Some Dam Hydro Newsnpdp.stanford.edu/./sites/default/files/other... · OLSON: This infrastructure that's out there, whether it's, you know, steel or concrete or even earth, it just

Copy obtained from the National Performance of Dams Program: http://npdp.stanford.edu

1

8/7/20

i

Dams: (Show me the money! They were lucky, there were no deaths.) Aging Dams Across The U.S. Pose Catastrophic Risks By David Schaper | NPR, July 27, 2020, capradio.org A dam that failed in Michigan in May isn't the only one at risk — thousands of aging dams nationwide are not just in poor shape but weren't built for today's heavier rains caused by climate change. TRANSCRIPT ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: There are more than 90,000 dams in the U.S. Most are more than half a century old. Many are in poor condition, and civil engineers are warning that they're at risk of catastrophically failing just like a century-old dam did in Michigan two months ago. NPR's David Schaper reports.

Some Dam – Hydro News TM And Other Stuff

Quote of Note: “How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!" --Elizabeth Gaskell

Some Dam - Hydro News Newsletter Archive for Current and Back Issues and Search: (Hold down Ctrl key when clicking on this link) http://npdp.stanford.edu/ . After clicking on link, scroll down under Partners/Newsletters on left, click one of the links (Current issue or View Back Issues).

“Good wine is a necessity of life.” - -Thomas Jefferson Ron’s wine pick of the week: 2017 Vina Cobos Argentina & Chile (Red Blends) "Cocodrilo Red Blend" “No nation was ever drunk when wine was cheap.” - - Thomas Jefferson


2

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: In the afternoon of May 19, after some five inches of rain fell onto already saturated ground, word spread quickly around Midland County, Mich., that the Edenville Dam on the Tittabawassee River could fail at any time. Local resident Lynn Coleman was at the dam when a huge portion of it collapsed. LYNN COLEMAN: There it goes. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There it is. COLEMAN: There it goes. SCHAPER: His smartphone video shows a huge chunk of the grass-covered earthen part sliding down, followed by a surging flow of mud and then a pause before brown water gushes through the breach. COLEMAN: There we go. There's the rush. SCHAPER: A short time later, that torrent of rushing water overtopped another dam seven miles downstream. Ten thousand people were evacuated in towns like Edenville and Sanford. And the city of Midland was soon under more than nine feet of water. LORI SPRAGENS: It was devastating, I mean, to see that. SCHAPER: Lori Spragens heads the Association of State Dam Safety Officials and watched the video of the dam collapsing that night online. SPRAGENS: I was not surprised - not at all. Unfortunately, we've seen some high-profile dams in the last three years fail. SCHAPER: And Spragens says there are thousands more dams all around the country that could also catastrophically fail, risking people's lives and huge property losses. In its latest infrastructure report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation's dams an overall grade of D. DARREN OLSON: Generally, they're all pretty old. SCHAPER: Chicago-based civil engineer Darren Olson is on the committee that grades dams and says their average age is 57 years old. OLSON: This infrastructure that's out there, whether it's, you know, steel or concrete or even earth, it just deteriorates over time. Just like anything - your car, your house - it needs a lot of maintenance and rehabilitation. SCHAPER: And Olson says it's not just the age of the dam but what's changed since they were built. Upstream development increases the amount of runoff, while development downstream has put more people at risk if a dam fails. OLSON: The other thing, too, is that these dams that were built so long ago - the rainfall patterns that we're seeing now - these dams that were built that long ago just aren't built to withstand the sort of rain events that we're seeing today. SCHAPER: The most recent national climate assessment finds that extreme rainfall events have increased more than 50% in the Midwest since 1950. And other parts of the country are seeing greater rainfall amounts, too, as the climate heats up. Bill McCormick, chief of dam safety for the state of Colorado, says warmer air simply holds more water. BILL MCCORMICK: For us in Colorado, based on the results of our study, we implemented a new rule that says we have to add 7% additional rainfall onto our design storms when we design dams going forward. SCHAPER: But not all states are factoring climate change in to dam standards. And rehabbing or rebuilding older dams and spillways to meet today's higher water amounts is a huge challenge. Unlike fixing up highways and bridges, there's little public funding for dam infrastructure, in part because most are privately owned. They were built by loggers and paper mills, by utilities for hydroelectric power or drinking water and by farmers, among others. Again, Lori Spragens. SPRAGENS: Owners don't tend to have this amount of funding available to do these big upgrades. SCHAPER: And while some dams are federally regulated, about 70% of them are only regulated by the state. And Spragens says resources for adequate safety oversight just aren't there. SPRAGENS: It's mind-boggling. It is absurd. It really is. SCHAPER: As a result, she and other experts fear that it won't be long before another dam catastrophically fails. David Schaper, NPR News.


