Reprinted with permission from the Feb 18, 1998 Lake Chelan Mirror, written by Richard Uhlhorn.
RE-LICENSING BEGINS FOR CHELAN DAM
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION TO VISIT CHELAN
Jim Huffman and Gregg Carrington briefed the Lake Chelan Water Quality Advisory Committee on the process Chelan County PUD will go through to relicense the Chelan Dam on Wednesday, February 4. Carrington is the Relicensing Project Manager and Huffman is the Environmental Coordinator. Huffman reported that Michelle Smith will handle all relicensing communications.
Huffman gave a short history of the Chelan Dam and why the Federal Power Commission (now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) felt that their licensing jurisdiction extended to Lake Chelan. The dam was completed in 1928.
In 1955, the Chelan County PUD acquired the Chelan facility from Washington Water Power (WWP), but had a contract to supply power from the facility back to WWP, who then sold it back to Chelan.
In 1974, the Chelan project was one of the first projects in the country that was up for relicensing. The PUD filed their relicensing application in 1976 and was granted a new license in 1981. "Until then, the commission gave us annual licenses," said Huffman.
Under current federal licensing regulations, any hydroelectric project that is licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is required to notify their intention to obtain a new license five years prior to the old FERC license lapsing. The actual relicensing application for the Chelan Hydroelectric Project must be submitted two years prior to the expiration date which is 2004. "It is a process only a true bureaucrat could love," said Huffman.
In 1986, the Electric Consumers Protection Act took away FERC preference to publicly owned utilities and gave equal weight to investor owned utilities including non-generating investor owned utilities which means that any utility purveyor could bid for the Chelan project.
In the fall of 1997, the PUD opted to adopt an Alternative Relicensing Procedure which allows them to deal with all the local entities. "You have to apply and then identify the stake holders," remarked Huffman. The stakeholders must be in agreement with the PUD in order for FERC to allow the alternative procedure. "Our stakeholders, like the Forest Service, have agreed to collaborate," said Huffman. Over the next seven years, the PUD will hold informational meetings with the public to discover issues and resolve them. "We see several advantages," stated Huffman. "It keeps the decision making local instead of sending it off to someone who doesn't know the area," he said. Huffman stated that the PUD will use some new and innovative ways to disseminate information. The PUD will use their web page (http://www.chelanpud.org) to disperse information and will also write information on the relicensing process on CD Rom disks that can be sent out to stakeholders. Carrington said, "There were 48 inches (four feet) of documents last time the project was re-licensed. We hope to reduce that, said Carrington.
The actual process will take the PUD about two years to complete. FERC representatives will be in Chelan County on April 15. They will hold a meeting in Wenatchee with the various public agencies concerned with relicensing, go on a site tour of the Rocky Reach and Chelan Hydroelectric Projects in the afternoon and then hold an open forum meeting with the community of Chelan that evening at a location and time to be announced later. The PUD expects to file their application for relicensing on May 1 after which there will be about three years of studies to complete the process.
Asked if the relicensing is open to competitors, Carrington replied that technically competitors could file their application for the license two years prior to 2004. "But, they have to show they went through the consultation stages." There has never been an instance in the United States where a competitor for a license has gone to FERC and received that license according to Carrington.
The PUD expects to turn in a draft application and environmental survey in 2001 and then a final relicensing application in March of 2002. "We will then hold our breath," said Huffman.
The PUD is not concerned. "We feel we have been good stewards of the resource," stated Huffman. "We have not only provided electricity, but recreational opportunities as well....and we have kept the cost of electricity down. We believe we can keep it that way."
Carrington told the Water Quality Advisory Committee that water quality was one of the large issues and that they would appreciate any input that the committee could offer. PUD Commissioner and chairman of the advisory committee Jim Wall said, "This project has a large effect on rates because all the power generated is used right here."