September 3, 2010 - Elwha dam removal; Northwest Passage

Hydroelectricity: I'm continuing to follow the removal of two dams on the Elwha River in Washington.

Here is a map I created showing the two dam sites.

Here is the Bureau of Reclamation's information on sedimentation behind the Elwha River dams: nearly 18 million cubic yards of sediment behind Glines Canyon Dam and Elwha Dam.  The Bureau gives this history:

Private companies constructed two large dams on the Elwha River during the early 1900’s. Elwha Dam, constructed during the period 1910-13, is a 105-foot high concrete gravity dam that forms Lake Aldwell 8 miles upstream from the river's mouth. Glines Canyon Dam, built in 1927, is a 210-foot high concrete arch dam that forms Lake Mills 13 miles upstream from the river's mouth. When the dams were first built, they were significant producers of electricity on the Olympic Peninsula. Today, the dams are operated in a run-of-the river mode and generate about 40 percent of the electricity needs for the Diashowa America paper mill in Port Angeles, Washington.

The Bureau also has interesting information on erosion after drawdown.  As we've seen before, drawdown can be done to minimize harms but can also cause serious problems if the newly exposed slopes of the impoundment or riverbank are unstable.




Meanwhile, in Maine, a graphic example of how business climate can make a difference: an entire lumber mill, closed for the past four years, is up for sale and might be moved piece by piece to Siberia.  People often talk about how jobs move overseas; here, not only the (already lost) jobs but the workplace may move.
The situation on the Sebasticook River continues to brew after the Fort Halifax dam removal; now, town officials are considering a renewed investigation into erosion of the riverbanks after drawdown and dam breach.

An interesting bit of fisheries news: Native Americans from the Passamaquoddy Tribe continue to fish federal waters, despite being cited for lack of permits and certain mandatory safety gear during a scallop fishing trip off Nantucket.  The natives point to their indigenous fishing rights.

Arctic news: I have a special interest in the Canadian Arctic, including the fabled Northwest Passage.  Today comes news that a fuel tanker has run aground along that shipping route on a sandbar near Gjoa Haven.

September 2, 2010 - sewage digestion; dam damage

In August, news covered the plans of the Lewiston-Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority to build a anaerobic digester plant at its sewage treatment facility.  The plant would reduce the Authority's solids disposal costs and could generate significant energy from the methane produced.  Now, the Lewiston Sun Journal says they're clarifying that it is "not a given" that the Authority will develop the project.

Hydroelectricity: a rock has fallen onto the Ennis Dam on the Madison River in Montana.  Here is a map of the Ennis Lake and gorge area.  You can see pictures here and a map here.  It looks like Ennis Lake will be drawn down 5' to relieve some of the back-pressure on the dam, and then later draw it down another 4' for a full inspection and possible repairs.  Ennis Lake only averages 8'-9' deep, so this drawdown will have noticeable effects -- if not as permanent as the effects of drawdown prior to breach.  Hopefully the drawdown will not cause landslides and erosion as at Fort Halifax on the Kennebec River in Maine.

What's it like behind the gates of Bath Iron Works?  This Working Waterfront piece gives a good description of a tour of the large defense contractor on the Kennebec River.

July 23, 2010 - no Senate energy bill for now; wind gets boosts

A bit of New Meadows eye candy:


Sure enough, the Senate climate bill is dead. Instead, we'll get a weak energy bill addressing the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, promoting building energy efficiency through the HomeStar program, and promoting the use of natural gas as a fuel for large trucks.

In Maine, the Fort Halifax dam removal saga continues. Prior to removal of this dam on the Sebasticook River, the town of Winslow, Maine and residents had voiced concerns about erosion, and had appealed (without success) the Department of Environmental Protection's orders approving dam removal. After the dam was removed, portions of the former impoundment's banks suffered severe erosion. The town had to spend over $725,000 to demolish six homes on Dallaire Street that were threatened by the newly eroded banks. The affected areas also included the river bank below the historic (mid-1700s) Fort Hill Cemetery, eroding the bank back much closer to the cemetery fence and grave sites. Former dam owner FPL Energy Maine Hydro commissioned a study of why this erosion happened. FPLE's study concluded that the dam removal and drawdown "did not play a significant role"; instead, the study pointed to unstable soils, steep slopes, heavy rain, and an earthquake. Both the town and the state expressed doubts about this conclusion. Now the town has officially asked the DEP to perform its own study, and to enforce the conditions in its dam removal order that require FPLE to monitor and remediate erosion.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has approved Susan Collins's request for $10 million in funding for the University of Maine's development, deployment and testing of deepwater and offshore wind turbines. The funding must now be approved by the full Senate, but the parallel House bill still lacks such an appropriation.

