LIHI Certificate # 27- West Branch St. Regis Project, West Branch St. Regis River, New York

BROOKFIELD'S WEST BRANCH ST. REGIS HYDROPOWER PROJECT ACHIEVES LOW IMPACT STATUS IN DECEMBER 2005

                                      

Portland, Maine (December 2, 2010) – LIHI is pleased to announce that Brookfield Renewable Power has submitted an application for Re-Certification of its West Branch St. Regis River Hydroelectric  Project on the West Branch St. Regis River in, New York.  

Public Comments

We encourage public comments on this application. Specifically, we are interested in knowing whether you think the West Branch St. Regis River Hydroelectric Project meets our LIHI criteria. Review the program and criteria in greater detail and then review the West Branch St. Regis River Hydroelectric Project’s application. Comments that are directly tied to specific LIHI 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 at info@lowimpacthydro.org  with " West Branch St. Regis River Hydroelectric Project comments" in the subject line; by fax at (206) – 984-3086; or by mail addressed to LIHI, 34 Providence Street, Portland, ME, 04103. Comments must be received at the Institute on or before 5 pm Eastern time on February 2, 2011 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.

 NOTE - FOR ADDITIONAL AND MORE CURRENT INFORMATION, PLEASE CLICK ON THE "PENDING APPLICATIONS" TAB AND OPEN THE "LIHI PENDING APPLICATION ---(FERC NO. 10461) WEST BRANCH ST. REGIS HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT ST. REGIS RIVER, NY."

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PORTLAND, ME – (April 30, 2007) –  The Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI) announced today that at their April 26, 2007 Board Meeting, Brookfield Power Corporation’s West Branch St. Regis Hydroelectric Project earned LIHI’s Low Impact  Certification. 

 On March 7, 2005, Brookfield Energy, formally Brascan Power NY, filed an application for certification of its 6.8 megawatt (MW) West Branch St. Regis Hydroelectric Project. The project produces an annual average generation of 34,730 megawatt-hours (MWH). The applicant operates the project in a pulsing mode. The project consists of the Parishville development and the Allens Falls development.

The West Branch of the St. Regis River originates in ponds near Saranac Lake, New York, flowing approximately 35 miles to the Parishville impoundment, then an additional 20 miles to its junction with the St. Regis River, which in turn enters the St. Lawrence River 20 miles further downriver.

The Parishville and Allens Falls developments were originally built in the 1920s, but were required to obtain a license only after a 1988 finding by FERC that the West Branch of the St. Regis River is a navigable waterway. The developments’ owner at the time, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, applied for separate licenses for each development in 1990. The upstream Parishville development discharges into the Allens Falls development impoundment, and the two are operated in an integrated fashion in a storage-and-release pulsing mode. In its 2001 license order FERC granted the request of Erie Boulevard Hydropower, Niagara Mohawk’s successor, to consolidate the developments into one project. Brascan Power NY is the current owner of Erie Boulevard Hydropower.

The Parishville development consists of a dam, a 70-acre reservoir, a 2,561-foot-long penstock, a powerhouse housing a 2.4-MW turbine/generator unit, a 4,175 foot bypass reach, a 4.8-kV transmission line, and associated facilities. The Allens Falls development consists of a concrete gravity-type dam, a 108-acre reservoir, a 9,344-foot-long pipeline, a surge tank, an 886-foot-long penstock, a powerhouse housing a 4.4-MW turbine/generator unit, a 13,700 foot bypass reach, a 2.4-mile-long 115-kV transmission line, and associated facilities.

 According to the FWS, the West Branch of the St. Regis River supports a mixed cool water-warm water fishery, with the more abundant game species being brook trout, brown trout, smallmouth bass, and rock bass. The Settlement Agreement describes the project area as being located “in an area of transition between cold water fisheries in the headwaters (Adirondack Mountain Region) and the cool/warm water fisheries downstream (St. Lawrence River Lowlands)” with “[s]everal significant waterfalls…within the Project’s footprint which historically limited migration between these two regions.” 

The FERC license for the Project was achieved through the use of a settlement agreement amongst the parties. The Settlement incorporates agreements reached among the parties with regard to the Parishville and Allens Falls developments. The parties provide in the settlement agreement recommended terms and conditions for the resolution of operational, fisheries, wildlife, water quality, and recreational issues raised by and analyzed by the parties as they are applicable to the issuance of a license and water quality certification for the West Branch St. Regis River Hydroelectric Project's Parishiville and Allens Falls developments.

The Settlement Agreement further notes that both impoundments contain and are managed for predominantly warm water fisheries, but that the bypass reaches below each are intended, in the case of the upstream Parishville project, “to be managed as a mixed coldwater/warmwater fishery to the extent practical,” and in the case of the Allens Falls project, “as a coldwater fishery.” For these reasons, state and federal fisheries managers do not want to encourage fish movement between the developments beyond that which already existed at the time of licensing. The natural Allens Falls represent a historic barrier to anadromous fish passage up the West Branch St. Regis River.

Highlights of the Settlement Agreement:  The FERC license provisions reflect the terms and conditions of a settlement agreement entered into by the applicant and the Adirondack Mountain Club, American Rivers, American Whitewater, the New York State Conservation Council, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), New York Rivers United, St. Lawrence County, the Town of Parishville, Trout Unlimited, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The provisions include “mitigation and protections measures to increase habitat gains for fish communities, the potential for benthic invertebrate and forage fish production increases, enhanced fish movement and fishing opportunities, increased habitat for riparian vegetation, wetland and wildlife resources, the reduction of the vulnerability of fish to illegal poaching, increased recreational access, enhanced awareness of cultural resources, and the establishment of a river advisory council and enhancement fund.” The Settlement Agreement contains other binding provisions that are not included in the FERC license related to public access and recreation, including the requirement to transfer a parcel of land to the Town of Parishville.

 

The most significant element of the Settlement Agreement is the restoration of flows to the bypassed reaches below each development that had been periodically dewatered for decades, returning both to functional year-round river reaches and creating the possibility of restoring a permanent fishery. The provisions on daily and seasonal impoundment fluctuations are designed to maintain existing shallow water littoral and wetland habitat while preserving the required instream flows to the bypassed reaches. The Settlement Agreement also includes a focus on maintaining and somewhat improving public access to the project areas for recreation, and provides for the establishment of a St. Regis River Fund to underwrite natural resource protection and restoration projects, as well as recreation projects; the fund is overseen by a new West Branch St. Regis River Advisory Committee (SRRAC).

SUMMARY

The Parishville development consists of a dam, a 70-acre reservoir, a 2,561-foot-long penstock, a powerhouse with a 2.4 MW turbine/generator unit, and a 4.8 kilovolt (kV) transmission line.  The Allens Falls development consists of a dam, a 108-acre reservoir, a 9,344-foot-long penstock, a powerhouse with a 4.4 MW turbine/generator unit, and a 2.4-mile long, 115 kV transmission line. 

The initial certification for the West Branch St. Regis Project was issued in December 2005 with an effective date of August 29, 2005. LIHI received no public comments on the application. The certification’s effective date is August 29, 2005. The certification of the West Branch St. Regis Project facility is valid for five years and will expire on August 29, 2010.  

 

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