HYDROELECTRIC PLANT PROPOSAL GETS FIRST BOOST

Mike McCagg

ccSCOOP News

04-16-10 - 12:45 p.m. - A proposal to construct a hydroelectric facility in the Stockport hamlet of Stottville cleared the first federal hurdle this month.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a preliminary permit to Claverack Creek LLC on April 8. The permit allows the company to conduct a feasibility study for the project, which was announced in February at the Stockport Town Board meeting.  A principal in the Ware, Massachusetts-based company, William Fay, had contacted the board prior to the meeting.

Claverack Creek LLC seeks to repower a long-dormant electrical generating operation in the hamlet. The project consists of using the existing 16-foot-high, 170-foot-long Stottville Mill Dam, located under County Route 20/Atlantic Avenue where the road crosses the Claverack Creek, and the existing 305-kilowatt turbine to produce electricity with the aid of a new 145-kilowatt turbine-generator in a new powerhouse. The plan also calls for the construction of a 13.2-kilovolt transmission line, approximately 200 feet long, from the powerhouse to a nearby main distribution line on the grid.

The operation would be the fourth to be constructed and operated by Claverack Creek LLC and would produce about 450 kilowatts of power annually. Fay told ccSCOOP on Thursday that the powerhouse would be constructed on the site of the former powerhouse, using the same foot print, with access to the building from County Route 20. He said the FERC decision gives him three years to complete the review process and finalize the application for the hydroelectric plant. “It takes between 18 months and three years to go through the process with all of the parties—the environmentalists, historical people, everyone with an interest,” said Fay. “Once we complete that, we can finalize the application.”

With final approval, Fay said, it will take another eighteen months to construct the facility and have it operational. The FERC decision states that Claverack Creek LLC should work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to consider development and operations that would be compatible with fish and wildlife resources. The decision is in response to comments issued about the project by the Department of Interior.

Fay discounted statements in the New World Encyclopedia and other sources about the history of the turbine. While those sources state that the turbine at the facility, a Morgan Smith, was constructed in 1869 and installed two years later, making it one of the earliest water wheel installations in the United States, Fay said his records show the turbine was installed in the 1920s. “I have been trying to set the record straight,” Fay stated.