3

(Lotta reviewers.) EGLE Hires Third Dam Inspector, Appoints Task Force JUL 30, 2020. kisswtlz.com The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, known as EGLE, is hiring a senior environmental engineer to act as a third inspector in its Dam Safety Program. Besides adding the inspector, EGLE said it continues to evaluate the need for changes in the Dam Safety Program as it awaits recommendations from two outside evaluations that are expected to identify reforms. The two reviews are being performed by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials and the Michigan Dam Safety Task Force. In June, EGLE announced a team of six independent experts who will perform an independent forensic investigation of the contributing factors that led to the failures of the Edenville and Sanford dams in May in mid-Michigan. The investigation is expected to take up to 18 months to complete. EGLE will post updates on the investigation on its Edenville Dam Failure webpage, which includes an interactive map of all state-regulated dams in Michigan: https://www.michigan.gov/egle/0,9429,7-135-3313-529696–,00.html EGLE officials said Boyce Hydro, the owner of both the Edenville and Sanford dams, has not been cooperative with the investigation, for which it is legally obligated to pay. (We know the EAP works except it wouldn’t turn off for a while.).) Carnation residents head to higher ground after Tolt River Dam false alarm A worker accidentally set off the warning system for a dam failure. Before it was cleared By Glenn Farley. July 28, 2020, CARNATION, Wash. — It turned out to be a false alarm, but for about an hour it was very real for residents of Carnation. A siren system designed to warn of a breach in the earthen dam holding back the Tolt Reservoir, went off about 11:15 a.m., says interim Carnation City Manager Bob Jean. He, like many residents, thought it was real at first. He tried to make calls to confirm it, while many residents headed along evacuation routes to higher ground. Jean says Seattle Public Utilities, which operates the dam, called Carnation after a few minutes. But Jean says the alarm itself, accompanied by an automated electronic voice warning to evacuate, sounded for around an hour. “And it was believable, and it was very real,” Jean said. “We started going through our notifications, and evacuation process.” He says he’s told that a work crew was working on the siren system and accidentally triggered it. The warning system is an important safety measure for the residents. If the dam breaks, there’s nowhere else for the water to go. Mark Pesanti, who lives on the Tolt River east of town, took no chances. “The siren was elongated, went on for like two minutes,” Pesanti said. “I opened the door to hear what they were saying, and it said, 'The dam has failed, evacuate immediately.' So, it didn't take me too long to evacuate.” But the siren itself is familiar to residents of Carnation. Both men say the alarm is tested every Wednesday at noon, along with a voice that says it’s only a test. This time it sounded different, in both tone, duration and message. Jean says there are lessons learned for the city, especially in


4

the area of communications. Jean found a bright side to the unexpected evacuation drill. “But I was pleased to see, that most people in town took it seriously. (Hindsight is something we don’t get until it’s too late.) Midland-area dam buyer: 'We know for sure the system failed' By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News, July 28, 2020, detroitnews.com Lansing, Michigan — The potential buyers of four Midland-area dams affected by widespread flooding told state senators Tuesday that the state had much to learn from the May 19 disaster about the perils of private dam ownership. Four Lakes Task Force is now seeking to take the dams by eminent domain rather than cash purchase after the furthest downstream structure, the Edenville Dam, failed in historic rain and flooding. Minor damage also was sustained by the other three dams: Sanford, Smallwood and Secord. The dam owners, Boyce Hydro, have vowed to fight the effort by Four Lakes Task Force, an authority that was buying the dams on behalf of Midland and Gladwin counties. Four Lakes Task Force estimates the immediate stabilization of the dams will cost upward of $30 million while the dams' rehabilitation and repair over the next four to six years would cost $250 million to $400 million. "We know for sure the system failed," Dave Kepler, chairman for the Four Lakes Task Force, told the Senate Energy and Technology, Environmental Quality joint committee. "These dams should have survived the storm. Our belief is that it has been apparent for many years the private ownership was not covering the long-term costs required for investment in these dams.” The joint committee has heard from a series of witnesses, including state and federal regulators, in its review of the floods and dam failure in Midland. Kepler testified for roughly an hour and suggested lawmakers create clear requirements for dam owners to inform the community and state of their long-term financial viability. Protections around critical infrastructure information compounds the difficulties of knowing and addressing problems with dams, he said. "Operators ought to be working with communities saying, 'Here’s how my cash flow works, here’s what I need in investment,'" Kepler said. Lawrence Kogan, a lawyer for Boyce Hydro, said he wouldn't be opposed to such a requirement so long as it was "imposed on anyone owning a dam no matter the form of ownership." Kepler also argued for a better handoff between the state and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has been criticized for its abandonment of the Edenville Dam to state regulators in 2018 after years of alleged non-compliance by dam owners Boyce Hydro. Federal regulators left the dam to state oversight after revoking its hydropower generation license. Kepler said there might also be a need for more grant funding to supplement the cost homeowners in special assessment districts take on after a private dam failure or after the revocation of a dam's hydropower generating license. "A lot of these communities are sitting on this false entitlement that they get a lake because of the hydro-dam, but as soon as that hydro-dam no longer operates their entitlement goes away and they need to go buy into this lake program," Kepler said. Kogan agreed that more public financing should be made available, not just to communities seeking to purchase dams but also to the owners operating private ones. In addition to the private good a power-generating dam might produce, the structure also produces public goods in the form of recreation and increase property values around the reservoir, he said. The state should have a mechanism to maintain these public benefits," he said.


