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Relicensing The Heart of The SWP EDITOR’S NOTE: person standing atop Oroville Dam finds that the earth’s curvature restricts his or her view of the vast area of California that depends on water stored in Lake Oroville. The dam and reservoir are part of DWR’s Oroville-Thermalito Complex in southern Butte County and the heart of the State Water Project (SWP). Not many individuals are aware that DWR’s federal license to operate the heart of the SWP, also known as Project No. 2100, must be renewed by Jan. 31, 2007. The licensing authority is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates nonfederal hydroelectric projects. Hydroelectric projects? If few are aware that DWR’s hydropower license is expiring, probably even fewer associate Oroville Dam with electricity. While the SWP’s main business is water, it takes a lot of power to move water to its destinations in Northern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast and Southern California. “The SWP is California’s largest consumer of electricity,” noted Viju Patel, DWR Executive Manager, Power Systems. “Because we produce much of the power ourselves (DWR purchases some power), we can keep our water delivery rates to our contractors affordable.” Deep beneath Oroville Dam is the Edward Hyatt Powerplant. Housed in a cavern carved out of bedrock, Hyatt’s six generators can produce enough electricity to light the city of San Francisco. The combined Hyatt plant and Thermalito Powerplant generate about 2.2 billion kilowatt-hours in an average water year, while the Thermalito Diversion Dam Powerplant contributes another 24 million kilowatt-hours. DWR also produces electricity from hydropower plants along the California Aqueduct and is part-owner of the coal-fired Reid Gardner Powerplant near Las Vegas. In short, DWR is a major producer as well as consumer of power and its hydroelectric operations cannot be separated from the SWP. Project No. 2100 is a hydroelectric as well as a water storage facility. So, FERC relicensing is required. Patel, the man spearheading DWR’s relicensing effort, knows that the process will be expensive, time-consuming, and challenging. But he believes that it also will be rewarding. “We will have the opportunity to document the benefits of the Oroville facilities and the SWP in general,” Patel said. “It will be made clear to everyone that our project serves the public interest.” Project No. 2100 facilities were originally licensed in 1957. Since then, FERC has given increased consideration to environmental and other non-power impacts of projects. When licenses are renewed, typical conditions include instream flow requirements for fish protection and recreational enhancement requirements. “Everything will be looked at,” Patel said. “Instream flows, water temperature, recreational facilities, project impacts on Indian tribes, fish hatchery operations, everything.” Federal and State wildlife and natural resource agencies, have varying degrees of authority under the FERC process to impose license conditions. “But don’t forget that we routinely consult with these agencies,” Patel said. “Many of the people sitting across the table from us will be familiar faces.” Among those across the table will be the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), State Water Resources Control Board, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, and U.S. Forest Service. DWR’s files of correspondence and agreements with these and other regulatory agencies will grow even fatter between now and 2007, but the issues will be familiar. Water quality, delta smelt, steelhead, chinook salmon, recreation, watershed management — all will be subjects of new rounds of discussion and study. Recreation on and around Lake Oroville is being given a fresh look by DWR, which has funded boating, camping, horseback riding, hiking, bicycling, picnicking, and other facilities since construction of Oroville Dam in the 1960s. Many recreational facilities within the Lake Oroville State Recreation Area are administered and operated by the Department of Parks and Recreation. DWR will update recreation plans with input from local government and community organizations. The Feather River Fish Hatchery, operated by DFG with funding from DWR, recently was expanded by DWR. The hatchery, which stocks chinook salmon in Lake Oroville and provides both salmon and steelhead for the Feather River, was made more easily accessible to persons with disabilities, and was provided with disease-preventing fish quarantine facilities. Studies are ongoing to achieve the optimum mix of sport fish in Lake Oroville, which offers fishing for salmon, bass, catfish, mackinaw, sturgeon, and brown trout. DWR has held preliminary discussions with representatives of Oroville-area Indian tribes, who have an interest in Oroville-Thermalito Complex operations. The Department has been working with the Oroville Area Chamber of Commerce to publicize local attractions and a new DWR web site (http://wwwdwr.water.ca.gov/LakeOroville) features recreational and sightseeing opportunities around Lake Oroville. “The Department has not been idle,” Patel said. “We want to be good neighbors with the people of the Oroville area.” DWR must submit its license application by January of 2005. By then, the Department will have conducted stakeholder meetings and the voluminous application package will be on FERC’s desk. Even after the application has been filed, stakeholders can continue to negotiate license conditions. DWR hopes that extensive, consensus-seeking discussions with all interested parties will prevent late challenges and secure the Project 2100 license on schedule. If a new, 30-year license is not secured by the deadline, DWR will operate on a year-by-year license extension. This is not a desired option, as relicensing costs would continue accumulating. “At this point, we are getting organized for the effort,” Patel said. “Our relicensing steering committee has been meeting regularly to learn the licensing process and map out our approaches to conducting stakeholder meetings and getting all the rest of the work done as smoothly as possible.” “If I want to emphasize one thing,” Patel said, “it is that the Department is going to make a sincere effort to listen to, work with, and address the concerns of all stakeholders in a very proactive, open process.” DWR will hire a consultant or consultants to help guide the relicensing process, but will rely on its own employees for expertise in most areas. “We have the biologists, engineers, and others already here and working. That’s a big advantage.” It’s too early to put a price tag on DWR’s next license, but the cost will be high. And it is possible that required changes in project operations could make increased costs permanent. “We can just hope for the best,” Patel said. “We have a good project and we look forward to sitting down with everybody who is interested in what we do. People will have a lot more knowledge about the Department and the benefits of the SWP.” FERC and HYDROPOWER Hydroelectric power regulation became the responsibility of the Federal Power Commission, the predecessor of today's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), with passage by Congress of the Federal Water Power Act of 1920. |
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