Locally Produced Hydro Power vs. “In-Stream Flows”

The following article describes a classic trade-off situation .  The positive efforts to produce electricity locally (Distributed Generation) via hydro could have serious and long-term negative impacts on availablity of water for a healthly fish population as well as creating water challenges as the Central Oregon population continues to grow.

And, as the article points out, there’s the additional concern that serious self-serving, “good-old-boy”, behind-closed-doors negotiations have been happening and that there’s a specific effort to withhold full disclosure from the public.

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Flushed Away: City hydro project could be a drain on Tumalo Creek
Eric Flowers – the Source Weekly – October 28, 2009

You wouldn’t guess it from the rain soaked streets this week or the water gushing down Tumalo Creek, but there are signs aplenty that the upper Deschutes basin is running out of water to meet the demand of farms, cities and fish – all of which have legal, as well as historical and biological, cases for getting their share of water, especially during the parched summer months.

Recent data indicates that well owners are drilling deeper to hit groundwater, hinting that population growth and other high-intensity uses like golf courses may be negatively impacting the aquifer – something that just a few years ago experts said wasn’t likely to happen under the current rules. Meanwhile, pending applications for new groundwater withdrawals are approaching the ceiling the legislature set up when it crafted a series of special rules to stave off a potential development moratorium.

In the case of Bend, conservation campaigns have done little to curb residents’ thirst. The city still ranks significantly higher than similarly sized cities in the valley for per capita water use. And the city council recently spiked a proposal to address the problem with a tiered-rate structure that would have charged big-time water users more than conservation-minded residents. Still, the city has prided itself on being a leader on the basin’s water issues, working collaboratively with groups like the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, the Deschutes Resource Conservancy (DRC) and the local irrigation districts on river restoration efforts designed to restore habitat and pump up traditionally meager summer flows on the Deschutes River and its tributaries.

That’s why the city’s latest water initiative has left some environmental advocates puzzled. Buried inside Bend’s massive surface water treatment plan, which emerged last month, is an initiative that could more than double the city’s withdrawal from Bridge Creek, potentially wiping out some of the summer and winter flows downstream in Tumalo Creek, a major tributary to the middle Deschutes that has already had millions of dollars invested in restoration efforts to offset the effects of erosion and excessive water withdrawals.

The city has yet to release the exact details of its diversion plan, though a feasibility report was due out last month. One of the major elements of the plan, however, is already raising a cautionary flag with some observers. Specifically, the city is proposing to add a small hydropower project to its water supply when it replaces a pipeline that funnels a sizeable chunk of the city’s drinking water from Bridge Creek to the Outback storage facility. The city estimates that by pushing drinking water through a turbine system before funneling it into the storage tanks, it could generate $1.8 million worth of electricity.

The only problem: nobody, except maybe the city, knows just how much surface water – one of the basin’s most scarce and precious resources – the city would have to divert to meet those estimates. And right now the city isn’t talking. According to the Department of Water Resources, Bend holds certificates for about 36 cubic feet per second (cfs) of surface water in Bridge Creek, or about 16,000 gallons per minute. However, the city diverts only about 14 cfs of that on any given day. The rest of the water is set aside for irrigation and “in-stream” flows – the water that is left in the river for fish and all other manner of life that depend on the river for sustenance.

Juniper Ridge Hydro Project Begins

‘Boom’ begins Juniper Ridge hydro, canal piping project
KTVZ.com news sources – October 12, 2009

A thunderous roar from a small explosive charge marked the official start of construction Monday on the $26 million Juniper Ridge Project, an unprecedented project that will return water supplies to the Deschutes River and generate carbon-free energy.

U.S. Congressman Greg Walden, along with state officials, representatives from the Central Oregon Irrigation District, Deschutes County, the Deschutes River Conservancy and Portland General Electric Company attended the groundbreaking ceremony five miles north of Bend along Highway 97.

Immediately following the ceremony, construction crews began replacing 2.5 miles of open irrigation canal, owned and operated by Central Oregon Irrigation District (COID), with underground steel pipe and an innovative, small hydropower system.

By conserving water supplies previously lost through the porous canal, the Juniper Ridge Project will benefit Deschutes River salmon and reintroduced steelhead.

Approximately 20 cubic-feet per second of water presently diverted from the Deschutes River for irrigation purposes by COID will be permanently returned to the river, increasing instream river flows for fish and wildlife species.

Once the new pipe is in place, a small hydropower unit will be installed in the summer of 2010. This state-of-the-art unit will generate up to 3.37 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity annually, or enough power for roughly 2,000 homes.

Summer Energy News Digest for Central Oregon

Central Oregon News Digest • Summer 2009
Compiled by The Garner Group – August 24, 2009

ENERGY

Hydro plants in the pipeline, literally and figuratively

Federal stimulus grants to two Central Oregon irrigation districts, directed at water conservation, will fund canal piping and construction of small-scale generating plants. The Swalley Irrigation District will receive $2 million to complete enclosing 5.1 miles of its main canal north of Bend, including an 0.75-mW hydro plant near Highway 97. Three Sisters Irrigation District was awarded $1.3 million to initiate a pipeline project that will increase stream flows in Whychus Creek. This project eventually will include a 1.5-mW hydro plant. Both generating plants are “in-conduit” designs that utilize water flow within the pipeline.

