River advocates fear new law harms rivers
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By MADELINE BODIN Herald Correspondent - Published: December 27, 2005
Buried deep in the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 are a handful of provisions with the potential to affect the health of Vermont's rivers for years to come.
Specifically, the provisions change the process through which hydroelectric dams are relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Hydro power is a renewable energy source, but its generation also blocks fish passage up and down rivers. Dams may also create sudden changes in water levels that erode river banks, create an unnaturally slow-moving stretch of water upstream of the dam and reduce water levels below.
Conditions that lessen a dam's negative impact are often required in the dam's relicensing by FERC.
Vermont has 38 hydroelectric dams subject to relicensing by FERC and 100 or more hydro power dams overall, said Rod Wentworth, a fisheries biologist with Vermont Fish and Wildlife, but many of those are exempt from the relicensing process.
The 38 dams does not include the six Connecticut River dams, which are officially in New Hampshire and which will also be affected by the new law.
"It weakens the involvement of the other parties in the relicensing process, particularly the federal resource agencies," David Deen said of the new law.
Deen is the Vermont and New Hampshire Connecticut River steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Council. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service are examples of federal resource agencies.
Deen is concerned that the new law creates a loophole in National Environmental Policy Act for renewable energy projects.
"It's been the bedrock of environmental protection since the '70s," he says, but the National Environmental Policy Act may no longer apply to the smallest hydro power generation projects, including most of those in Vermont.
The new law also allows hydro dam owners to build less expensive fish passages instead of using the designs recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The fish passages were once a mandatory part of the dam license renewal. Now the effectiveness of the cheaper solution will be decided on in a trial-like hearing.
"The rules create new opportunities for industry to question and weaken future measures," Wentworth said.
River advocates such as Robbin Marks, director of hydro power licensing reform for American Rivers, based in Washington, D.C., are afraid that federal resources agencies, state resource agencies and groups like hers will not have the time or the money to argue for the benefit of fish and river health in a hearing that, by law, can take no longer than 90 days.
Hearings will now also determine if a particular hydro project interferes with the designated use of federal land, such as recreation or forestry in a national forest.
Dam licenses are usually valid for 50 years, Marks said, so the relicensing process for a dam is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to improve the health of the affected river.
While the federal regulations accompanying the new law took effect on Nov. 17, Vermonters will not feel much effect for years.
The Canaan dam, on the Connecticut River, is up for renewal in 2009, although the relicensing process is already under way. The next hydro power dam license to expire in Vermont comes up for renewal in 2012.
The public comment period on the federal rules closes Jan. 16.
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