Autumn colors surround the Green River Reservoir in Hyde Park. Photo by Richard Levine/Stowe Reporter
Editor’s note: This article is by Andrew Martin, of the Stowe Reporter, in which it was first published May 12, 2016.
Despite sparring between the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and Morrisville Water & Light, both organizations have the same view of the Green River Reservoir State Park: It needs to stay open.
“That park is a gem and we want to see it continue to thrive,” said Trey Martin, deputy secretary of the state agency.
Vermont has dozens of state parks, but Green River stands out for many paddlers and campers, and state officials know that.
The sparring over the reservoir began months ago, when the state told the Morrisville utility it had to stop draining the water level during the winter. The dam at the reservoir is a hydropower station for the Morrisville utility, and the state’s approach would cut the amount of electricity produced by the dam by nearly a third, about 300,000 kilowatt-hours. That’s enough to power about 30 average Vermont homes.
Utility officials aren’t sure it will make sense financially to keep operating the dam if they lose that much generating power.
They also worry the dam may not be strong enough to stand up to heavy spring runoff if the reservoir isn’t drained in the winter.
Given those two concerns, the utility wondered if it should simply drain the reservoir for good.
That possibility brought the two sides to the negotiating table. In the next few weeks, they will hold a meeting with several other interested groups, including the Department of Forest and Parks, the Friends of the Green River Reservoir and a local whitewater rafting group.
The meeting’s purpose is to figure out how to preserve the reservoir if Morrisville Water & Light can’t afford to maintain the dam by itself.
The utility should have more answers on the dam’s economic future and its safety issues within the next month. It hired an engineering firm to look into the dam’s finances for the next 30 years, and the firm will also explore any safety issues.
“We need to look at the numbers. I’m guessing there will be more costs incurred than revenues received,” said Craig Myotte, general manager at the utility. “How do we justify operating something that is losing money?”
“We need to get an answer as quickly as possible,” Myotte said. “We may focus on the economics now and then look at the safety issues after.”
Myotte hopes other groups that care about the reservoir might be able to contribute some money to preserve the dam.
“We want to explain our position and what the financial needs are, so the other parties might be able to make some kind of contribution to allow us to keep operating in this new way,” Myotte said.
“We are eager to sit down with Morrisville to see what can be done. We need to think outside the box,” Martin said.
Martin also said the state doesn’t normally help utilities operate dams. The fact that this dam comes with a state park attached does change the equation a bit, though.
“We care deeply about the preservation of the park,” Martin said. “If we can help in a way that fits in with our budget and how we operate the park, we would certainly like to do that.”
One person coming to the upcoming meeting is Christine Hallquist. She owns the sole house on the reservoir and also happens to be chief executive officer of the Vermont Electric Cooperative in Johnson.
Hallquist questions the safety of the agency’s decision to force Morrisville not to drain the reservoir in the winter.
“I’m not sure on a solution, but I understand the dilemma for Morrisville Water & Light,” Hallquist said. She added that before Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, the federal government ordered all utilities to drain reservoirs so they could better hold back flood waters. The same idea applies to what Morrisville does with Green River every winter.
“The limitations don’t seem to make sense. You don’t want to put communities downstream at risk,” Hallquist said. “If it’s not economically viable, why do it?”
Myotte hopes a final decision can be reached by the end of June on what happens with the reservoir.
The post State, Morrisville utility wrangle over Green River Reservoir appeared first on VTDigger.