Senator Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County introduced a bill on Wednesday to create a State Trust that would allow the State of North Carolina to seize the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. (See the bill at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2009&BillID=s967 )
Why? I and many others don’t understand why.
I believe that Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. (APGI) has been a good steward of the River and the Lakes. Yes, we have had issues with them in the past over the Shoreline Management Plan and most recently with the Low Inflow Protocol (LIP) specification, but they didn’t come up with these alone. They developed them with the help of the N.C. Dept. of Environment & Natural Resources and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission among many others. And I believe we have a good shot at revising the LIP working with APGI and others that form the Yadkin-Pee Dee Drought Management Advisory Group (YPD-DMAG) based on the initial experience of operating with it during the summer of 2008.
If the state takes over the Yadkin Project, will they then proceed to take over other hydropower projects in the state such as those operated by Progress Energy on the Pee Dee River, and the hydropower project operated by Duke Power on the Catawba River? Now, I am not an advocate of unrestrained free enterprise because history has shown that large corporations will take advantage of their market power to set prices and restrain competition unless they are regulated. But the hydropower generation business is highly regulated. Witness the long and very expensive process that APGI has just gone through to relicense the Yadkin Project. And APGI can’t control the price they get for selling power. That is negotiated with the power distribution company they sell the power to – for example Progress Energy or Duke Power.
As for the PCB and mercury contamination issues, the levels found in the APGI managed lakes is no different from most other lakes in North Carolina and not likely caused by Alcoa in the first place. Alcoa does admit that they have contamination issues around the old Badin Works plant where they smelted aluminum until 2002, but they are working to clean up those sites and, in any event, that issue should not be tied to the operation of the hydropower business.
What do you think? Are there those of you around the Lake who believe that the State has a case for taking over the Yadkin Project and would do a better job of managing it? Post your comments here or email me at kenney@BadinLakeAssociation.com.
………………………….Garry
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
High Rock Lake Association Letter
Some of you may have received a letter yesterday (March 18) from the High Rock Lake Association (HRLA) soliciting your membership by paying your dues for 2009. The letter talks about all the benefits you would receive by being a part of the HRLA, including the work they have done and continue to do in supporting the Alcoa relicensing of the Yadkin Project.
In the letter, there is a disturbing statement made about “many people at Badin Lake,” and I want to make you all aware of it and to respond to it. The entire subject paragraph follows so those who did not receive the letter can see it in context:
“The Association is continuing its work on the Alcoa relicensing project, which has been delayed by Stanly County and some politicians in Raleigh. The new License is also being opposed by many people at Badin Lake; they think High Rock should always be used to keep Badin Lake full and they don’t like the license terms the HRLA fought for, which provide for equal drawdowns of both lakes in times of drought. Your membership in the High Rock Lake Association will help us convince FERC and the State of North Carolina that High Rock Lake deserves the benefits the new License will provide.”
Now, I agree that many people at Badin Lake are opposed to the new license under its current terms because it requires Badin Lake to be lowered to five feet below full before stage 0 of the Low Inflow Protocol is triggered and the downstream flow of the river below Falls dam is reduced in times of drought. But I am not aware of anybody who is saying that Badin Lake should be kept full at the expense of High Rock Lake in times of drought. I am attempting to get up with Larry Jones, the president of HRLA, to understand why he felt it necessary to make the inflammatory statement.
All of the lakes in the Yadkin-Pee Dee watershed should contribute their fair share to maintaining the reduced river flow to South Carolina during a drought, including Lake Tillery and Blewett Falls Lake. And all of the lakes should be drawn down equally so as to minimize the impact on any one lake.
By the way, if I am wrong and some of you do want Badin Lake to be kept full at the expense of High Rock Lake, I want to hear from you. Post a comment here or email me at kenney@BadinLakeAssociation.com.
…………………………………Garry
In the letter, there is a disturbing statement made about “many people at Badin Lake,” and I want to make you all aware of it and to respond to it. The entire subject paragraph follows so those who did not receive the letter can see it in context:
“The Association is continuing its work on the Alcoa relicensing project, which has been delayed by Stanly County and some politicians in Raleigh. The new License is also being opposed by many people at Badin Lake; they think High Rock should always be used to keep Badin Lake full and they don’t like the license terms the HRLA fought for, which provide for equal drawdowns of both lakes in times of drought. Your membership in the High Rock Lake Association will help us convince FERC and the State of North Carolina that High Rock Lake deserves the benefits the new License will provide.”