5

(What a mess! He needs a miracle. Grants are free money that the rest of us pay for.) Restoration of failed mid-Michigan dams could cost $340M or more, says nonprofit seeking ownership By Malachi Barrett | mlive.com, Jul 28, 2020 A group of property owners seeking to gain control of a system of dams that released catastrophic floodwater across mid-Michigan anticipates repairs to the dam and surrounding lakes to cost upwards of $340 million. Dave Kepler, president of the Four Lakes Task Force, disclosed the estimate to Senate joint committees on Energy and Technology and Environmental Quality Tuesday. Approximately $20 million needs to be spent on efforts to stabilize shorelines and banks eroded by floodwaters before the winter, according to an estimate from engineering consultant Spicer Group, with another $340 million needed for long-term restoration of the Edenville, Sanford, Secord and Smallwood dams. A fact sheet provided by Four Lakes outlines estimates showing the project could cost $338 million in total, including $92 million to repair or rebuild the Sanford Dam, $208 million for the Edenville Dam, $14 million for the Smallwood Dam and $24 million for the Secord Dam. The Four Lakes Task Force is a nonprofit representing property owners in Midland and Gladwin counties. The two counties delegated authority to the group under the National Resources and Environmental Protection Act, allowing the task force to purchase the dams from its owner Boyce Hydro. Four Lakes previously sought to buy the dams and restore them to meet state and federal requirements but plans changed after the failure of Edenville and Sanford dams caused historic flooding in May. Now Four Lakes is seeking control of four dams through eminent domain, setting up a legal battle with the group arguing the property should be condemned and turned over. Kepler said the dams should have held back spring rainfall and blamed the private owners for not covering long-term costs required to keep the critical infrastructure in good condition. “The operator had an opportunity to invest and change it and they didn’t,” Kepler said. “We were trying to get through it in a way that would give us control, in an expensive way, and now we have to go clean it up. Frankly, the value of that property for anything other than the lake is a liability.” Kepler acknowledged that restoring the dam is an expensive undertaking. Four Lakes planned to establish a special assessment district, but that effort is on hold. “We need to think about the affordability model in these things because they can’t be spread equally in a big lake system that goes from a well-off city all the way up to some economically challenged townships,” he said. Kepler said the group is also hoping to secure financing for repairs through federal grants from FEMA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (There’s always a dam removal story.) State agrees to fund removal of Scotts Mills Dam, but decision lies in county's hands By Bill Poehler, Salem Statesman. Journal, July 29, 2020 The Scotts Mills Dam, Oregon has been neglected for decades as no one was sure who owned it, but a proposal could have it torn down within the year. Salem Statesman Journal Two state agencies have agreed to pay for the removal of the Scotts Mills Dam. All that's needed now is approval from the Marion County Commissioners, who aren't in agreement. A proposed project that would remove the crumbling 40-foot-wide structure blocking Butte Creek has long been eyed by state and non-profit entities for removal. Marion County’s commissioners addressed the project at a June 1 management update, but they have yet to make a decision. The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board awarded $49,992 for the project in June. With the $48,613 the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has contributed, the proposed removal has


6

received full funding. But due to delays in funding – OWEB delayed approving it until June from April the proposed September removal won’t take place. If Marion County approves the project, the watershed council still needs to apply to the Army Corps of Engineers, Department of State Lands and the Department of Environmental Quality for approval, and that could take 60 days to six months. “As far as this year, it’s not happening,” said Anna Rankin, Executive Director of the Pudding River Watershed Council. The earliest the dam’s removal could take place is in 2021. (Removal of dam has been hanging on for years, Not to be confused with PG%E’s Scott dam.) Removal: Proposal to demolish crumbling Scotts Mills Dam gaining momentum The dam has been on the state’s Fish Passage Barrier Priority List for years as the creek is native habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed spring Chinook and winter steelhead as well as cutthroat trout. By