Wind is big in California too. It looks like Terra-Gen's Alta Wind Energy Center near Tehachapi is going forward, as it has placed an order with Vestas Wind Systems for 190 3 MW turbines. The Alta Wind project represents the largest financing of a North American wind-energy development to date. Part of the financial picture includes a 1,550 MW power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison for part of the project output. The project will have domestic economic benefits as well: Vestas will manufacture the blades in Windsor, Colorado, and most of the towers in Pueblo, CO.

A growing storm in the Gulf of Mexico has put BP's efforts at the oil well site on hold.

June 7, 2010 - update: Fort Halifax dam removal and erosion

A Morning Sentinel article today describes how the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is requiring FPL Energy Maine Hydro, the company that removed its Fort Halifax dam in July 2008, to stabilize the riverbank beneath the Fort Hill cemetery.

After years of legal battles, FPL removed the Fort Halifax dam from the mouth of the Sebasticook River in Winslow, Maine. As a condition of its dam removal permit, FPL was required to "closely monitor the slope adjacent to the cemetery and promptly remediate any slumping or erosion" in order "to protect the Fort Hill Cemetery from irreparable harm." Back in April, the riverbank suffered after another major landslides. FPL commissioned a study by Findlay Engineering Inc. of Yarmouth, which concluded that heavy rains and a small earthquake 41 miles away were contributing factors, but largely absolved FPL of responsibility.

Today, the news breaks that the Maine DEP is challenging FPL's study. DEP points to soil loss during the dewatering process, and a resulting lack of work by FPL to re-stabilize the slope after drawdown.

4/13/10

Maine news:

After the removal of the Fort Halifax dam, erosion continues to threaten the Fort Hill cemetery in Winslow.

The Maine Legislature concluded its session yesterday. Although they did approve putting a bond package to the voters, the approved measure does not include the energy efficiency funding that was initially proposed by Governor Baldacci.

The last bill enacted by the 124th Legislature was the energy corridor bill, which provides procedures for the review of proposals to develop transmission lines, pipelines, and other major energy infrastructure.

4/2/10

Stretching slightly beyond energy policy: the Town of Scarborough has finally acquired the parking lot at Higgins Beach. What do you get when you take the Portland area's most consistent surf beach, then ban on-street parking, then charge two arms and a leg for parking in the one private lot in the village? Angry surfers. Higgins was always my favorite break when we lived in Portland, but the parking scene -- especially in summer -- was always a nightmare. If the dirt parking lot was ever built on, it would have eliminated the one place beachgoers could have parked for miles around. The owner of the 1.5 acre lot, plus a 10 acre (presumably unbuildable) strip near the marsh, wanted nearly $1.5 million. Fortunately, a deal has been cut, using $632,145 from the Land for Maine's Future program, a matching amount from the town's bond and $7,270 from fundraising by The Trust for Public Land and the Surfrider Foundation. Thank you.

The Tesoro oil refinery in Anacortes, Washington suffered an explosion and a fire, killing 4 people and leaving 3 more missing.

More on the landslide in Winslow, Maine after the removal of the Fort Halifax dam: Maine Department of Environmental Protection has ordered (former) dam licensee NextEra to study and report on what went wrong. (A bit of pedigree is useful here, since it can be confusing: NextEra Energy Resources is the entity in question, formerly known as Florida Power & Light Energy, or sometimes known as FPLE Maine Hydro LLC.) The landslide threatens the Fort Hill Cemetery, with graves as old as the mid-1700s.

