing resolution, Horton said. Descendants of Clyde McKay, who platted some of the first lots in Bend before the Deschutes River was dammed, have claimed ownership of much of the bottom of Mirror Pond. Horton said recent discussions with the McKay family suggest they are amenable to selling the land to the park district or some other public entity.

(This dam sounds real unsafe!)Watchdog Report: 'Unsafe' Lake Lenape dam adds flood risk to four townsBy Derek Harper, Staff Writer, November 16, 2013, pressofatlanticcity.com

Hamilton Township, NJ - For nearly a decade, a growing pile of inspection reports has detailed key problems with the Lake Lenape Dam. Officials took steps to fix problems, but the work essentially stalled as officials and contractors traded blame for partial collapse of the repair structure in a February 2011 incident that led to an emergency evacuation of downstream residents. Now, Atlantic County and Hamilton Township refuse to allow the public to see a publicly funded engineering report that in June described the Lake Lenape Dam as "unsafe." The state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Dam Safety and Flood Control in Trenton, however, has allowed open access to the report and older files. These files show:•A hole in the western embankment, nearest the ruins of a former factory, identified by Atlantic County inspectors in 2010 has grown to about 16 inches high and 25 feet wide, extending about 11 feet into the dam. This embankment also may have moved.•The century-old flood control gates that were replaced during a $1.1 million rehabilitation in 1991 were already only partially functional by 2004. These have not been repaired, and they limit the ability of dam operators to respond to lake water levels.•The state has had to remind the county and township five times during the past 13 years to make mandatory inspections.•When they inspected, the county and the township missed their own later deadlines to fix the problems the reports identified, including the flood control gates.•Once state dam regulators saw the most recent report, the Bureau of Dam Safety and Flood Control in July declared the dam unsafe, ordered the county to start carefully monitoring it, and ordered water levels lowered before significant storms. Township officials said in August the damaged gates made lowering water levels more difficult.•Any dam failure would affect properties in four communities: Hamilton Township, Egg Harbor Township, Weymouth Township and Corbin City.

John H. Moyle, Dam Safety's manager, said the dam is not in imminent risk of failure. He said the mandated monitoring program includes steps should the dam appear to move. The structure was classified as "unsafe," he said, to err on the side of caution. About 1,600 dams are in New Jersey, and about six, on average, are declared unsafe every year.Estimates vary on the impact of dam failure. In a best-case scenario, the Mill Street Bridge would face a torrent of water running for almost two hours, flowing several feet higher than high tide, according to a 1991 dam break analysis by O'Brien & Gere Engineers of Blue Bell, Pa. Once it reached the broader reaches of Great Egg Harbor River, it would spread out and dissipate. A 1981 engineering analysis said 52 people lived and more than 525 people worked in the affected area. The report also identified 18 properties at risk, mostly on streets near the dam. These

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu4

properties currently include the former mill, a Masonic Lodge, several businesses and 13 residences. Hamilton Township assesses these at just less than $4 million.

The current Emergency Action Plan is broader.Should the dam fail without a storm - a so-called "sunny-day dam breach" - floodwaters "would impact approximately 75 residential homes and as many as many as one dozen commercial properties." O'Brien & Gere wrote the worst-case scenario would follow 32.3 inches of rain falling over three days. Atlantic County's flood maps enclosed a broad swath of ground around the dam, including parts of Corbin City and Hamilton, Egg Harbor and Weymouth Townships. Most of that ground is already within the limits of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 500-year storm - a storm of such magnitude that it has a 0.2 percent chance of happening any given year.

The township and county acquired the lake and dam in the 1980s from private owners and now share costs. A small portion near the ruins of the factory is controlled by Cotton Mill Associates, a Rumson-based firm that owns that property. An agreement left the township in charge of daily maintenance and the county responsible for more substantial repairs, such as these. Confronted by the reports, Atlantic County officials said they were working on addressing the problems. Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said a dispute between the county and the contractor, Agate Construction of Dennis Township, have hampered repairs. The dispute is now in mediation. Agate was hired in July 2010 to make $1.1 million in repairs, but work largely stopped after a failed sheet piling in March 2011 briefly touched off fears of dam collapse. "We don't believe the job was done how it had been expected to be done, and we're blaming them," Levinson said. Records show Agate has said the prepared plans were inadequate, but it did not respond to a request for comment. Joseph D'Abundo, the Atlantic County engineer, said the county has filed its monitoring reports with the state since being ordered to do so. He expected the engineering firm it hired, URS Corp., to file plans to stabilize the embankment by the end of January or early February. The Lake Lenape Dam was built between 1846 and 1847. For decades, it powered adjacent mills. When this first structure broke in 1878, the ensuing floodwaters washed away Mays Landing's uptown bridge. Both dam and bridge were rebuilt. A powerhouse next to the mill opened in 1920. It has needed repairs intermittently though the years.