was built on top of a natural waterfall in the 1850s to divert water into a 100-foot-long side channel to drive a mill; it was converted to generate electricity in the 1900s. After Pacific General Electric stopped using it in the 1950s, the dam and 10 acres of land was has been hanging for years.donated to Marion County, and it became Scotts Mills County Park in 1961. Over the years, segments of the dam have fallen off and its makeshift fish passage no longer functions as intended. “There’s history associated with the Scotts Mills Dam, but there’s a lot of history at that site that predates the settlers,” Rankin said. Butte Creek is the political border between Marion and Clackamas counties, and the private landowner on the Clackamas County side of the creek – who also has to give approval for the removal – has put their property up for sale. The Marion County Parks Commission voted to remove the dam in November 2019 after years of debate. A mural of the Scotts Mills Dam is painted on the wall of a local antique store in Scotts Mills. The dam has been neglected for decades as no one was sure who owned it, but a proposal (At Marion County’s management June update, commissioner Colm Willis said he would like to engage community members about the dam’s removal, Kevin Cameron said he is in favor and Sam Brentano said he was against it, but they all said they wanted more information about the restoration of fish passage at the site. "If the county had said yes back when we first asked, it would have been tight," said Ron Garst, a board member on the Pudding River Watershed Council. "Otherwise there might have been a delay for other reasons. Now that they’ve said not now, we’ve got this next winter, spring season. "We want to keep the discussions going and the momentum."

Hydro: (Gotta maintain them to keep them runnin’ so those kWhs keep comin’.) Major repairs shut down Watertown hydroelectric plant By CRAIG FOX, nny360.com, July 28, 2020


7

WATERTOWN, NY— First the bad news: the city’s hydroelectric plant on Marble Street has been out of commission since the middle of June. The good news: the 93-year-old plant would not have been producing electricity anyway because there hasn’t been enough water flow from the Black River to keep its three turbines — known as Faith, Hope and Charity — running. The hydro plant has been shut down because of major repairs scheduled to be completed this summer, Water Superintendent Vicky Murphy said. But the city chose the right time to get them done, Ms. Murphy said, during what has been a brutally dry summer. “It was a good time to do it,” she said. The hydro plant is expected to be back up and running in mid-September, according to Jeffrey Hammond, a city engineer who oversees the hydro plant. The summer months are typically the least productive times of the year for hydroelectricity. Three projects are underway. DC Builders, Watertown, is the contractor doing the $497,000 in repairs. The work includes resurfacing the spillway wall, both on the inside and on the outside for the first time since the plant was built in 1927, Mr. Hammond said. Workers also are repairing the deteriorated trash rack, which prevents debris from entering and damaging the plant, as well as dredging out the canal to remove material. The repairs were scheduled at a time when the flow of the Black River is at its lowest. When the flow of the river drops, less water passes through the plant to generate hydroelectricity, making it the best time to shut down the plant for repairs to mitigate the loss of revenue for the city, Ms. Murphy said. In recent years, the plant has been shut down for other major repairs. In 2019, the City Council approved $1.8 million in bonding for maintenance and, including this most recent work. Last fall, the city replaced the excitation system at the plant, a $375,000, month-and-a-half project that began in mid-October and temporarily put the plant out of commission until November. In the summer of 2018, the plant was out of operation for about three months so workers could fix one of the plant’s turbines and a 90-foot-long crack in the building wall. The shutdown caused a

$400,000 loss in revenue. The plant supplies electricity to more than 20 city buildings and properties. After using the energy from the hydroelectric plant for its buildings, the city sells its excess power to National Grid. But it hasn’t been an uneven year for hydro revenues for the city. In comparison to last June, the sale of surplus hydro-electric power on an actual to actual basis was down $733,950 or 93.1 percent, according to a memo by City Comptroller James E. Mills. In comparison to the budget projection for the month, revenue was down $285,309

or 84.17 percent. The year-to-date actual revenue is down $198,312 or 4.55 percent, while the year-to-date revenue on a budget basis is up $258,958 or 6.65 percent. The city is nearing the end of a franchise agreement to sell electricity to National Grid that began in 1991 and expires in 2029, when the company will pay the city 34.78 cents per kWh. National Grid currently pays 23.71 cents per Kwh. (A fixer upper) "High hazard" dam's future: local input Imperial Mills Dam to receive state-funded improvements By Alina Walentowicz, The Sun, Aug 01, 2020, suncommunitynews.com PLATTSBURGH, NY |The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is ready to improve Imperial Mills Dam in Plattsburgh on the Saranac River, 3.2 miles from Lake Champlain. Currently, it is considered a Class C high hazard dam. This classification refers to the


