Brookfield Renewable Power seeks re-certification of the West Branch St. Regis Hydroelectric Project, St. Regis River, NY
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.
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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.”