A 1975 analysis found severely cracked pipes, damage to the spillway and an eroded riverbed. Lake Lenape was essentially drained for several years while crews repaired the dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers classified the dam as "high hazard" in 1979, during part of a national series of dam inspections. The classification meant its failure probably would kill at least one person and cause widespread damage. It is Atlantic County's only high-hazard dam. State law requires high-hazard dams to be inspected every two years, or risk being drained and dismantled. However, these inspection reports show many of the same issues, year after year, unrepaired. In November 2004, a group including Atlantic County civil engineers Douglas DiMeo and Michael N. Ingram, Hamilton Township Public Works employees Oliver Theis and Chuck Faisst, and Atlantic County engineering intern Harold Edwards inspected the dam. Their report found eight issues. Primarily, only one of the three hand-cranked gates that controlled water flow through the three 48-inch pipes at the base of the dam completely worked. The west gate was stuck shut, they wrote, and the middle gate would not completely close. Inspectors found cracks, missing stones and erosion, but concluded the dam was safe, needing repairs no later than April 30, 2006. In December 2007, DiMeo, Assistant Engineer John A. Conover and engineering intern Samuel Pagano found the gates still broken. They also found 11 other issues, including cracks, missing stones and erosion, and wrote repairs should be done by Nov. 30, 2008. Contract documents showed the county took steps to make repairs in 2008. However, an August 2010 county report showed the dam gates still were broken, and the cracks, missing stones and erosion were unaddressed. Inspectors also encountered a foot-deep hole by the foot of the fish ladder and observed some of the steel sheeting pushing out. The county approved a $1 million contract with Agate in August 2010 to repair the gates and fix other problems. Work began several months later. By late February 2011, Agate crews had installed part of the cofferdam, the artificial structure needed to wall off the lake water and enable workers to fix the pipes.

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu5

On Feb. 28, 2011, a Hamilton Township Public Works employee went to the job site and told Agate the lake levels were flooding nearby roads, according to the daily engineering report. After county, township and company officials talked, they decided to lower the water levels by driving the pilings down by 2 feet. The bottom of the piling buckled about 4:30 p.m., and crews soon saw water rushing down into a new void on top of the dam. Agate crews quickly used a crane to pile three dump truck loads of riprap stone, along with sand-filled sacks, into the opening. Riprap is loose rock that is used to protect embankments from erosion. Problems worsened the next day. Agate opened auxiliary gates to drain the lake and reduce the volume of water going over the dam. Fearing a dam collapse, local police evacuated downstream residents for several hours. Agate crews dropped another seven truckloads of riprap stone into three new openings, only stopping when the dam appeared stable after 3:30 p.m. A report two months later by Agate's engineer Duffield Associates blamed the collapse on the design. Once the sheet pilings were partially in, water moved quicker in the constricted space, undermining them. The holes that developed on top of the dam were unrelated to the partial collapse, they wrote.Atlantic County rejected the report as an insufficient explanation, and work has remained largely stalled in the years since.

Township and county officials stonewalled requests for records throughout the year. Hamilton Township officials initially mentioned this year's URS Corp. survey of the dam in passing at an early May township meeting. Malcolm Ian McPherson, the assistant county counsel, denied a request to see the report on May 16 because the report was not yet final. Robert S. Sandman, Hamilton Township's solicitor, called it "a preliminary report obtained in anticipation of litigation" when he similarly denied access on June 6. McPherson again called the report a draft document when he denied access on Sept. 13. On that same day, Rita Martino, Hamilton Township's deputy clerk, wrote that the county and contractor were in mediation. Consequently, she wrote, any report was protected by "attorney client privilege, work product privilege, the mediation laws and statutes and/or the mediation agreement." In late October, Hamilton Township Mayor Amy Gatto said the report still was confidential and referred questions to Township Administrator Michael Jacobs. Jacobs did not return two subsequent calls seeking comment. On Wednesday, Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said he was shocked that his staff decided the report was off-limits. "You had to go to Trenton? I want to find out why you had to do that," Levinson said. "We don't have anything to hide. You do those things when you have something to hide."

