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44 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, January 19, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend December 12, 2003 Hydropower feasible at Applegate Dam, engineers conclude By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune A Utah firm says it intends to retrofit Applegate Dam to generate hydropower that it would sell to an electricity company as early as 2007. After two years of feasibility studies by Symbiotics LLC, a subsidiary of Northwest Power Services Inc., engineers feel confident that the 23-year-old dam could be fitted with turbines that could generate 12 megawatts of electricity virtually year-round. The company, along with its subsidiary called Ecosystem Research Institute, will file as early as next spring for a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license to build the estimated $12.36 million project, said Hart Evans, a spokesman for ERI. The Corps of Engineers dam, which spans the Applegate River in southwest Jackson County, was one of 95 dams for which Symbiotics received preliminary licenses in 2001 to study the feasibility of hydropower, Evans said. This dam, along with two smaller ones elsewhere in Oregon, show the most promise, he said. "We don’t know exactly when it will happen, but we feel confident it’s a good project," Evans said by telephone Thursday from his office in Logan, Utah. "It’s one of our top projects." Advertisement The company must first show that the retrofit would have no negative impact on native fish species, water quality in the Applegate River and the dam itself. "The main environmental impacts have already been done," Evans said. "We just have to look at it carefully and work out the issues." Issues include whether generating power would adversely affect the river’s wild coho salmon, which are a threatened species, or harm any native cutthroat trout. The dam currently passes water through an outlet at the base. To generate power, that outlet would be lined with a steel pipe that would funnel water into two penstocks fitted with turbines. The water would spin the turbines, generating electricity that would be delivered to the power grid through a series of underground and above-ground wires to a substation at Ruch. The generators would work when flows are between 100 and 825 cubic feet per second, according to Symbiotics’ feasibility license. That would allow operation almost year-round, except during storms and some late-summer periods when water releases occasionally drop below 100 cfs. If built, the generators would operate on whatever flows the Corps releases based on the project’s primary purposes of flood control, water storage and fisheries enhancement. Water releases would not be altered for hydropower needs, said Jim Buck, the Corps’ project manager here. "The bottom line is, we have authorized purposes and their operation can’t impact that," Buck said. If done, it would be the first new hydropower facility in Oregon since Galesville Reservoir in Douglas County was built with a 1.8 megawatt generator in 1984, said Ken Homolka, hydropower coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Southwest Region. A megawatt is roughly enough electricity to operate 1,000 homes or small businesses simultaneously. A similar facility at Lost Creek dam generates up to 49 megawatts of power. State law bans new hydropower projects that kill any anadromous fish, but rules are more lax for retrofitting existing dams, Homolka said. If the turbines would kill any native cutthroat trout that now leave the lake during water releases, the company could apply for mitigation that would help more fish than it kills, Homolka said. The possibility of hydropower at Applegate Dam was first broached in 2001 when a spike in energy costs sent companies such as Symbiotics scurrying to find new sources of cheap energy. At the time, some people within the Applegate Valley’s environmental community were warm to the idea of clean energy piggybacking on current operations at Applegate Dam. "Generally, there was a fairly positive response," said Jack Shipley of the Applegate Project, a group that focuses on Applegate Valley environmental issues. "The big questions are whether there are any environmental impacts," Shipley said. "We definitely want to have our oar in the water on this." Evans said Symbiotics is also interested in retrofitting dams for hydropower at Dorena Reservoir near Eugene and at the Arthur R. Brown reservoir near Prineville. "As far as power, Applegate has the most potential," Evans said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times