Your PUD
News Release
Chelan County PUD celebrates 70 years of public power service
Chelan County PUD
News Release
9/25/2006
Public power utilities across the nation celebrate the heritage of service every year in October. Chelan County PUD, created by a vote of the people in 1936, will also celebrate its 70th anniversary during the annual observance of Public Power Week, Oct. 2-6.
“We are honored to have served our customer-owners for 70 years and look forward to continuing the legacy of public power in Chelan County for years to come,” said Rich Riazzi, PUD general manager. “Chelan County PUD remains dedicated to the principles of public power and community service.”
Coffee and cupcakes will be served as part of the celebration during business hours at the PUD’s offices in Chelan, Leavenworth and Wenatchee each day during the week.
Public power got its start in Washington state in 1930 with passage of Initiative No. 1 by a vote of the people, which provided the authority to form public utility districts. In 1936, Chelan County citizens voted to create Public Utility District No. 1 and named the first commissioners: Charles F. Keiser, W.K. McKenzie and Gust Zacker.
The PUD offered its first electric service to 10 customers in the Antoine Creek area near Chelan in1947 and acquired the distribution system of what was then Puget Sound Power and Light Co. in 1948.
By 1951, with war looming and the demand for aluminum increasing, the PUD leased part of Rock Island Dam from Puget and added six generators to Powerhouse 1 to supply the new Wenatchee Works Alcoa plant. The PUD purchased the Lake Chelan Dam and power plant from Washington Water Power (now Avista) in 1955; purchased Rock Island Dam from Puget in 1956 and the same year started construction on Rocky Reach Dam.
The utility added four more generators to Rocky Reach Dam in 1971 and in 1979 completed the second powerhouse at Rock Island Dam, installing eight horizontal bulb turbines.
Between 1978 and 1995, the utility built 14 parks along the Columbia River and Lake Chelan. The PUD helped start the Regional Water System in 1980 and began construction of a fiber-optic communications backbone in 1999. The innovative juvenile fish bypass at Rocky Reach was completed in 2003.
Rehabilitation of the generating units at Rocky Reach Dam will be finished in 2007; modernization of units in the first powerhouse at Rock Island has begun, and plans are being made to modernize the units at the Chelan powerhouse.
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Kimberlee Craig
Public Information Officer
509-661-4320, office
509-679-6858, mobile
kimc@chelanpud.org