May 23. 2008 - LIHI Receives Re-Certification Application for HEDC’s Black Creek Project (LIHI Certification No. 6)
LIHI Receives Re-Certification Application for HEDC’s Black Creek Project (LIHI Certification No. 6)
Portland, Maine – (May 23, 2008) – Today, the Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI) announced that they received a Re-Certification application from Hydro Energy Development Corporation (HEDC), for their Black Creek Hydropower Project. The project is located on a tributary of the North Fork Snoqualmie River (above Snoqualmie Falls) approximately 30 miles east of Seattle and 5 miles northeast of the city of North Bend.
The project is a run-of-river facility (inflows equal outflows on an instantaneous basis). The project includes an 8 foot high, 46 foot long diversion dam that diverts Black Creek into a buried pipeline. The pipeline is 6,130 feet long and runs down a steep slope to the project powerhouse. The diversion creates a bypassed reach of the natural stream channel of about 1 mile. The estimated average annual flow in Black Creek is approximately 25 cubic feet per second (cfs).
The project provides a minimum instream flow in the bypassed reach of 5.4 cfs when operating. The project runs about nine months of the year, and does not operate in the late summer and early fall when the natural flow in the stream is too low to maintain operations and the minimum instream flow. The project discharges water into an unnamed tributary just above a 100 foot waterfall that drops into the North Fork of the Snoqualmie River less than a quarter mile downstream of the confluence of Black Creek and the NF Snoqualmie.
The project is located within timberland owned by the Weyerhaeuser Company and the area is in various stages of regrowth following clear cut logging activities. There are no salmon species in Black Creek, as upstream passage in the North Fork Snoqualmie is blocked by Snoqualmie Falls (268 feet high). Cutthroat trout are found in Black Creek above the diversion area, but are not located in the steep section of the creek below the diversion area.
SUMMARY
• Facility location: Black Creek, Washington, approx. 30 miles east of Seattle
• Installed capacity: 3.7 MW
• Average annual generation: about 10,000 MWh
• Year FERC license issued: 1988 (FERC No. 6221)
• Applicant: Hydro Energy Development Corporation
• Applicant contact: Mike Richardson, President (253) 476-6432
• Date application posted to website: May 23, 2008
• Date public comment period on application closes: July 23, 2008
• Tentative date for certification decision: August/September 2008
PUBLIC COMMENT
We encourage public comments on this application. Specifically, we are interested in knowing whether you think the Black Creek project meets our Low Impact criteria. Review the program and criteria in greater detail, and then review the Black Creek application. Comments that are directly tied to specific Low Impact criteria (flows, water quality, fish passage, etc) will be most helpful, but all comments will be considered.
Comments may be submitted to the Institute by e-mail (preferred) at info@lowimpacthydro.org with "Black Creek comments" in the subject line; by fax at (207)-773-8190; or by mail addressedto LIHI, 34 Providence Street, Portland, Maine, 04103. Comments must be receivedat the Institute on or before 5 pm pacific time on Monday, June 9, 2003 to be considered. All comments will be posted to the web site and the applicant will have an opportunity to respond.Any response will also be posted. |