Rail issues: a Pan Am train derailed in downtown Norridgewock Wednesday.

There's a fair amount of hype going around about the weaknesses of the federal EnergyStar appliance rating program.

In Colorado, dominant utility Xcel Energy is replacing 900 MW of coal plants -- 30% of the entire Colorado coal-fueled generation -- with natural gas plants, all because the legislature enacted the Colorado Clean Air – Clean Jobs Act, which caps emissions at 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour. Now it's a race for regulatory approval: by December, utility proposals must be approved by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, and must be operational by 2017.

Did you know that until this week, there had only been one known tropical cyclone in the South Atlantic Ocean? Now there have been two. Today, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-12 identified Tropical Storm 90Q off the coast of Argentina.

In Los Angeles, a good editorial from the LA Times bashing the Department of Water and Power board for endorsing Mayor Villaraigosa's proposed rate hike to fund electric efficiency -- which as reported yesterday, didn't pass.

4/1/10

Happy April Fools' Day.

Rain watch: the Kennebunk River flooded over roads in York County.

Near the site of the (now removed) Fort Halifax dam, a major landslide occurred yesterday. The Morning Sentinel reports that Maine Emergency Management Agency director Richard Beausoleil said, "I’ve never seen a landslide like this. At least no one was injured and no one was fishing on the bank.”

Voters at the town meeting in Woodstock, Maine, turned down a proposed wind turbine siting ordinance that included a moratorium. This proposal was targeted at the Spruce Mountain Wind Project proposed by Patriot Renewables, which will include 11 turbines rated at 2 MW, with an estimated 55 million kilowatt hours of electric generation per year. 2416' Spruce Mountain (topo map) is prominently visible from Route 26; every time I've headed to Sunday River and the Bethel area, I've looked off to the right and seen the ledgy ridge stretching off to the northeast, and wondered about access. Patriot, developer of the 4.5 MW Beaver Ridge wind project in Freedom, is financed by Jay Cashman -- that's right, one person.

3/25/10

The big news in this corner of the continent is that Hydro-Quebec and New Brunswick Power have canceled their proposed deal. Details are still coming out, but key factors include the radical unpopularity of the deal in NB -- with some reports of as low as 8% of New Brunswickers supporting the deal -- and "increased costs and risk" for HQ. More to follow for sure.

In Maine legislative news:
The Utilities and Energy Committee has voted out an amended version of LD 1810, the Ocean Energy Task Force bill. This bill, proposed by Governor Baldacci's Ocean Energy Task Force, underwent a significant scaling back during the committee process, largely due to concerns over impacts to electric ratepayers. The Task Force, whose members included former Central Maine Power utility chief David Flanagan, was told to propose legislation that would remove obstacles to building 5000 MW of offshore and coastal wind and tidal energy in Maine. The result was a bill that included mandates to overbuild transmission, loosen the standards for the PUC's approval of transmission lines, have ratepayers finance generator lead lines, and expose all ratepayers to rates of up to 25 cents per kWh in order to pay for long-term contracts for ocean energy. Through extensive questioning by legislators and stakeholder involvement, the result is a dramatically scaled-back bill voted out of the Committee unanimously this evening. As voted out, the amended bill eliminates much of the the pro-transmission prejudices embodied in the original bill, and the provisions that would have had ratepayers backstop generator lead lines. The Committee also transformed an ocean energy RFP process that would have exposed ratepayers to potentially significant cost increases into a voluntary "ocean energy standard offer". This is a good result that will empower Maine's renewable energy industry and economy, without inappropriately exposing ratepayers to costs and risk.

When dam owner FPL Energy got approval to remove its Fort Halifax dam and hydroelectric station on the Sebasticook River in Winslow, Maine, many people voiced concerns ranging from bad energy policy (why remove clean hydro when we're doing all we can to install more renewable capacity?) to bankside erosion causing damage to houses. The naysayers were right about the erosion; yesterday, the town completed its $725,000 buyout and demolition project of the six houses on Dallaire Street that were in peril of falling into the river.

Central Maine Power's $1.6 billion MPRP transmission project runs into new trouble: the Sierra Club says the MPRP will harm wetlands.

