It's wet in Maine! Much of the state was soaked by rain in the last two days, with up to 4 inches falling in some areas. In many places, this warm water fell on snowpack. Melting added even more surface water, causing streams and rivers to rise. Flooding has been reported throughout Maine, covering everything from the walking path along the Androscoggin River below NextEra's hydroelectric dam in Brunswick, to the overtopping of a dam on the Piscataquis Rive, road washouts and power outages. The Bangor Daily News reports that flood water flowed into the boiler room at the True Textiles-Interface Fabrics Guilford of Maine manufacturing facility in Guilford. On the Kennebec River, Gardiner anticipated flooding of parking lots and streets as well.
Maine is no stranger to rain and flooding, and for the most part can weather the storms. Yet when it rains like this, it does make life more interesting for hydroelectric operators in the region.
Energy powers society; society's choices shape energy policy. A blog about our energy resources and the choices they present for society.
Showing posts with label rain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rain. Show all posts
July 9, 2010 - Smelt Hill Dam
Friday, July 9, 2010
A peek at part of the New Meadows quahog fleet:
Today, I begin a look at Maine's first hydroelectric dam: the Smelt Hill dam on the Presumpscot River in Falmouth. Dammed in 1735 and with generating capacity installed in 1889, the Smelt Hill dam was the first hydro dam to be built in Maine.
In the early 1700s, the land around the Presumpscot River's mouth was owned by Thomas Westbrook, William Pepperell, and Samuel Waldo. Town records show that "a great dam" and sawmill were constructed on the lower falls in 1735. Resource conflicts began immediately, with upstream fish passage so impaired that Chief Polin, leader of the "Rockameecook" Tribe of Abenakis made the multi-day journey to Boston to ask Governor Shirley to require fish passage on all dams on the Presumpscot system. Accounts from the era describe “an acre of fish, mostly salmon” penned up below the impassable dam.
In 1726, George and Judith Knight settled on the Middle Road in Falmouth. Descendant Samuel Knight became known as the "Smelt King", famously claiming that if you laid his smelt catch end to end, it would reach all the way to Bangor. Perhaps thanks to his marketing pitches, the area came to be known as "Smelt Hill."
In 1889, the S.D. Warren Company erected a powerhouse (and new dam) at the site to supply electricity to its paper mill several miles upstream in Westbrook. The March 15, 1896 edition of the Electrical Journal gives a contemporary description of the power station:
It's interesting to see that even in the late 1800s, developers had a hard time getting easements to string transmission and distribution lines from distributed renewable resources to markets and loads.
By its end, Smelt Hill was the site of a 151-foot long, 31-foot wide and 15-foot high stone filled, timber crib dam, along with some associated structures. Smelt Hill Dam was not operational between 1943 and 1985. The Town of Falmouth's 2000 Comprehensive Plan documents the Smelt Hill dam as having been "damaged beyond repair in a 1996 flood." The 1996 flood -- almost 20 inches of rain in 3 days -- on the Presumpscot rendered the hydroelectric facilities and the fish lift at the dam inoperable and anadromous runs again ceased on the Presumpscot.
The dam was subsequently removed in October 2002. In a coming edition, I'll look at the issues that led to its removal.
Source note: much of the history of the area is drawn from the National Park Service's 1993 Historic American Engineering Report for the downstream Presumpscot Falls Bridge.
News: retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, vice chairman of the CNA Military Advisory Board, an retired-officer based energy and climate change think tank, visited Maine to call for greater energy independence.
Today, I begin a look at Maine's first hydroelectric dam: the Smelt Hill dam on the Presumpscot River in Falmouth. Dammed in 1735 and with generating capacity installed in 1889, the Smelt Hill dam was the first hydro dam to be built in Maine.
In the early 1700s, the land around the Presumpscot River's mouth was owned by Thomas Westbrook, William Pepperell, and Samuel Waldo. Town records show that "a great dam" and sawmill were constructed on the lower falls in 1735. Resource conflicts began immediately, with upstream fish passage so impaired that Chief Polin, leader of the "Rockameecook" Tribe of Abenakis made the multi-day journey to Boston to ask Governor Shirley to require fish passage on all dams on the Presumpscot system. Accounts from the era describe “an acre of fish, mostly salmon” penned up below the impassable dam.
In 1726, George and Judith Knight settled on the Middle Road in Falmouth. Descendant Samuel Knight became known as the "Smelt King", famously claiming that if you laid his smelt catch end to end, it would reach all the way to Bangor. Perhaps thanks to his marketing pitches, the area came to be known as "Smelt Hill."