8

would-be potential for the dam to fail during a severe storm, rather than the condition of the structure itself. DEC Director of Media Relations Maureen Wren said this classification is provided to "any dam whose failure would cause significant impacts to life or property." The $6 million project will include a fish ladder, a fixed outlet gate, a reconfigured spillway crest with rock anchors, as well as a lowered embankment. Some locals and politicians say improving the dam isn’t worth the time — or the state’s money. DEC says the project will help salmon populations better thrive. SALMON POPULATION, THE CASE FOR DAM REMOVAL The improvements, which include a fish ladder, come as a way to “reconnect landlocked Atlantic Salmon to their spawning habitat and to ensure public safety”, said a recent DEC news release. Plattsburgh’s city and town have both passed resolutions relating to the dam, in favor of salmon being able to migrate further up the river. In 2014, SUNY Plattsburgh, with its campus not far from the dam’s location, held a showing of the activist film DamNation to help create awareness about unused dams across the U.S. A past release on the college’s website referenced a “decades-long effort by anglers and environmentalists to remove or lower Imperial Dam, which blocks 10 miles of prime spawning ground for salmon and obstructs recreational uses of the popular Saranac.” The same release quotes a former Trout Unlimited chapter president saying the dam that “once produced hydroelectricity and served the long-closed Imperial Wallpaper Mill, now serves no purpose.” DIFFERING VIEWS Trout Unlimited is still in favor of the dam’s removal today. The current president of Lake Champlain Trout Unlimited, Rich Redman, said, “DEC’s plan will reward Main Mill Street Investments with a $6 million gift of taxpayer money for a fish ladder that may not work.” He added, “Main Mill Street Investments, the owner of the dam, has and will make zero contributions to correcting this major safety hazard to Plattsburgh’s citizens.” DEC is also considered a partial owner of the dam. One local resident, Chuck Racette, owns property near the dam and he’s not a fan of the state’s intentions to fund improvements, particularly given ice damage to nearby neighborhoods. “I’m tired of having to shore up my properties from these Imperial Dam ice jams,” he said, adding, “but I’m even more offended by the plan to direct even more state money to Imperial Mill Investments.” City of Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read echoed Racette’s perspective in a recent press release, saying, “Issues range from concern for lives and property below Imperial Dam, interest in a restored and ecologically sound Saranac River, Main Mill Street Investments’ checkered ownership of the Imperial Dam, the dubious claim of hydroelectric generation after many regulatory rejections and a proposal that will siphon off millions of dollars to an out-of-state investors so Bitcoin operators can have cheaper power. But the nearby Imperial Industrial Park sees things differently. “As an adjacent property owner to the Imperial Mills Dam, Imperial Industrial Park supports DEC’s plans for the dam and appreciates their efforts to research and understand the impact of changes to the dam,” said Main Mill Street Investments, LLC, Imperial Industrial Park Property Manager Doug Butdorf. He added, “DEC’s plan to maintain the current crest elevation, will allow our tenant, an experienced New York State hydropower development company, to quickly re-energize and improve the existing hydropower capacity of the facility, helping to meet the state’s mandated increase in renewable energy capacity and possibly supply a robust power source for the nearby Plattsburgh International Airport


9

Water: (Water – water – everywhere!) Scenes along the Tittabawassee River flooding in downtown Midland By Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com, Jul 28, 3020 See all the photos here: https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/07/restoration-of-failed-mid-michigan-dams-could-cost-340m-or-more-says-nonprofit-seeking-ownership.html

Environment: (Is he right or wrong?) Our Rivers Too Dam Hot for Salmon July 29, 2020, by Giulia C.S. Good Stefani, nrdc.org It’s so hot in the Columbia River Gorge today, my chickens and kids are walking around with their mouths open to cool off. Triple-digit temperatures are hitting the Pacific Northwest, and it’s not just my egg-count and 5-year-old that are suffering. Salmon need cool river temperatures to complete their migrations home, back to the rivers and mountain streams of their birth. But it’s becoming dangerously hot in the river for the fish. That’s why NRDC has joined forces with the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association and Columbia Riverkeeper to support Washington State. We have filed a motion to intervene in a court case to uphold the State’s Clean Water Act Section 401 Certifications that require the federal government to manage its hydropower dams on the Columbia River and lower Snake River to reduce heat pollution and protect salmon. If you live in the Pacific Northwest you probably already know, salmon are everything, as Jay Julius a fisherman and former chairman of the Lummi Nation shared on a recent zoom presentation. I have heard the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee Chairman Shannon Wheeler refer to salmon as old money. The original wealth of this region, salmon bring nutrients from the ocean back inland—feeding an incredible abundance and diversity of people, animals, and plants alike. Our collective salmon wealth, however, is in serious jeopardy.

Lower Granite Dam,


10

The mighty Columbia River and its largest tributary, the Snake River, have been cut up into a series of lake-like stretches by the construction of hydropower dams. The federal dams create large, unshaded, slow-moving, and relatively shallow reservoirs. In the summer, the water heats up a bit like a dog bowl in the sun. When river temperatures exceed 68 F for several days at a time—as happens more often now due to the dams and climate change—salmon have difficulty migrating upstream and begin succumbing to stress and disease. If the water stays too hot for too long, the fish die—sometimes in huge numbers. In 2015, about 250,000 sockeye salmon perished because of hot water. At Ice