3/22/10

A small fire broke out inside a trash shredder at the Biddeford, Maine waste-to-energy plant Maine Energy Recovery Company (MERC). Perhaps the energy content of the fuel was just bursting to be set free.

Remember the battle over whether the Fort Halifax dam and its associated hydroelectric generating capacity on the Sebasticook River in Winslow, Maine should be removed? The 100-year-old dam was breached in July 2008 after lengthy debate and legal proceedings. , In essence, dam owner FPL Energy Maine Hydro (formerly Florida Power & Light, now NextEra) found itself burdened by a fish passage requirement imposed during the Edwards Dam removal proceedings. Under the Kennebec Hydro Developers Group Agreement (or the KHDG Agreement), FPL found itself either required to breach the dam or install a particular fish passage technology. FPL elected to breach the dam. Many people, including state representative Ken Fletcher of Winslow, opposed this decision, arguing that FPL's choice would have dire environmental and cost consequences, and that it was bad policy in light of the overall push for more renewable capacity. Representative Fletcher has now filed a document with the Maine DEP demonstrating costs to taxpayers of between $950,000 and $1.6 million. Key cost components include: $114,997 for the town's share of replacing a sewer line exposed after breach, $30,375 in costs for title and survey work over and above the value the town recovered by selling formerly submerged lands, $800,000 more than previously estimated to replace the Mile Brook Bridge on Garland Road due to erosion, , and $725,396 to demolish six homes on an unstable riverside slope on Dallaire Street.

The "energy corridor" bill in Maine was voted Ought to Pass as Amended by the Joint Standing Committee on Utilities and Energy. Among the issues are how Maine should regulate high-impact transmission lines connecting the massive hydroelectric capacity of Hydro-Quebec to southern New England markets, given that these lines will affect Maine's costs and strategic energy position.

The AP is covering a story about a California water district's proposed use of 47 square miles of poorly-managed farmland -- land that due to bad water use is now very salty -- for a solar photovoltaic farm of up to one gigawatt.

Who wants free money? $1.3 million in energy grants through Efficiency Maine to Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle, Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor, Kennebec Community College in Augusta and Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. $2 million in grants for water projects too.

Wind siting: Thorndike voters approved the siting ordinance. Fort Kent votes tonight.

2/19/10

Since transportation is such a large part of our energy consumption, transportation policy has implications on energy policy. Rail service can provide low-cost, low-carbon transportation for a variety of raw materials and products. That's why the Maine legislature is considering a proposal for $20 million in bonds to enable the state to purchase 240 miles of the Millinocket to Madawaska line. Word on the street is that its owner Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railroad will begin the legal process to abandon the tracks as early as this week. If abandoned, this would eliminate rail service to about 20 companies, including some of northern Maine's largest employers.

More offshore tidal power! Portland, Maine-based Ocean Renewable Power is deploying its 60 kW underwater Turbine Generator Unit (TGU). (Note that 60 kW will make this the largest ocean energy device deployed in U.S. waters. You can see we have a long way to go.) This unit will be deployed on March 2 about 25 feet below the surface at a site off Shackford Head near Eastport (acme map). Tidal power captured by the underwater turbines will be stored in batteries on the barge, which are then shuttled back and forth by boat to the Coast guard -- what they're calling a "virtual transmission line". How efficient can that be?

Although the project has the capacity to power 20 homes, Ocean Renewable does not have its pilot-project license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and thus cannot interconnect.

How about jobs? While spending about $5 million in the past year, Ocean Renewable has grown from 4 to 17 Maine-based employees, and has created or retained another 80 jobs total at companies around the state, including Stillwater Metalworks.

An article about citizen opposition to wind farms is interesting for a variety of reasons -- both its good summary of recent actions that can be seen as limiting wind generation, and the fact that it does not appear to be spurred by any particular event.

On the local level: Central Maine Power and Rockland are in a fight over tree trimming. Reminds me of the situation in Warren when MDOT widened Route 1.

Nationally: agreement has been reached on the removal of four dams on the Klamath, three in Oregon and one in California. Shades of Edwards Dam and the Fort Halifax Dam in Maine.