In 1889, the S.D. Warren Company erected a powerhouse (and new dam) at the site to supply electricity to its paper mill several miles upstream in Westbrook. The March 15, 1896 edition of the Electrical Journal gives a contemporary description of the power station:
The power plant of S. D. Warren & Co., at Smelt Hill, Maine, on the Presumpscot, has been started up for the first time. This plant was built some six years ago when the dam at the lower falls of the Presumpscot was constructed. The plant is arranged for twelve large turbine wheels. It has laid idle all this time, but recently the company has secured the right of way on the bank of the Presumpscot to Westbrook and has run a line of heavy copper wires whereon to convey the power from the new plant to the big paper mills. The distance is some five or six miles. The reason that this power has at last been transferred up the river and put into use is because of the lack of water at times to furnish sufficient power at the paper mills. They are now using only two of the turbine wheels at the Smelt Hill plant, but next week will use four of them.
It's interesting to see that even in the late 1800s, developers had a hard time getting easements to string transmission and distribution lines from distributed renewable resources to markets and loads.
By its end, Smelt Hill was the site of a 151-foot long, 31-foot wide and 15-foot high stone filled, timber crib dam, along with some associated structures. Smelt Hill Dam was not operational between 1943 and 1985. The Town of Falmouth's 2000 Comprehensive Plan documents the Smelt Hill dam as having been "damaged beyond repair in a 1996 flood." The 1996 flood -- almost 20 inches of rain in 3 days -- on the Presumpscot rendered the hydroelectric facilities and the fish lift at the dam inoperable and anadromous runs again ceased on the Presumpscot.
The dam was subsequently removed in October 2002. In a coming edition, I'll look at the issues that led to its removal.
Source note: much of the history of the area is drawn from the National Park Service's 1993 Historic American Engineering Report for the downstream Presumpscot Falls Bridge.
News: retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, vice chairman of the CNA Military Advisory Board, an retired-officer based energy and climate change think tank, visited Maine to call for greater energy independence.
3/31/10
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
It's a record: 11 inches of rain in Portland, Maine this March. The Portland Press Herald has some nice pictures of the effects of the Colcord Pond dam breach I mentioned yesterday. In Rhode Island, the flooding is bad enough -- 12 feet over the banks of the Pawtuxet River -- to greatly constrain the capacity of the Warwick wastewater treatment plant.
President Obama will announce more offshore oil drilling off the East Coast. Meanwhile oil prices are on the rise.
On Monday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $37.5 million in funding for the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, a virtual campus located at existing research sites in both countries. The Center will focus on energy efficiency, clean vehicles and carbon capture from coal-fueled power plants -- something China has a lot of.
A panel of British lawmakers investigating the "climategate" leaked email scandal have labeled British climate change research as "damaged" by the incident. The 59-page report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee says that climate change research must become more transparent.
In California, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center will start generating 10% of its power needs through 15 MW of solar photovoltaic arrays. Kaiser has entered into power purchase agreements with Recurrent Energy, who will own and operate the solar panels and sell the power to Kaiser, while Kaiser will retain the rights to the renewable energy credits. Meanwhile other projects in California are in a permitting backlog, jeopardizing their chances at earning the 30% cash grant in lieu of investment tax credit, which requires ground to be broken this year.
The Los Angeles City Council has backed a much smaller rate hike than proposed by Mayor Villaraigosa: 0.1-cent increase per kilowatt-hour in the rates paid by residential and commercial customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, with the initial money to go toward establishing a trust fund for renewable-energy production and energy efficiency.
Wisconsin wants in on the manufacturing associated with renewable deployment.
President Obama will announce more offshore oil drilling off the East Coast. Meanwhile oil prices are on the rise.
On Monday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $37.5 million in funding for the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, a virtual campus located at existing research sites in both countries. The Center will focus on energy efficiency, clean vehicles and carbon capture from coal-fueled power plants -- something China has a lot of.
A panel of British lawmakers investigating the "climategate" leaked email scandal have labeled British climate change research as "damaged" by the incident. The 59-page report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee says that climate change research must become more transparent.
In California, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center will start generating 10% of its power needs through 15 MW of solar photovoltaic arrays. Kaiser has entered into power purchase agreements with Recurrent Energy, who will own and operate the solar panels and sell the power to Kaiser, while Kaiser will retain the rights to the renewable energy credits. Meanwhile other projects in California are in a permitting backlog, jeopardizing their chances at earning the 30% cash grant in lieu of investment tax credit, which requires ground to be broken this year.
The Los Angeles City Council has backed a much smaller rate hike than proposed by Mayor Villaraigosa: 0.1-cent increase per kilowatt-hour in the rates paid by residential and commercial customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, with the initial money to go toward establishing a trust fund for renewable-energy production and energy efficiency.
Wisconsin wants in on the manufacturing associated with renewable deployment.
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