(Little one but a lot of activity)Construction on dam continues in Millburn's Taylor ParkBy Barbara Rybolt, November 18, 2013, nj.com

Millburn, NJ — On Saturday, Nov. 16, workers were busy with some late-season work in on the dam at Taylor Park. It will replace the previous dam, which had moving parts and no longer works properly. Portions of the old dam were damaged during Hurricane Irene. Between the damage to the moving parts and damage from Irene, the water level in the pond has dropped significantly. Even though the water in the pond is at extremely low levels, children found it irresistible on Saturday. Hundreds of children filled the Community Center as they took part in the Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills’ “Kids for Kids” event. As they left the building, many walked down to the water’s edge and tossed pebbles and rocks into the water. Once the new dam is finished, the pond should come back to its normal levels. That would mean recreation will once again be able to use it for ice skating and the fishing derby.

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu6

Beaver Electric Company of Roseland will be paid $383,500 for the project, which also includes building a spillway on the other side of the dam. That spillway should help keep water from the West Branch of the Rahway River from overflowing its banks during heavy rains. A playground downstream from the dam was damaged during Superstorm Sandy when water rushed over the playground. John Savage, the foreman at the site, said on Saturday that the work would likely be finished by spring. He said the dam, which will look like a semi-circle, “will contain about 220 cubic yards of concrete” when it is done. The footbridge over the river is still there, but currently cannot be accessed. When all the work is done, that bridge will be re-opened and pedestrians will once again have two paths across the river, one at each end of the pond.

(Couldn’t resist including this one. The dam is really short now! What in the world is a 1 in 100,000 year flood?)Redbank Dam wall opened and lowered By Sam Potts, Nov. 20, 2013, mudgeeguardian.com.au

Work to lower the wall of Redbank Dam has opened up a large gap and effectively opened the curtains. The cut in the wall is approximately 80m across and around seven metres deep. Mid-Western Regional Council operations manager, Brad Cam, said that the work is to stabilise the wall even in the most extreme of storms and flooding.

“The idea is that the wall will be stable in a flood situation and that there will be no possibility of overturning,” he said. “The parameters given to us by the Dam Safety Committee were that it must withstand a one in 100,000 year flood, which is what we’re doing it to.” An engineer determined what needed to be cut and what was once part of the wall is now rubble along the base, as pictured. The work has also included narrowing the diameter of the pipe through the base of the dam wall. Work to cut down Redbank Dam wall is being funded by the NSW Government through State Water, National Parks and Wildlife and Mid-Western Regional Council. Work commenced in early October and council are hopeful that it will be completed by the end of this month, as there is additional work downstream to be done. Redbank Creek Dam was constructed for water storage in 1899 but has not been used for many years. A Department of Land and Water Conservation analysis in 1996 found that the dam was “unsatisfactory” to withstand a probable maximum flood event. The pipe was installed through the base of the dam means the dam no longer holds water except in the event of major downpours when inflows exceed the capacity of the pipe.

(Oh oh, not a good sign!)Sinkholes around 100-year-old Goodrich dam send officials looking for short-term fixBy Roberto Acosta | mlive.com, November 20, 2013

Goodrich, MI – Officials are looking for a solution to sinkholes around the village’s 100-year-old dam at Hegel Road that are growing larger. Engineering firm Wade Trim is working on a plan for the holes along the dam's embankment that Village Administrator Jakki Sidge said have gone from "ankle deep to knee deep" and need to be addressed. Village workers aren't sure how long the holes have been growing. The engineers were called, in part, to help determine what if any hazard the sinkholes present to the dam. A proposal for the sinkholes is expected to be presented by Wade Trim at the 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 9 village council meeting. Holes along the

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu7

spillway and embankment have been previously patched with "loatable fill," Sidge said, a type of concrete slurry that fills in the sinking areas. The dam was originally used for hydroelectric power, but it has outlasted the power plant. Sidge expects to receive multiple proposals from the engineering firm, including boring holes into the soil around the dam and dye-testing to try and unearth the underlying problem. The step is one of several the village is taking while looking for solutions to structural problems with the dam.

The village approved $26,000 earlier this year to research dam repairs, part of a $100,000 proposal including evaluation of the dam, hydrology and hydraulics evaluation and feasibility report, that board members declined in January, according to a Flint Journal report, in favor of a step-by-step approach. While uncovering no structural deficiencies in a 2012 report, the state Department of Environmental Quality gave the dam a “significant potential hazard” rating, as it did four years prior, noting the continuing deterioration of structural elements at the dam. The state ordered the village to submit by May 2013 short- and long-term plans for the dam. A feasibility study performed by Wade Trim included one stopgap and three long-term options -- constructing a rock ramp with overflow; moving the spillway south of its existing area to allow for more fishing and recreational activities; or combining the first two ideas along with a fishing platform and canoe launch. Estimated costs range from $2.078 million for the rock ramp to a little more than $2.5 million for the option combining a rock ramp with a spillway move that includes the fishing platform and canoe launch. The study proposes that the village seek grant money from the state Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Office and Federal Emergency Management Agency. "It’s always an ongoing process when any municipality has a dam," said Sidge. The short-term proposal to deal with the dam would be making two stationary gates movable. The work was completed earlier this year. "You check on a daily basis. We follow our own (guidelines) as well as the state," Sidge said. "Maybe we are moving it up a bit faster," said Sidge of the plan, which is still years away from completion. "Maybe with what we did we hoped we could buy a few years. We just want to make sure we still have those few years (to work on a permanent solution).