Now, I agree that many people at Badin Lake are opposed to the new license under its current terms because it requires Badin Lake to be lowered to five feet below full before stage 0 of the Low Inflow Protocol is triggered and the downstream flow of the river below Falls dam is reduced in times of drought. But I am not aware of anybody who is saying that Badin Lake should be kept full at the expense of High Rock Lake in times of drought. I am attempting to get up with Larry Jones, the president of HRLA, to understand why he felt it necessary to make the inflammatory statement.
All of the lakes in the Yadkin-Pee Dee watershed should contribute their fair share to maintaining the reduced river flow to South Carolina during a drought, including Lake Tillery and Blewett Falls Lake. And all of the lakes should be drawn down equally so as to minimize the impact on any one lake.
By the way, if I am wrong and some of you do want Badin Lake to be kept full at the expense of High Rock Lake, I want to hear from you. Post a comment here or email me at kenney@BadinLakeAssociation.com.
…………………………………Garry
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
APGI Summary of the March DMT Meeting
Alcoa Power Generating, Inc (APGI) just posted their summary of the March 5 DMT at http://www.alcoa.com/yadkin/en/environment/drought_plan.asp. I put my summary of the DMT meeting on the Blog here (see entry dated March 5), but they have a more complete listing of the people and their comments in their summary.
Another link of interest on the APGI website is the Lake Levels page at http://www.alcoa.com/yadkin/en/lakes/reservoir_data.asp. The lake levels are automatically updated every hour and you can link to graphs showing current and historical lake levels. APGI is not very good at keeping other information on the website up to date.
.............................Garry
Another link of interest on the APGI website is the Lake Levels page at http://www.alcoa.com/yadkin/en/lakes/reservoir_data.asp. The lake levels are automatically updated every hour and you can link to graphs showing current and historical lake levels. APGI is not very good at keeping other information on the website up to date.
.............................Garry
Thursday, March 5, 2009
DMT Meeting Held March 5, 2009
Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. (APGI) hosted a meeting (conference call) of the Drought Management Team (DMT) on Thursday, March 5. This meeting was called because more than 10% of the Yadkin-Pee Dee watershed was in drought classification D1 (moderate drought). There were 25 participants on the call. I participated representing the Badin Lake Association.
It’s ironic that the call was held after the significant rain and snow event that occurred on Sunday. The lakes are full and APGI is generating at full capacity to try to keep from spilling too much water. Spilling water is the term they use when water goes over the spillway (or through the flood gates) and can’t be used for generating power. As you can imagine, they want to manage the lake levels to prevent or at least minimize spilling water.
After a roll call to identify all participants, Marshall Olson invited Alan Jones of APGI to speak first. Alan is evidently responsible for directly managing the water through the lakes and through the turbines. His comments were that he currently had a lot of water, he used up his three feet of capacity in High Rock Lake due to the rain/snow event, and that he needed to work High Rock Lake down to three to four feet below full in order to be prepared for the next rain event. He said that he expected about 3000 cubic feet per second (cfs) through the lakes during March, but a lot of that was front-end loaded. (We are currently at over 5000 cfs but he expects that to drop off quite a bit.)
Marshall then proceeded through the list of attendees asking for any comments. Among the attendees were representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers, NC Dept of Natural Resources, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, High Rock Lake Association, Duke Energy, Badin Lake Association, Uwharrie Point Community Association, NC Division of Water Resources, Progress Energy, SC Dept of Natural Resources, Pee Dee River Association, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Winston-Salem, and Kerr Scott Reservoir. Most participants said that they currently had plenty of water and no problems.
Larry Jones from High Rock Lake Association cautioned that, although we currently have a lot of water, all indications are that we are headed into a repeat of last summer, with drought and low river flow conditions. He said that we shouldn’t be too hasty to lower High Rock down to prepare for a rain event that likely will not come because it would be hard to recover the lake level heading into the recreation season. His argument was that we experience an event like that one this past weekend only once a year, and we already saw it.
Richard Schaefer from Uwharrie Point Community Association said that we need to educate people that, although the lakes are full now, we are still at risk for low water levels this summer. He recommended that we put together a story that relates drought conditions and river flow to lake levels so that people can better understand what is happening when the lake levels drop.
