Preparing for the NEXT CENTURY - Eugene Water & Electric Board

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10 EWEB: PREPARING FOR THE NEXT CENTURY Focus on relicensing The McKenzie River is many things to many people: recreational boating, an outstanding wild trout and salmon fishery, scenic beauty that attracts tourists from around the world, and a source of renewable hydroelectric power. Eugene Water & Electric Board operates hydroelectric projects at Leaburg and Walterville on the lower McKenzie River, and at Carmen-Smith on the upper section of the river, under licenses from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. These licenses are designed to balance energy production with other uses of the river resource. EWEB currently is completing improvements directed by a new license for the Leaburg-Walterville Hydroelectric Project that the utility received in 2001. In November, EWEB also will file a new license application for its Carmen- Smith Hydroelectric Carmen Powerhouse. Project. Both of these relicensing efforts have involved citizens, river users and government agencies in helping to determine what environmental, recreational and other improvements should be made to each project. The new Leaburg-Walterville license, for example, included a new fish ladder, fish screens, higher flows in the river, and other actions to mitigate the project’s impacts on salmon, steelhead and other species. Over the next year, recreational enhancements will be added in and around Leaburg Dam and Lloyd Knox Water Board Park. Each improvement carries a cost that must be weighed Fishermen put into the McKenzie below Leaburg Dam.. against the benefits of producing power for the next halfcentury. “During the (Leaburg- Walterville) relicensing process, we received requests from other river users to improve the McKenzie,” says EWEB Relicensing Manager Gale Banry. “With those improvements came costs, and our challenge was to balance those improvements and costs with maintaining the lowest rates to our customers.” Now EWEB will be seeking a new license to operate the Carmen-Smith project for the next 30 to 50 years. Built in 1963, Carmen- Smith is the utility’s largest generation facility, with enough power to supply 16,000 homes. Most of this power is produced at a cost well below the historic market price for electricity. Relicensing Carmen-Smith won’t be cheap, but Upper McKenzie River. EWEB believes the cost of relicensing will be less than what it would be to purchase that power on the wholesale market over the next halfcentury. And as with Leaburg-Walterville, the bulk of the cost of relicensing Carmen-Smith will make the facility more fish-friendly. A number of recreational improvements also are planned. “Our goal in relicensing the Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project is to reduce the impacts of our projects on the river while maintaining a low-cost energy resource for our customers,” says Banry. “The role of a public utility is to serve the public, and that’s what we will strive to do.” BRYAN WESEL BRYAN WESEL

EWEB: PREPARING FOR THE NEXT CENTURY 11 Focus on water quality For nearly 100 years, Eugene area residents have enjoyed some of the besttasting and safest water in the world. Eugene Water & Electric Board water is so clean, in fact, that Organic Style Magazine named Eugene’s water the best in the nation. The McKenzie River is the sole source of drinking water for nearly 200,000 Eugenearea residents who are supplied with water by EWEB. Water is drawn out of the river Karl Morgenstern at Hayden Bridge, treated and then sent to customers through more than 800 miles of water pipes and stored in nearly three dozen reservoirs. As part of its effort to protect this valuable resource, EWEB developed a drinking water source protection plan in 2000 that includes a risk assessment of all potential threats to our drinking water. Since then, much of this effort has fallen on the shoulders of Karl Morgenstern, EWEB’s Drinking Water Source Protection coordinator. “The McKenzie is a very unique river; one of a half dozen that share the same characteristics that make it what it is,” says Morgenstern. “It’s a very special river, that’s for sure.” One of his key jobs is emergency and disaster preparedness. Morgenstern was instrumental in creating a firstever emergency response plan for the McKenzie watershed. It’s the foremost riverwide emergency plan developed in the Northwest, if not the nation. The plan includes a sophisticated mapping and webbased notification and response system to help agencies quickly respond during an emergency. “We work to figure out what threatens our water, and from that, develop programs that will take a long-term approach to mitigating those threats,” says Morgenstern. A disaster preparedness plan is just one element of an extensive watershed protection program that also includes water quality monitoring, outreach and education. For example, Morgenstern currently works Sahalie Falls on the upper McKenzie River. with Thurston High School on a water quality-monitoring program taught through the school’s science classes. The utility’s latest effort is an innovative Agricultural Chemical Removal Project, again spearheaded by Morgenstern. EWEB and several other state and local agencies are working with growers to voluntarily remove unwanted and obsolete farm chemicals in the McKenzie and Middle Fork Willamette watersheds as a way to lessen the threats to water quality. ( ) “The McKenzie is a very unique river; one of a half dozen that share the same characteristics that make it what it is. It’s a very special river, that’s for sure.” – Karl Morgenstern, EWEB water source protection coordinator A number of growers are scheduled to safely dispose of more than 1,000 pounds of obsolete and harmful chemicals during a collection event in late October. “I’m glad that EWEB actually put the resources behind something like this, whereas other utilities do not,” says Morgenstern about the water source protection program. “We try to do something that is going to make a difference on the ground.” BRYAN WESEL

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