Hydro: (Makes economic sense! The hydro project just keeps churning either way.)City official proposes selling Whitman to SEAPAby Leila Kheiry, November 15, 2013, krbd.org

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu8

Ketchikan City Manager Karl Amylon wants to sell the Whitman Lake hydroelectric dam project to the Southeast Alaska Power Agency. In a memo to the City Council, Amylon writes that the idea makes sense because under the existing power-sales agreement between the city and SEAPA, the city must purchase hydroelectric power from SEAPA first. It’s only if that power isn’t available that the city then could turn to a new power source such as Whitman. If the city used Whitman power first, it would have to reimburse SEAPA, and Amylon writes that could cost the city up to $544,000 a year. The 4.6 megawatt Whitman project is under construction now by the city-owned Ketchikan Public Utilities. Amylon wants to propose selling the project to SEAPA for $22.3 million. That would allow the city to recover all local expenses, including a $2.5 million grant from the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. The proposed sale price would not include $12.5 million in state grant funds.

If city and SEAPA officials are able to come to an agreement, the actual sale won’t be able to take place until after the city has paid off the bonds for the project. Amylon proposes that SEAPA lease the dam for about $1 million a year starting in 2015, until the bond debt is paid off in 2023. That lease agreement would cover the annual bond payment for the city. After 2023, SEAPA could exercise its option to buy. SEAPA owns the two hydroelectric facilities at Swan Lake and Tyee Lake, as well as the intertie that connects the two projects. They serve the power needs of the three communities, with Swan primarily sending its power to Ketchikan, and Tyee providing electricity for Petersburg and Wrangell. The intertie allows surplus power to be sent back and forth as needed. Amylon has asked the City Council to give him permission to make the proposal to SEAPA. The Council will consider the request during its regular meeting on Thursday.

(Where’s the project? All you see is substation. Who took this Pic?Signing day set for Keowee-Toxaway relicensing agreementNov. 15, 2013 | Written by Nathaniel Cary, Staff Writer, greenvilleonline.com

Stakeholders will join Duke Energy to sign make the Keowee-Toxaway Relicensing Agreement official at a signing ceremony Nov. 20 at Kresge Hall at Clemson University.The agreement is the product of more than five years of negotiations between Duke Energy and a team of stakeholders as the utility giant seeks to relicense its hydroelectric plant for another 30 to 50 years. The agreement between Duke Energy, government agencies and community stakeholders will bring a broad array of investments by the utility in the community including land conservation agreements, water-resource protection, recreation enhancements, habitat protection and shoreline management. The license application is due to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in August 2014. The relicensing agreement will be submitted as part of the application, the company has said.

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu9

The Keowee-Toxaway Hydroelectric Project, with its 868 megawatt generating capacity, was first licensed in 1966 for 50 years. Its existing license expires in August 2016.Alvin Taylor, director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Duane Parrish, director the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, and Steve Jester, vice-president of water strategy, hydro relicensing and lake services for Duke Energy are scheduled to speak at the invitation-only signing ceremony.

(The Susitna opposition grows. Very misinformed! Federal law requires that they be a Stakeholder!)Cook Inlet ANCs Express Concern Over Dam Study Result Requirementsby Phillip Manning ~ November 15th, 2013, ktna.org

The group of seven Alaska Native Corporations that own land in the area of the proposed Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project are expressing concerns that their interests will not be adequately represented in the Alaska Energy Authority’s initial study reports next February. The Cook Inlet Region Working Group sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday citing their concerns. On October 30th, AEA requested approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on how their Initial Study Reports should be released. AEA’s letter says that the reports will include study methods, results, future plans, and variances from the original study plan. The Cook Inlet Region Working Group’s letter says that they want more explicit requirements that the study report include issues that impact the Alaska Native Corporation landowners. Included in what the working group wants are: descriptions of trespass incidents and measures to prevent future trespassing issues, the impact on study progress from lack of access to Alaska Native Corporation lands, descriptions of cultural and historic resources found, health and safety measures, status of negotiation for future Alaska Native Corporation land use, and alternative plans, should land access be denied in 2014. The working group’s letter comes after more than a year of negotiation with AEA regarding access to Alaska Native Corporation land. In both 2012 and 2013, the corporations claim that trespasses occurred, and permission to conduct studies on the land has still yet to be granted. Emily Ford, spokeswoman for AEA, says in an email statement that AEA remains committed to working with CIRI and the Cook Inlet village corporations, and that they are taking the issue seriously.