When my turn came to speak, I expressed my belief that we should not allow Badin Lake to drop to five feet below full this year before reducing the downstream flow to begin conserving water. I stated that conserving water earlier in the drought cycle would improve recreation, wildlife and fish habitat. In response to a comment that it makes sense to balance the relative drawdowns of High Rick and Badin lakes, I stated that Badin Lake does not have a problem with contributing its fair share of water to maintain downstream river flows after the downstream flow from Falls Dam is reduced. It is only that that we should begin conserving water before the lake is five feet down. I also stated that beginning to conserve water earlier in the drought cycle would provide additional capacity for maintaining the downstream river flows later in an extended drought. One other point I made is that the capacity of Badin Lake is not needed to contain a significant rain event because it is two dams down from High Rock, 95% of the Yadkin River Basin drains to High Rock Lake, and APGI would need to spill water over High Rock and Tuckertown dams before Badin could be used to hold back excess river flow.
The meeting was adjourned with the intent to draw up a press release documenting the meeting and providing some education as requested by Richard Schaefer.
By the way, an interesting comment that Marshall Olson made at the beginning of the meeting is that we would continue to hold the DMT meetings until the new license was approved. The implication is that, with the new license with the included Low Inflow Protocol, we would not need the meetings because the operation of the lakes during a drought is completely specified there.
………………………..Garry
It’s ironic that the call was held after the significant rain and snow event that occurred on Sunday. The lakes are full and APGI is generating at full capacity to try to keep from spilling too much water. Spilling water is the term they use when water goes over the spillway (or through the flood gates) and can’t be used for generating power. As you can imagine, they want to manage the lake levels to prevent or at least minimize spilling water.
After a roll call to identify all participants, Marshall Olson invited Alan Jones of APGI to speak first. Alan is evidently responsible for directly managing the water through the lakes and through the turbines. His comments were that he currently had a lot of water, he used up his three feet of capacity in High Rock Lake due to the rain/snow event, and that he needed to work High Rock Lake down to three to four feet below full in order to be prepared for the next rain event. He said that he expected about 3000 cubic feet per second (cfs) through the lakes during March, but a lot of that was front-end loaded. (We are currently at over 5000 cfs but he expects that to drop off quite a bit.)
Marshall then proceeded through the list of attendees asking for any comments. Among the attendees were representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers, NC Dept of Natural Resources, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, High Rock Lake Association, Duke Energy, Badin Lake Association, Uwharrie Point Community Association, NC Division of Water Resources, Progress Energy, SC Dept of Natural Resources, Pee Dee River Association, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Winston-Salem, and Kerr Scott Reservoir. Most participants said that they currently had plenty of water and no problems.
Larry Jones from High Rock Lake Association cautioned that, although we currently have a lot of water, all indications are that we are headed into a repeat of last summer, with drought and low river flow conditions. He said that we shouldn’t be too hasty to lower High Rock down to prepare for a rain event that likely will not come because it would be hard to recover the lake level heading into the recreation season. His argument was that we experience an event like that one this past weekend only once a year, and we already saw it.
Richard Schaefer from Uwharrie Point Community Association said that we need to educate people that, although the lakes are full now, we are still at risk for low water levels this summer. He recommended that we put together a story that relates drought conditions and river flow to lake levels so that people can better understand what is happening when the lake levels drop.
When my turn came to speak, I expressed my belief that we should not allow Badin Lake to drop to five feet below full this year before reducing the downstream flow to begin conserving water. I stated that conserving water earlier in the drought cycle would improve recreation, wildlife and fish habitat. In response to a comment that it makes sense to balance the relative drawdowns of High Rick and Badin lakes, I stated that Badin Lake does not have a problem with contributing its fair share of water to maintain downstream river flows after the downstream flow from Falls Dam is reduced. It is only that that we should begin conserving water before the lake is five feet down. I also stated that beginning to conserve water earlier in the drought cycle would provide additional capacity for maintaining the downstream river flows later in an extended drought. One other point I made is that the capacity of Badin Lake is not needed to contain a significant rain event because it is two dams down from High Rock, 95% of the Yadkin River Basin drains to High Rock Lake, and APGI would need to spill water over High Rock and Tuckertown dams before Badin could be used to hold back excess river flow.
The meeting was adjourned with the intent to draw up a press release documenting the meeting and providing some education as requested by Richard Schaefer.
By the way, an interesting comment that Marshall Olson made at the beginning of the meeting is that we would continue to hold the DMT meetings until the new license was approved. The implication is that, with the new license with the included Low Inflow Protocol, we would not need the meetings because the operation of the lakes during a drought is completely specified there.
………………………..Garry
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