Group forms to fight hydro project

Opponents of Homer Electric Association’s proposed hydroelectric project on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula have formed a new nonprofit organization to fight it.

Kenai River Watershed Foundation Inc. believes HEA’s Grant Lake project, as well as past hydropower proposals, “threaten to industrialize the headwaters of the Kenai River.”

The river is famed for its trophy salmon fishing.

“The Kenai River Watershed is a natural economic engine and one of the most valuable public resources in Alaska,” said a June 28 press release from the new nonprofit. “HEA does not recognize the inviolate, traditional public value of the Kenai River. The integrity of the Kenai River cannot be compromised for reckless renewable energy public relations credit.”

The foundation vows to push a wide range of initiatives including “protective legislation.”

The group plans to offer “objective, unbiased” information on a website, SavetheKenai.org, and says a Kenai River Watershed Defense Fund also is being established.

State records list Robert Baldwin, Willard Stockwell and Edward Holsten, all of Cooper Landing, and Michael Cooney of Moose Pass as directors of the Kenai River Watershed Foundation. HEA’s Kenai Hydro LLC, in a May 3 filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said it plans to file a license application for the Grant Lake hydro project in September 2011.

The project would involve building a dam to raise the level of the mountain lake near Moose Pass. Water would be withdrawn and sent down a tunnel to a powerhouse to generate 4.5 megawatts.

HEA, which currently buys all its power wholesale from Anchorage-based Chugach Electric Association, has said it wants to develop its own generation capacity and sees Grant Lake as potentially a small part of its supply mix.

—Wesley Loy