(Hydro opposition is a world-wide endeavor. Everything we do has an environmental impact! Why single out hydro? In the U.S. their opposition pays for their BMW!)Hydro-power plants have negative impactseco-business.com, 11/17/13

Hydro-power projects located in areas of ecological varieties have affected the ecological system and caused losses of water-head protective forests. The assessment was heard at a conference on the protection of Dong Nai River Basin held in Da Lat last Friday. Hydro-power projects located on the upper sections of the regional rivers have negative impacts to the water environment and cause floods in the lower section, said Nguyen Van Thanh from the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Thanh was presenting a report titled “Hydro-power Projects on the Dong Nai River Basin and Measures to Minimise Their Impacts on the Water Environment of the River.”He said the basin is housing 20 hydro-power projects, 15 of them being operational and the other five are under construction.

In related news, in late October 2013, MoIT has rejected projects 6 and 6A from the country’s hydro-power development plan. The decision was made after PM Nguyen Tan Dung asked MoIT to re-consider the development plans of hydro-power projects No 6 and 6A and other hydro-power projects along the Dong Nai River in September this year. In an environmental impact assessment sent to the Government Office in early September, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said the two hydro-power projects would remove 372.23ha of forests, including 128.37ha of land in Cat Loc, a core zone under Cat Tien National Park. In its environmental impact report, the investor in these projects (Duc Long Co) pledged to afforest the area, but the investor’s report did not show the areas and did not map out plans for afforestation, according to

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the ministry report. Measures to be taken to minimise the impact on biological diversity were not feasible. The report said no measures were taken to protect and preserve fauna and flora while the negative impact on stream flows in the lower section would affect the ecological systems, water levels and the areas of swamp in Bau Sau Ramsar. In addition, these hydro-power projects would also pose other disadvantages. Work on related support facilities such as transmission lines and roads to support the implementation of these projects will have a negative impact on the environment and socio-economic conditions. It will also affect Nam Cat Tien National Park, it said. The projects could adversely affect the subsistence of local residents who earn their living from farming, aquaculture and fisheries on the lower sections, and thus cause disadvantages for Nam Cat Tien National Park’s application for World Heritage status.

(More new hydro)New Kaukauna Hydroelectric Plant Nearing CompletionNov 19, 2013, By Jason Zimmerman, wbay.com

Kaukauna, WI - A major source for electricity in Kaukauna will soon be set for the next century. That's where work is wrapping up on a new hydroelectric plant that's replacing two existing ones built in 1908 and 1928. On Tuesday crews began letting water back into the site on the edge of the Fox River in downtown Kaukauna. Watching the progress is exciting for a lot of people, especially Carol Van Boxtel who wrote a book about the original two plants constructed in the early 1900's. "Everyone knows Kaukauna has the cheapest electricity. That's also a drawing card for our industrial park. We've got more and more industry asking to move into this area, checking it out because of the fact the electrical rates are so cheap," said Van Boxtel, a Kaukauna author and historian. The 38 million dollar project, which reconstructs one plant and retires the other, started in May of 2012. The water was drained at that time and now water is visible in the canal for the first time since it was drained.

Jeff Feldt, Executive Director of Kaukauna Utilities, said "We have a requirement that we can fill about two feet per day. So up to two feet per day. So we hit two feet, we stopped, open up gates tomorrow again, raise it another two feet until we get to the top. So it's about twelve feet, about six days to fill up the entire power canal." Feldt says the plant will generate 25 percent more electricity than the two previous plants combined. Van Boxtel says the completion will mark the beginning of the plant's next chapter. "I think it is going to be exciting, and I think we're all looking forward to taking a tour through it.," said Van Boxtel. If the testing phase goes smoothly, plant officials hope to have the facility fully operation by the Friday before Christmas.

