Little Support For Hydropower At Falls
The following article by Cristof Traudes appeared in the December 7, 2009 issue of the Downtown Journal:
LITTLE SUPPORT FOR HYDROPOWER AT FALLS
When the new Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is seated next month, one of the first tasks it will have is to decide whether to further research construction of a hydroelectric power plant at St. Anthony Falls — and whether it would be feasible as a publicly owned municipal utility.
Park Board commissioners share a consensus that a privately owned power plant at the falls — essentially, the long-stalled, controversial Crown Hydro project — simply wouldn’t work. But the board also has a sustainability goal to get the parks system “off the grid,” or make it entirely energy self-sufficient. Park Board research shows hydropower would be less expensive an alternative energy source than wind and solar.
In October, board staff performed a small online survey to test the waters on public ownership. The response: still not much support, Planning Director Judd Rietkerk said.
One of the key reasons people have opposed the Crown Hydro project is because they are worried it would cause St. Anthony Falls to run dry. Under public ownership, the Park Board would be responsible for tracking and controlling the falls’ flow rate, but that didn’t change respondents’ approval levels.
Rietkerk said a hydro plant at St. Anthony Falls — in whatever form — is generally not supported.
Still, the board came close at its Dec. 2 regular meeting to voting on a resolution that would have had it declare support for “public ownership of a hydro facility in Mill Ruins Park” and encourage “the next board to acquire the rights of water use, and authorization and resources to complete construction.”
Commissioner Jon Olson, who will be a member of the next board and who introduced the resolution, said it wouldn’t have bound the board to constructing a hydropower facility. Rather, it would have allowed for further research to better gauge feasibility.
But the resolution’s late appearance — it wasn’t seen by most other commissioners until a half hour into the meeting — sunk it. A vote was postponed until January.