Harbor dam on the Snake River, the Seattle Times reported earlier this year that on average temperature exceeds what’s safe for salmon in August when hot 100 percent of the time. “Our industry is still reeling from the legacy of the 2015 drought, water in the Columbia basin killed hundreds of thousands of adult salmon” said Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association in a joint statement released today. This is the first time that Washington State has flexed its Clean Water Act authority and set temperature pollution limits on the Columbia River and lower Snake River dams. The U.S. Army Corps, however, recently appealed Washington State’s temperature limits on the dams. In its appeal, the U.S. Army Corps argues that the State has overreached its authority in setting limits on river temperature to protect salmon. Washington’s requirement that the U.S. Army Corps protect salmon and cool the rivers through use of the Clean Water Act 401 Certification process has notably achieved the support of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians of the United States (ATNI). Earlier this month, ATNI passed a resolution in support of the State’s 401 Certifications, and the reasons for that resolution are manifold and deserving of a full read and considered review. They include the fact that “the southern resident orcas and wild Columbia River basin salmon are integral parts of Pacific Northwest tribal culture and economy,” the fact that “many northwest tribes have treaty and/or ceremonial rights guaranteeing their ability to take and consume Columbia River basin salmon in perpetuity,” and the painful reality that “the efforts of numerous agencies and tribes have thus far achieved limited success in restoring native Columbia River basin salmon runs, and many such runs—especially in the Snake River basin—have gone extinct or are approaching extinction The federal government’s recent Total Maximum Daily Load report found that the dams, especially the lower Snake River dams, are the main human cause of the water temperature problems in the rivers. Now the U.S. Army Corps is arguing that it doesn’t have to comply with (the government’s own!) Total Maximum Daily Load limits on heat pollution.

Columbia Riverkeeper


11

Sometimes fighting on behalf of salmon can feel like its own upriver journey. This is a complicated issue, one that touches on numerous lives, livelihoods, and industries in the region. It is mired by politics on all sides. But it is also a natural and human system crisis that is in desperate need of courageous leadership and bold solutions. More salmon populations going extinct is unacceptable and would take an incalculable toll—on other wildlife and many people too. In 1909, the U.S. Supreme Court understood that fishing was “not much less necessary to the existence of the [Pacific Northwest Native Americans] than the atmosphere they breathed.” United States v. Winans, 198 U.S. 371, 381 (1905). And yet 115 years later, the salmon continue to decline and fisheries across the region are closed. Now is the moment and the chance to offer up a model for the entire country of how people that share a common respect for the bounty and beauty of a place can come together and by taking care of the salmon, we take care of each other too.

Other Stuff: (From crude to today) Streetlights illuminated San Bernardino’s path to the future By MARK LANDIS | The Sun, sbsun.com, July 13, 2020 In the late 1870s, San Bernardino was joining other large cities across the nation in illuminating their streets for safety, and to improve opportunities for commerce after dark. Before streetlights were installed, the only illuminated areas in the business district were the sidewalks in front of the establishments with their own lighting. San Bernardino’s earliest streetlights were gas lamps on poles at the main intersections in the center of town, generally along Third Street. The lamps represented progress, and residents were pleased to see their city moving away from its’ “wild west” reputation. San Francisco began lighting streets with oil burning lamps in the 1850s. In 1879, the city switched on its first electric streetlights. Los Angeles began using gas streetlamps in 1867, and in 1882, the city began installing electric streetlights. San Bernardino’s quest for street lighting got under way in 1875, when R.D. Nuttall of Los Angeles was awarded a franchise to provide the city with gas service for lighting. Gas generated from coal was piped from the company’s production facility to stores, residences, and streetlamps. The gas franchise later became the San Bernardino Gas Light Company. When gas service became available in the late 1870s, San Bernardino residents rushed to install gas lines to their homes and businesses to power indoor gas lighting, stoves, and heaters. By the early 1880s, San Bernardino had a functioning streetlight system, and according to the San Bernardino Daily Times Index in November 1881, the residents were “elated over the lighting of their town by gas.” While other cities were installing and expanding their electric streetlight systems, San Bernardino was still operating its gas lighting system. In October 1886, the city reported paying $60.95 to the San Bernardino Gas Light Company for one month of street lighting. Frustrations over the limitations of gas lights were mounting. Electric arc lamps were the early favorites, but by the mid-1880s, newer technology such as incandescent bulbs were catching on.

Othe9 Stuff:

Intersection of 3rd and D streets in San Bernardino, circa 1880,


12

In 1882, land developer and entrepreneur George Chaffey announced plans to erect towers with electric lighting in Ontario, using hydroelectric power from nearby water resources. By summer of 1883, Chaffey and his brother William set up incandescent lamps at their residences, and a similar lighting system for Ontario was in progress. In January 1887, the San Bernardino Gas Light Company announced they would be reducing the price of gas to $4 per 1,000 cubic feet to increase consumption, and perhaps slow the conversion to electric lighting. The company also said they were laying more than two miles of new pipe in the city’s streets to expand service. The move toward electric streetlights in San Bernardino became a certainty in January 1887, when the San Bernardino Electric Light Company was formed. The company’s immediate goal was to develop an electric streetlight system and an adequate power source. Most early electricity providers were focused on lighting. Supplying electricity for appliances and commercial needs evolved after lighting became widespread. Early commercial users of electricity typically used some form of onsite power generation. The San Bernardino Electric Light Company began streetlight service using a steam generator, but its limitations prompted them to begin searching for a hydroelectric power source. Mechanical malfunctions, power shortages, and weather made the town’s new streetlight system unreliable. The lack of consistent lighting was an ongoing source of irritation among residents and business owners. When the electric company announced system improvements, the October 10, 1887 issue of the San Bernardino Daily Courier sarcastically noted: “Tis hoped ‘tis to be so, as the present brilliancy of the lights exists only in the imagination of those who have never seen the night suns that illuminate the larger cities.” In the early years of electric lighting, companies were constantly merging or being swallowed up by competitors. By 1889, San Bernardino’s streetlight system was being operated by the Pacific Lighting Company, and the town was angry over service interruptions. The company was operating with hydroelectric power from a canal in East Riverside, and problems with waterflow and reliability were routine. They used power from the same hydroelectric plant to power the six streetlights in Colton. Reliability problems continued, and in 1905, San Bernardino signed a contract with The Lytle Creek Power Company to supply power and operate the streetlight system. Interestingly, the city was so eager to find a new provider, that they signed a contract with the Lytle Creek company before their hydroelectric plant was even complete. The company began operating streetlights in April 1905, and was initially contracted to operate 139 lights for the city. Through the late 1800s and early 1900s, electric system reliability improved dramatically. In the 1890s, California companies experimented with high voltage Alternating Current, which led to breakthroughs in transmitting electricity great distances. This increased the availability of power from different sources, which improved reliability, and reduced costs. Streetlights aren’t something we immediately associate with progress, but the development of this basic convenience was a crucial step in moving a town forward. We’ve come a long way since the first gas lamps were placed on a few street corners, to a city where thousands of highly efficient lamps light the streets. Mark Landis is a freelance writer. He can be reached at [email protected] (All the articles on this case would take a book, not a Newsletter.) Edenville Dam inspector: ‘People want to point fingers,’ but I did my best August 3, 2020, Kelly House Michigan Environment Watch, bridgemi.com After a decade as one of two state inspectors responsible for ensuring the safety of Michigan’s 1,059 state-regulated dams, Luke Trumble is finally about to get a new colleague. All it took was a catastrophic dam failure and $200 million in damages to begin rebuilding a regulatory program that state officials and outside experts have repeatedly warned does not have enough staff or funding to keep Michigan’s dams safe. “It’s a big step in the right direction,” Trumble said. “When you only have two staff, you’re limited in how much you can do, so increasing the workforce by 50 percent will help.”


13

On Thursday, officials in the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy announced plans to hire a third inspector as part of its response to the May 19 Edenville Dam failure that damaged more than 2,500 buildings in Gladwin, Midland and Saginaw counties, The agency has also tapped outside experts and announced a new task force to suggest other changes to Michigan’s dam safety regime. Legislative inquiries and class-action lawsuits, meanwhile, have questioned why federal and state regulators knew the dam was faulty for years but failed to take action. Trumble and the state inherited oversight in September 2018, when federal regulators revoked the permit of the dam’s owner, Boyce Hydro LLC, to generate power. He and another colleague authored a cursory inspection of the dam that deemed it in “fair condition.” But Michigan has flood-control standards that are half as strong as federal ones for high-hazard dams like Edenville, and state officials were awaiting a report on the 96-year-old dam’s ability to meet that lower standard when it failed amid heavy rains. In the meantime, they were working with a local task force that planned to buy the dams and repair them—a path Trumble said he thought would yield results faster than pressuring Boyce to make needed fixes. People want to point fingers and that’s part of the job and I understand that,” Trumble said, adding the dam’s safety issues were “not something you can just walk out there with a shovel and excavator and fix.” A Beaverton native, Trumble grew up just miles from the dam and its impoundment, Wixom Lake. For 10 years, he’s worked in relative obscurity, his days filled with paperwork, field inspections, phone calls and meetings. But in the two months since the failure of the Edenville and nearby Sanford dams, he has been consumed with media requests and legislative inquiries. He defended the state’s response, acknowledging inspectors worried the dam would fail in a massive flood but noting those are exceedingly rare. State officials have called the Edenville flood a 500-year event. (https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/gov-whitmer-calls-flooding-in-mid-michigan-a-500-year-eve) “That dam operated safely, more or less, for almost 100 years,” Trumble said. He said regulators were focused on facilitating a sale of the dam from Boyce Hydro LLC., which insisted for years it didn’t have money for repairs, to the Four Lakes Task Force, a group of lakeside property owners who planned to repair Boyce’s four mid-Michigan dams. “If the flood would have waited a couple years, the dam probably could have handled it,” Trumble said. For weeks after the failure, he worked 16-hour days, traveling from his home in Lansing to a Midland emergency operations center as the sun rose, then returning home to continue working late into the night. The experience, Trumble said, has been stressful. In the days after the failure, with Midland still underwater, evacuees returning to find homes destroyed, and questions swirling about how the dam failed and who is to blame, Trumble recalled helping a stranded driver change a flat tire. It felt like a blessing, he told Bridge. “Something controllable,” he said, amid a disaster that had plunged his world into chaos. Years of low funding The plan to add an inspector to the small state dam safety unit is likely the first of many proposed changes designed to bolster Michigan’s dam safety in response to Edenville. While an independent investigation team works to determine what caused Edenville’s failure and who is responsible — a process that could take 18 months — the Association of State Dam Safety Officials https://damsafety.org/ ) will conduct an independent review of the dam safety program.