County approves wind farm, with conditions

The Crook County planning commission has approved the West Butte Wind Power Project, proposed for a 20-acre site near Millican. Conditions include formation of a technical advisory committee to address wildlife concerns. Access will require a right-of-way permit from the Bureau of Land Management, in turn requiring an environmental impact study. Work on the $220 million project, which will involve from 32 to 54 turbines, is expected to start in spring 2010. The 104-mW project falls below the threshold that would require approval beyond the county level.

La Pine may yet see a biomass power plant

While one company’s plans to build a biomass-fueled power plant in La Pine are on hold, another has moved into the arena. Biogreen Sustainable Energy Co. of St. Helens, Ore., will buy a 10-acre parcel in the La Pine Industrial Park and build a $55-$60 million, 19-mW electricity generating plant fueled by thinnings from private and public forests nearby. The project will support 100 construction jobs and employ 20 people directly upon completion, plus another 80-90 indirect jobs in forestry and transportation. Silvan Power Co. has an option to buy 28 acres in La Pine for a biomass power plant but plans apparently have stalled over fuel availability issues.

Swalley Irrigation District’s Ponderosa Hydro Plant Gets Stimulus Funds

Oregon canal piping projects win stimulus funds
From KTVZ.COM news sources – August 20, 2009

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Thursday that the Bureau of Reclamation has identified two Challenge Grant projects in Central Oregon that will receive a $3.3 million share of $40 million coming to Oregon under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  

Through the Challenge Grant Program’s Water Marketing and Efficiency Grants, Reclamation provides 50/50 cost share funding to states and irrigation and water districts for projects focused on water marketing, conservation and efficiency.  Projects are selected through a competitive process, based on their ability to meet the goal of improving sustainable water supplies in the western United States.  The projects include:

Main Canal Piping Project and Ponderosa Hydro plant, Swalley Irrigation District: $2,058,935 for this three stage/phase project that would complete piping of ¾ miles of canal, the design and construction of a 0.75 megawatt hydropower plant, and a solar telemetry project that would allow the District to use solar power for a system that monitors, measures and controls water.

Hydro Power Project Considered by Three Sisters Irrigation District

While there are a number of important issues addressed in the article, the energy related paragraph reads:

Water saved through piping would also feed a TSID [Three Sisters Irrigation District] hydroelectric plant at Watson Lake. The energy generated by the hydroelectric scheme will be sold to Central Electric Cooperative and provide about $300,000 annual income for the district.

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Piping project draws fire from neighbors
By Jim Anderson – Nugget News – August 11, 2009

Since 1888, Whychus Creek irrigation water has been running through an open ditch east of Sisters. If current plans come to fruition, it will end up in a buried dual 54-inch pipeline instead.

The small pioneering irrigation ditch was enlarged between 1891 and 1920, and eventually became the Three Sisters Irrigation District (TSID) Main Canal, where it looks like a quiet and picturesque mountain stream flowing across 3.8 miles of sagebrush and pine.

The canal begins at the diversion dam in Whychus Creek and terminates in 80-acre Watson Reservoir, on the east side of Highway 20 near the Sisters/Bend KOA campground.

Because of the sandy soils and cracks in the native lava rock substrate that makes up most the geology of the Sisters countryside, about six cubic feet per second of water – and more through evaporation – is lost to irrigators and fishery projects. That amounts to around 7,500,000 gallons of water going somewhere else between April and October, water that could be used in the efforts to reestablish salmon runs in Whychus Creek.

Water saved through piping would also feed a TSID hydroelectric plant at Watson Lake. The energy generated by the hydroelectric scheme will be sold to Central Electric Cooperative and provide about $300,000 annual income for the district.

Renewable Energy Shortcoming: It’s Intermittent

Seeking green power solutions for hazy days
Bend Bulletin – August 2, 2009

Portland General Electric got a lesson in one of the shortcomings of renewable energy last week.

With temperatures above 100 degrees in Portland, the company broke its all-time record for summer power consumption Monday, then again Tuesday, and also on Wednesday.

All the while, the company’s Bigelow Canyon Wind Farm 140 miles east of Portland was producing next to no power. The winds that usually suck cool air up the Columbia River and keep summers mild had ceased, baking Portland and idling the turbines at Bigelow Canyon — just when they were most needed.

If wind and solar are going to play a bigger part in meeting the country’s electrical demand, utilities will need to get faster at reacting every time the wind dies down or a cloud moves in front of the sun. Bend’s PV Powered is working on solving a part of the problem.

The federal government recently awarded the company $3 million to get to work building the machines needed to create a future network of thousands or even millions of small-scale solar generating systems.