(This site has been on the drawing boards of many potential developers. Maybe these guys will get it done.)Power On The River Hydroelectric facility possible at Pike Island November 21, 2013 By Casey Junkins - Staff Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register, news-register.net

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Wheeling, W VA - Two companies believe they can generate up to 256,000 megawatt-hours of renewable power per year by building a hydroelectric plant at the Pike Island Locks and Dam. As American Electric Power prepares to retire Marshall County's coal-fired Kammer Plant by the end of next year, both American Municipal Power and Free Flow Power Project are seeking permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build this hydroelectric plant. American Municipal Power is the company that operates the New Martinsville Hydroelectric Plant at the Hannibal Locks and Dam, which began generating power in 1988. According to the company, the New Martinsville plant is capable of producing 18 megawatts per hour on each of its two generating turbines. New Martinsville Plant Manager Chuck Stora, who has worked at the plant since it started operating, said the pressure required to drive the plant's two turbines - 28,000 cubic feet of water per second - would fill a pair of football field-sized swimming pools with 10 feet of water in just 10 seconds. In place since 1963, the Pike Island Locks and Dam spans the Ohio River just north of the Warwood section of Wheeling on the West Virginia side and near Yorkville on the Ohio side. As an advocate for reducing pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, Wheeling Jesuit University biology professor Ben Stout called the potential hydroelectric plant "a step in the right direction." "This energy is being wasted now. The dam is already there with all of that potential energy just streaming across it," he said. "Not only would it be environmentally friendly, but it would help us achieve energy independence." According to its preliminary plans as noted in a legal ad, AMP would build a 155-foot wide, 71-foot tall water intake structure near the Ohio side of the dam, while the project would cover "several acres of federal lands." The plan would generate up to 256,000 megawatt-hours per year. For its competing plan, Free Flow Power Project proposes to build a 225-foot wide, 50-foot long intake facility near the Ohio side of the dam, which it states would also cover several acres of federal lands. This plant would generate roughly 225,000 megawatt-hours per year. Officials with both AMP and Free Flow Power Project could not be immediately reached for further comment Wednesday. The FERC would eventually chose one project over the other, if either meets all of the requirements. Those who wish to comment on the construction of these possible hydroelectric plants can do so by mailing them to: Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; 888 First St. N.E.; Washington, D.C. 20426. The comments should include the docket number: P-13687-002.

(I guess you could call this mini-hydro)Halo Portable ChargerNever Have A Low Battery Again!Save On Shipping At QVC Today.www.QVC.com/Halo, By Ian Chiu on November 20th, 2013When people find themselves off the grid for extended periods of time, everything from fancy GPS units to smartphones eventually stop working. For these times, thermoelectric or kinetic chargers can certainly get the job done but both require a more hands on approach. The Hydrobee, on the other hand, only needs running water. Tow it behind your boat, stick it in a fast flowing river, or

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even just put it under a water faucet for 3 hours, this is all you need do. No walking, fire-starting or sunny days are needed as the Hydrobee is a hydroelectric generator. Hydroelectric generators are certainly not new, but the sheer simplicity of the Hydrobee does make it standout. It consists of few parts, most of which can be printed out on a 3D printer, and its replaceable power pack is only the size of a 12 oz. can of soda. All of these help make it easy to transport, repair and even replicate in remote regions of the world. The Hydrobee does not just create electricity and transfer it to connected devices; rather the Hydrobee charges six internal AA batteries which then can be used to recharge other USB devices (1 amp. max. output) at a more convenient time. Add in its compact and highly portable form factor and the Hydrobee is tailor made for parts of the world where finding flowing water is not a problem. If this sounds perfect for your needs, $24 on Kickstarter will get you a Hydrobee once they start production.See the video here:http://www.everythingusb.com/hydrobee-21911.html

Water: (More opinion on The Big Deal! What about the phrase – “progress-stifling bureaucracy”? This makes regional consensus by mid-December a pipe dream!)In Our View: Treat Treaty With CareInvaluable Columbia River compact with Canada doesn't need broad overhaulNovember 14, 2013, columbian.com

For a half-century now, the Columbia River Treaty has proved beneficial to both the Northwest region of the United States and to British Columbia. Now, as both sides prepare for negotiations regarding a renewal of the treaty, we hope that a swift and amicable agreement can be reached.Signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on Jan. 17, 1961, days before Eisenhower's presidency ended, the treaty was finally ratified in 1964. The idea was to manage hydroelectric power and provide flood control for the 1,240-mile river that begins in Canada, winds its way through the Northwest, passes Vancouver's doorstep, and empties into the Pacific Ocean. The agreement added more than 20 million acre-feet of new reservoir storage, mostly in Canada, which aids the United States in flood management, fish management, and hydroelectric dam management. In exchange, our neighbors to the north are privy to the "Canadian entitlement" — hydroelectric power that these days is estimated by U.S. officials to be worth between $250 million and $350 million annually.