Luke Trunblr, MI EGLI (left) talks to Mile Hinkel (Huron-Clinton Metroparks) about condition of their dams


14

A state release Thursday said the review will “recommend ways to improve the performance and management of the program and evaluate its mission, objectives, and policies and procedures.” A task force of state and federal officials, local governments and others will build upon that report to recommend their own fixes. Funding and staffing in Trumble’s unit, which is far lower per-dam than the national average, is likely to be a part of the discussion. Michigan’s dam safety unit budget in 2018 was just under $400,000. That works out to about $374 on regulation per dam. The average state spends $695 per dam in safety regulation, said Jacob Rushlow, Michigan section president for the American Society of Civil Engineers. Trumble said he welcomes suggestions for how the unit can improve. But, he added, “for only two inspectors, we do a pretty good job.” Every one of Michigan’s state-managed dams must be inspected every three to five years. It would be difficult for the state’s two inspectors to keep up with the workload. So the state requires the owners of Michigan’s 803 state-regulated private dams to hire their own consultants to inspect the structures. Trumble and Dan DeVaun, his colleague in northern Michigan, are available to inspect any of the 350 publicly-owned dams under their jurisdiction at the owner’s request. Trumble estimated about half of them take the state up on the offer. Another 1,370 smaller dams are not regulated at all, and 92 fall under federal oversight. On a recent round of inspections this month at four smaller dams in southeast Michigan, Trumble paced the grassy embankments, looking for irregularities in their slope, as well as damp spots or wetland plants that could indicate the dam is leaking. He documented his findings in photographs, which he’ll compile along with a written report, sending it all to the dam owner with a list of recommended actions. This time, Trumble’s recommendations were minimal: Keep vegetation mowed on the embankment. Monitor some minor erosion in an area where anglers have cut a boot path down to the reservoir. Keep an eye on some minor blemishes in the dam’s concrete. When state inspectors identify a problem, they alert the owner and direct them to make repairs. But because many dam owners lack money for repairs and maintenance, Trumble sometimes finds himself flagging the same problem repeatedly over multiple inspections. “The typical dam owner wants to do the right thing,” Trumble said. “Fining is sometimes counter-productive because it takes money away from the repairs.” ‘There’s no ‘Easy’ button’ The state’s decision-making process at Edenville underscores a fundamental obstacle to quickly addressing dam safety problems: Inspectors can cite dam owners who refuse to comply, but can only step in and order repairs unilaterally if a dam’s deficiencies pose an imminent danger. Trumble said the problem must be so dire that the dam could fail at any moment. He has taken unilateral action a handful of times, on small dams where the fix cost a few thousand dollars or less. In some cases, it required no money at all — just staff time to remove the stop logs holding back small reservoirs. The problems at Edenville, he said, weren’t dire enough to warrant emergency action. And even if they had been, the state has no money for such repairs. “There’s no ‘Easy’ button, or we would have pushed it,” Trumble said. Legislators have historically been reluctant to dedicate more funding to dam safety, despite repeated warnings that without it, failures will become increasingly common. A 2004 policy document from the Department of Environmental Quality (which has since been renamed to EGLE), warned that lack of funding for repair was causing dams to become “seriously degraded.” Instead of boosting funding, lawmakers acting on a budget proposal from then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm eliminated what was then a three-inspector dam safety unit amid budget cuts in 2005. They restored the unit seven months later with two inspectors. In 2007, the Michigan River Partnership, a coalition of government and nonprofit groups, concluded that Michigan needs a dedicated state fund for dam rehabilitation and removal. Nothing came of it, said Mark Coscarelli,


15

a senior policy fellow at Public Sector Consultants who led the effort. “It gets back to the old thing of, what are our priorities in the public policy arena?” Coscarelli said. “It’s health care, it’s criminal justice, and then you’ve got some boring old dams.”

iThis compilation of articles and other information is provided at no cost for those interested in hydropower, dams, and water resources issues and development, and should not be used for any commercial or other purpose. Any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment from those who have an interest in receiving this information for non-profit and educational purposes only.

Documents

Some Dam Hydro Newsnpdp.stanford.edu/./sites/default/files/other... · OLSON: This infrastructure that's out there, whether it's, you know, steel or concrete or even earth, it just