The Solar Energy Grid Integration System is an initiative of the Department of Energy that seeks to make solar power cost-competitive with other forms of power generation by 2015. Right now, solar power makes up only a tiny fraction of the total energy consumed in the United States, but that could change quickly if current treends continue.

According to a 2007 Energy Department report, 5 to 10 percent of electricity customers could be using some form of solar power within 10 years if homeowners continue adding solar panels to their homes at the current rate.

Bend to Consider Tumalo Creek Hydro Project

While the jury is out on this idea – there is a scheduled feasibility report due later this summer – it pains CO Renewable that before it is more than an idea the anti-tax folk start a negativity campaign.  The only way Central Oregon – or the nation for that matter – will wean its way off of energy produced outside of our boundaries is to build local power production facilities and incorporate them into a Distributed Generation energy system.  And the only way such a thing can happen is for money to be raised by the eventual users – local taxpayers – via some sort of  tax so these renewable energy projects can be built.

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Bend Considers Building A Hydroelectric Project On Tumalo Creek
By Ethan Lindsey – OPB News – June 10,2009

Many cities and irrigation districts across the state have developed new plans to build small-scale hydroelectric projects.

These aren’t your grandparents’ dams – they are smaller generators — on pipes — that take advantage of the energy in the stream flow.

Status Report on Juniper Ridge Hydroelectric Project

The following is excerpted from the COID Manager’s Report of May 12, 2009:

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Central Oregon Irrigation District Manager’s Report
COID Website – May 12, 2009

The federal economic stimulus package picture continues to develop for COID’s Juniper Ridge Piping and Hydroelectric Project scheduled to begin construction in October 2009.  Several other irrigation districts in Central Oregon also have good chances of their projects receiving some funding also.  The planning and work on water conservation projects over the past few years allowed the irrigation districts to be fully positioned with readily available projects eligible for stimulus funding.  The recently approved federal appropriations of nearly $400,000 for the Deschutes Project will inject available funding for further conservation work.  The Deschutes Basin Board of Control has requested to our congressional delegation for a $5 million appropriation for FY 2010.

The Juniper Ridge Hydroelectric and Piping Project is continuing on schedule.  May 1st was the deadline to receive bids on the project.  As anticipated a total of five (5) bids were deemed complete and officially received.  Review of the bids has commenced with a ranking of the bids completed.  It is anticipated that a project team will be officially selected by the Board of Directors by May 15.  Construction will begin in early October 2009 with completion of the piping by April 2, 2010 and the hydro facility up and running by late summer 2010.

Is Hydro Really “Green” Energy?

Key sentences in this article: “Longtime Oregonians remember when hydro constituted more than 90 percent of the state’s power a few decades ago. [But] now, Oregon gets just 42-percent of its energy from hydroelectric power.”

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Hydropower: It’s Renewable, But Is It Green?
By Ethan Lindsey, OPB News -  May 11, 2009

A federal judge in Portland is considering how the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia Rver interact with salmon.

At the same time, environmentalists continue to push the Obama Administration to remove several of the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.

Hydroelectric power has long been part of the Northwest’s fabled history. In fact, Woody Guthrie wrote a whole album about building the Columbia River dams.

But in our clean energy future, is hydropower really “green” enough?

Hydro power and the Northwest. They’re nearly synonymous, even for people who’ve never heard Guthrie’s “Roll on Columbia.” 

Coal Beats Out Hydro as Northwest Power Source

Even In Hydro-Rich Northwest, Coal Still Major Power Source
BY APRIL BAER – April 13, 2009

Today we begin a series of special reports on energy in the Pacific Northwest: where we get our power from now and what kind of energy we’re likely to switch to in the future.

When you flip the switch, where does your power come from?
And what will power Northwest homes and businesses in the future?
We’re asking these questions and more for our special series The Switch.

A Few Coal Facts : >
> Contribution to current Oregon energy mix — 41%

> Cost per kwh currently — Ranges from $ 0.012 to $ 0.037 This assumes a medium- to long-haul from coal mine to coal-fired power plant. This cost does not reflect the carbon costs that may become a reality within the next few years. Depending on what value regulators assign for coal burning, this could raise the cost per kwh considerably.

> Is this power source renewable? — No

> Is it intermittent or baseload power? — Baseload

The switch is all about reducing the greenhouse  gases that cause climate change, and so we’re kicking off our series with coal — a power source that comes from fossils.

While there’s lots of coal on the planet now, like other fossil fuels, coal is not renewable — when it’s gone, it’s gone.

Coal is also relatively cheap, and it’s abundant — so it won’t be easy to kick the coal habit.

One of the most common misconceptions about Oregon’s power is that it’s practically all nice clean hydroelectric from the Columbia River. But the reality is this.

To turn on their lights, Pacific Northwesterners use about forty percent coal — and about the same amount of hydro, plus a mosaic of other power sources making up the last twenty percent.