The treaty has no termination date, but starting in 2014, either country may give 10 years' notice to alter the agreement or opt out of it entirely. That has generated a sense of urgency — and a

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harbinger of some contentiousness in the negotiations. A coalition of 85 Northwest utilities has led a chorus saying the United States sends too much power to Canada, while Canadian officials have countered that it's not enough. While the crux of those differing opinions can be chalked up as the art of the negotiation, there's no doubt that updating the Columbia River Treaty will be a more complex endeavor than the original agreement. Environmental regulations have been strengthened over the past 50 years; the issue of salmon habitat and protection has undergone vast changes; and the notion that nuclear power and gas-fired electrical generation would by now be the dominant forces in power production has been proven false. In addition, the U.S. side of the negotiations now includes representatives from four states, 15 tribes, and 10 federal agencies, serving as yet another reminder that Americans have mastered the art of progress-stifling bureaucracy. All of this could have a profound impact on electricity rates. In a letter last month, Clark Public Utilities CEO Wayne Nelson stressed that recalibrating the Canadian entitlement should be "the single most important objective" in efforts to revise the treaty.Maybe. But we urge officials not to let intransigence get in the way of a compact that has worked well for both nations. The treaty calls for British Columbia to use its vast reservoirs to hold back the spring runoff before releasing the water downstream at a time that is more conducive for power production. It also allows Canadian officials to hold back water flow when areas downriver are facing flood dangers — as happened in 1996. These are valuable resources for Northwest officials to have at their disposal, and U.S. officials should be cautious about playing hardball. As columnist Lance Dickey of The Seattle Times wrote, "One massive flood and any annual savings look ridiculous." U.S. State Department officials hope to have a regional consensus from the Bonneville Power Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers in hand by mid-December. Then they will decide on how to proceed on negotiations with Canadian officials. Any proposed revisions to the plan should be purposeful, focused, and easily defensible. At most, the Columbia River Treaty is in need of some minor tweaks, not wholesale changes.

Environment: (Don’t get me wrong, this fish makes a good meal, but with so few of them why are we going fishing?)Meeting set to discuss sturgeon fishing optionsNov. 16, 2013, Written by Henry Miller, Statesman Journal, statesmanjournal.com

Options for recreational 2014 sturgeon fishing on the Columbia River between Bonneville and The Dalles dams will be the topic of a public meeting Tuesday in The Dalles. Jointly sponsored by the Oregon and Washington departments of Fish and Wildlife, the meeting is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Oregon department office, 3561 Klindt Drive. The Columbia downstream from Bonneville and the Willamette River below Willamette Falls go to no-kill, catch-and-release only for sturgeon in 2014. “The question that we probably can’t answer is there going to be a big effort-shift?” to the river above Bonneville, where limited catch-and-keep fishing is allowed, said John North, the Oregon department’s Columbia River fisheries manager. “That’s part of the reason for the meeting. “Is there another season structure we could be considering assuming that there might be some effort-shift?” This year, the reservoir between Bonneville and The Dalles dams, known as the Bonneville Pool, had a split season with a total allowed catch of 1,100 sturgeon. The winter/summer split is designed to give anglers on the upper end near The Dalles Dam chances at the fish," North said.

“As of right now, those fisheries above Bonneville will open Jan. 1,” he said. “They’ve been managed, for the most part, just until the quota runs out. At Bonneville, we’ve been splitting that into a sub-quota of winter and summer. “For a while there (before the split), they were going through the quota so fast that basically what was happening is the lower reservoir was getting all the fish, and there weren’t fish up at The Dalles yet. So we had a meeting or two and came up

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with this split quota that basically gave the guys on the upper end of the reservoir a shot at them, and nicer weather.” The other proposal involves a no-sturgeon-fishing sanctuary area below The Dalles Dam. Similar seasonal sanctuary areas are in place below Bonneville, John Day and McNary dams on the Columbia as well as downstream from Willamette Falls. “I think that’s the only dam in the lower four that doesn’t have a sanctuary below it,” North said. “And because of concerns about (repeated handling of sport-caught larger sturgeon) and targeting, we’re probably going to propose a May-through-August sanctuary maybe from The Dalles boat ramp up to the dam.” Final decisions will be made later at a joint Oregon/Washington meeting of the Columbia River Compact by representatives from both departments.

