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February 2014

Vol. 19, No. 7 Week of February 16, 2014

Susitna team files initial study report

Draft report describes work done in 2013 for Susitna-Watana hydropower project and will enable review of study findings so far

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The project team for the Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project, a planned massive hydropower facility on the upper Susitna River, has filed a draft initial study report with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Alaska Energy Authority, or AEA, announced Feb. 3. The report provides information on project progress and includes a summary of work done in 2013.

“This draft report represents a culmination of the year’s work,” said Wayne Dyok, the manager of the project. “A tremendous amount of information is being collected as part of the Susitna-Watana Hydro field efforts. This field season remained on track and we are proud of the data collected and the continued efforts of our team.”

The project team must obtain a license from FERC before construction of the power station can commence. And, given the likely significant environmental impact of the power station and its proposed 700-foot-high dam, the conducting of environmental studies forms a key component of the license application — information obtained from the studies will be used in developing any necessary environmental protection measures that will be included in the terms of the FERC license.

In 2012 the team filed a plan specifying a total of 58 environmental studies that would be required for the FERC application. And, following FERC approval of this plan, the study program moved ahead.

During the summer of 2013 an estimated 350 people worked in the field, collecting a wealth of environmental data, including information about fish in the Susitna River, the river’s habitat, ice flows, large mammals, game birds, plants and cultural resources, the AEA says.

The project had been due to file an initial study report by Feb. 3, 2014. But in January FERC approved a requested 120-day delay in the project schedule, moving the deadline for the report to June 3. The document that the project has now submitted is a draft version of that study report.

“The 120-day extension was necessary to plan future field efforts,” said Sara Fisher-Goad, AEA executive director. “We listened to stakeholders and wanted to provide ample opportunity for review of information collected this year.”

Stakeholders will now have an opportunity to review the technical information in the report, prior to another 120-day review of the final document, Fisher-Goad said.

Gov. Sean Parnell’s budget for the 2015 fiscal year includes only $10 million of the estimated $110 million required to complete the environmental studies and prepare a FERC license application. As a consequence, AEA is moving the majority of the 2014 fieldwork to 2015 and will prioritize winter work required in early 2014, Dyok said in early January.

According to the project’s 2013 report to the Alaska Legislature, Parnell indicated that a lack of progress in obtaining land-access agreements for the project with Alaska Native corporations had driven the relatively low funding level in the budget. The report to the Legislature says that AEA anticipates finalizing the access agreements during the first quarter of 2014.

The Susitna-Watana project should be capable of meeting about half of the Alaska’s Railbelt’s electrical demand and is an essential component of a state strategy to generate at least 50 percent of the state’s power using renewable energy resources.






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