The River Alliance is the lead nonprofit organization in Wisconsin representing citizen and river interests in regulating hydropower dams. We are currently involved in re-licensing and post-licensing negotiations for several hydro dams across the state.
Just like vehicles, most hydro dams need licenses – held by their owners (usually energy utility companies) and issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Licenses have to be renewed every 30 to 40 years.
In the early and mid 1990s, the River Alliance was actively involved in negotiating the re-licensing of several hydro dams in the state. Re-licensing is an opportune time for the public to influence the operation of these dams.
There is a social contract embodied in these licenses. In effect, if a dam owner can use public water (i.e. the rivers) for free to generate electricity, it owes the public something back. What that “something” is forms the grist of license negotiations, and takes many forms: public access to the reservoirs (we in Wisconsin called them flowages) and the land around them; allowing the passage of fish around the dams; regulating the flow of water at the dam to minimize damage to river ecology; and managing the flow to allow recreational use of the river (e.g. whitewater kayaking).
Here are some hydro dam projects we are currently engaged in.
Menominee River Fish Passage Project
The River Alliance participates in an interagency team with dam operators We Energies, and North American Hydro to develop ways that fish can pass up- and downstream around the White Rapids and Chalk Hill dams, and the Menominee and Park Mill dams, all on the Menominee River (which forms the border between Wisconsin and Michigan). With the Wisconsin and Michigan Departments of Natural Resources and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, we are working to ensure that fish, such as the ancient lake sturgeon, and paddlefish can again inhabit many miles of their original habitat, currently blocked by dams, for spawning and foraging.
 River Alliance river restoration manager Helen Sarakinos and hydro dam consultant Jim Fossum consider fish passage possibilities. Chalk Hill Dam, on the Menominee River. (River Alliance photo)
St. Croix Falls Hydro Dam
Included in the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and operated by Northern States Power Co. of Wisconsin (a subsidiary of Xcel Energy), this dam is unique in that it falls under state, not federal, jurisdiction.
Downstream of the dam is the last viable population of winged mapleleaf mussels in the world. The dam is regulated through a memorandum of understanding, developed in 2006, between Wisconsin DNR and Northern States Power – a controversial arrangement that begs questions about consistency of regulation and public oversight. The MOU did succeed at getting “run-of-river” flows for the dam, which should do less damage to threatened species than the highly fluctuating “peaking flows” allowed for this dam in the past.
The River Alliance developed a formal agreement with DNR to ensure that provisions of the MOU are upheld; namely, that the river gauge downstream from the dam be maintained, that any changes in the agreement be made known to stakeholders, and that DNR regional staff make monitoring this MOU a high priority. Click here for additional information.
Prairie du Sac Hydro Dam
This Alliant Energy-operated dam on the Wisconsin River has requirements in its license that include reducing fish mortality in the turbines (fish get sucked into the turbines and essentially chopped up) and creating passage for fish around the dam.
The utility has narrowed the bars of the “trash rack” (the metal grid that screens fish and debris from entering the turbine) to minimize fish entry. However, figuring out how to get sturgeon, paddlefish and other unique fish species around the dam is complex, expensive and tedious. Those negotiations grind on, with the prospect of at least upstream passage (interestingly, by elevator) ready by 2012.
This non-functioning lock at the Prairie du Sac hydro dam could be used to construct a fish passage device to move fish from above the dam to downstream. (River Alliance photo)
Winter Hydro Dam (East Fork of the Chippewa River)
Working with the Wisconsin DNR and the U.S. Forest Service, the River Alliance successfully convinced this dam’s owner, North American Hydro, to manage this dam as “run of river” (whereby flows are not varied; varying the flow damages river ecology), and to create a means for fish to pass upstream around the dam. Getting adequate water back into the river channel below this dam was essential:
the rapids there represent one fourth of all steep rapids in the East Fork of the Chippewa River. Rapids are important spawning habitat for lake sturgeon and other riffle species.
(Photo: Winter Dam, East Fork Chippewa River (U.S. Forest Service photo))
Wilderness Shores Settlement Agreement
The River Alliance is a member of a license implementation team for the landmark Wilderness Shores Settlement Agreement (WSSA), negotiated with We Energies and signed in 1997. We also helped negotiate the agreement, and are a signatory to it. The agreement affects 11 dams on the Menominee River system in Wisconsin and Michigan and includes the removal of three uneconomical dams, two of which have been removed to date. The agreement helps ensure that these projects remain economically viable for the utility, while providing environmental, recreational and economic benefits in the basin for the 40-year license period.
The River Alliance sees the Wilderness Shores agreement as a good model for other utilities to follow the lead of We Energies. Agreements like this one that show that river protection and good hydro business are not incompatible.
Click here for a map of the area encompassed by the WSSA.
Lower Chippewa Settlement Agreement
Signed in 2001 and involving six dams operated by Xcel Energy, this agreement was designed to benefit the lower Chippewa River in Rusk, Chippewa, Eau Claire, Dunn, Pepin, and Buffalo Counties. River Alliance participates on the Implementation Team to agreement, which helps ensure these dams (Holcome, Cornell, Jim Falls, Wissota, Chippewa Falls and Dells) remain economically viable while providing environmental, recreational and economic benefits in the basin for the 30-year life of the license.
Hydropower Reform Coalition http://www.hydroreform.org/
Citizen’s Guide to Hydropower Relicensing http://www.ferc.gov/for-citizens/for-citizens.asp
Revitalizing the Ancient and Venerable Lake Sturgeon Population
|