(You gotta marvel at the way people marvel about what fish do – they swim!)The Rogue story: Dams gone, chinook returnBy Mark Freeman Medford Mail Tribune, November 19, 2013, dailyjournal.net

Gold Hill, Oregon — Rowing just upstream of what used to be Gold Ray Dam last month, biologist Pete Samarin saw so many fall chinook splashing wildly within the Rogue River's gravelly riffle that he was lucky he didn't get drenched.The big fall chinook salmon were spawning in shallow gravel bars that three years ago were covered by 10 feet of water and at least that much silt and other fine sediments captured over 106 years behind what was Gold Ray Dam. With the dam gone three years now and the fine sediment washed away, the bar now teems with big chinook digging and spawning in their egg nests, called redds. "That place was just alive with fish," says Samarin, a fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "You couldn't count all the redds. It was really neat to see. It's incredible, really." In true if-you-remove-it-they-will-spawn fashion, fall chinook are now spawning by the hundreds in what used to be sterile sections of the Rogue inundated by water and silt behind what used to be Savage Rapids and Gold Ray dams.Fall spawning surveys upstream of where those two dams spanned the Rogue show that use of these now-viable spawning grounds has risen exponentially since those structures were removed.

Samarin's redd-survey crew in the fall found 186 identifiable redds in what used to be "Savage Lake" — the stagnant pond-like water that used to be upstream of Savage Rapids Dam along Highway 99 near the town of Rogue River. That's more than twice the 91 redds counted in that same stretch three years ago. Likewise, the crews counted 111 redds within the old Gold Ray Reservoir reach, almost three times what was spied there three years ago. "And we're only counting what we can see," Samarin says. "We can't see everything." Bob Hunter could see this coming. Removing the two dams and their antiquated fish ladders were expected to improve fish passage and eventually provide additional spawning territory for Chinook salmon, which unlike steelhead spawn in the main Rogue channel. "This is what you hope to see when you restore main-stem habitat," says Hunter, the WaterWatch attorney who helped usher through the removal of both dams. "On the Rogue, there's really no other place to restore habitat like that in the main stem.”It's good to see the chinook using it," he says. Chinook spawn in the main-stem Rogue's shallow gravel bars and glides from late September through early November. Females use their tails to dig deep enough into the substrate to help their eggs survive winter high-water events. The males fertilize the eggs and both males and females then die. The redds are counted annually, with the numbers used as an index to track the relative health of the all-wild fall chinook returns over time. Redd counters like Samarin look for the depressions in the gravel, which normally are brighter than the surrounding gravel because of their recent disturbance. When the dams were in place, the stagnant water and thick layers of silt and decomposed granite rendered these sites inhospitable to spawning chinook, Samarin says. Savage Rapids Dam was removed in 2009 and although the area once inundated by the impoundment is smaller than that behind the Gold Ray Dam site, it houses more spawning chinook because the gravel there is of higher quality, Samarin says. After Gold Ray Dam's removal in 2010, the drained reservoir area was home to just 37 confirmed redds, with most upstream of the mouth of Bear Creek, Samarin says. The gravel's quality improved enough in the ensuing years that the majority of those chinook now spawn below Bear Creek's confluence with the Rogue, he says. The area immediately above Gold Ray Dam's remaining concrete chunk on the river's south side was the slowest to rehab, with this year's use

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by far the highest, Samarin says. "Last year I saw just a few," he says. "This year, we had 45 redds within 200 yards of the old dam." The counts were conducted by ODFW biologists out of the Central Point office and were done independently from the monitoring and restoration work conducted through a $450,000 NOAA-Fisheries monitoring and recovery grant, says Dan VanDyke, the ODFW's Rogue District fish biologist. Plans are to conduct the counts one more year, thereby completing the fall Chinook salmon's life cycle that span up to five years in the Rogue, VanDyke says.

Other Stuff: (Good thing because there a question about who manages who!)Energy Department: We won't micromanage BPABy Gosia Wozniacka, Associated Press | November 15, 2013 | chron.com

Portland, Ore. (AP) — The federal government won't micromanage or "take over" the Bonneville Power Administration because of a hiring scandal at the agency, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a letter Friday. The letter came in response to one sent last week by 23 lawmakers from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana that asked about the extent of federal oversight of the agency. In response, Moniz said "the role of BPA management in making policy and business decisions for Bonneville is not being displaced." He said BPA's status as a 'separate and distinct' organizational entity within the Department of Energy will continue to be recognized. The federal utility is self-financed and enjoys autonomy in policy making unusual among federal agencies.An inspector general report found widespread discrimination in hiring veterans and retaliation against whistleblowers at BPA. It followed a highly critical audit of human resources work and the suspension of two top administrators. The report said the hiring problems resulted partly from a management culture that distanced the organization from Department of Energy procedures and processes and deflected federal oversight. In October, the Department of Energy ordered Bonneville's human resources director and legal counsel to report directly to department headquarters in Washington, D.C. The actions, Moniz said in his letter, are meant to rebuild BPA's administrative functions, fix serious, systemic hiring problems, and ensure

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