State hasn’t decided if it will take over dam that controls floods, protects loons, and created popular reservoir and state park

By Guy Page

Up on the Green River in Lamoille County, a small village-owned utility is operates a hydro dam that makes cheap carbon-free electricity, helps control flooding, protects loon habitat, and is the reason for the very existence of one of Vermont’s most beautiful state parks.

Green River Hydro checks all the boxes of State of Vermont’s priorities. It attracts tourists, protects endangered wildlife, provides flood resilience, and most of all provides instate-made, carbon-free electricity – the kind of power that our legislators say will make Vermont a beacon of hope to the world facing the existential threat of climate change.

Well, every box except one. Like all dams, Green River Hydro affects some species of acquatic wildlife.

Green River Hydro is what the industry calls a peaker plant. When energy demand peaks and the rest of the Vermont grid is buying fossil-fuel power off the New England spot market at many times the normal price, MWL starts up Green River Hydro. Operation changes the water levels on both sides of the dam. And those changing water levels impact some aquatic species that live in the riverbank.

So since 2016, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has been trying to impose more aquatic-friendly operating conditions, per the federal Clean Water Act. The utility says these changes would make Green River Hydro impossible to sustain financially.

Other states reportedly exercise some leeway and discretion in implementing the federal measure. But not, apparently, Vermont. 

According to Morrisville Water and Light manager Scott Johnstone, himself the ANR Secretary under Gov. Howard Dean, “Vermont’s about as aggressive as it gets.”

Eight years of fruitless negotiation later, Morrisville Water and Light has thrown in the towel. On March 12 it filed intent to surrender its federal license to generate electricity at the Green River hydro facility. The federal licensing surrendering process is cumbersome. It could take a decade.

You might ask – why is the State doing this? They say the federal Clean Water Act is making them do it. Aquatic life – some invertebrates in the riverbank susceptible to the rise and fall of river water – are at risk, their study says. To quote ANR Secretary Julie Moore in her comments to VDC this week – 

“Federally regulated projects, including Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hydroelectric dams like Green River, must meet state water quality standards (WQS). Our charge, under both state statute and the federal Clean Water Act, is to ensure that hydroelectric facility operations meet state WQS.”

Johnstone said the river levels rise and fall naturally, due to rainfall. Manmade level changes a few times a month shouldn’t be an unsupportable burden to aquatic wildlife.

And if the utility can’t afford to operate the peaker plant at water levels required by the State of Vermont?

Affordability for the utilities – and by extension the ratepayers who support it – just isn’t this state agency’s problem.

“Financial viability of the hydroelectric facility is not one of the factors we are able to consider in determining what steps are needed to comply with state WQS,” Moore said.

Which for ratepayers and sincere supporters of carbon emission reduction, that’s too bad. Because the changes ANR requires make operating the dam financially unfeasible.

“The State of Vermont’s Water Quality Certificate conditions make the economics of the Green River hydro facility unfeasible for the small, not-for-profit utility,” Johnstone said in a recent press statement. “Surrendering the license to generate electricity is the first formal step in MWL’s plans to move the Green River Reservoir’s dam operations to the State of Vermont. 

 MWL is a small not-for-profit public power utility that serves approximately 4,000 residents and businesses in the Morrisville area with electric service. It is funded by the ratepayers of Morrisville and six surrounding rural communities. 

 “We recognize and greatly appreciate the value of the Green River hydro facility and the reservoir,” said Johnstone. “The hydro facility has reliably generated renewable energy for the region for several decades and the dam itself preserves the incredible reservoir, the state park and is invaluable for flood control. Unfortunately, due to the State’s Water Quality Conditions, we can no longer operate this hydro facility without incurring a significant financial loss – a loss that would end up on the backs of MWL ratepayers. We cannot ask the ratepayers of Morrisville and the surrounding communities to pay higher electric rates to preserve a reservoir and a state park – that is not the role of a municipal utility.”

Under this application, MWL will propose to eliminate the hydro generation component of the dam but retain the dam itself and its ability to help manage future flooding events. MWL will maintain the reservoir levels and ensure proper loon nesting habitat through the transition, Johnstone said. 

But flood control, habitat protection and maintaining a gem of a state park isn’t the longterm responsibility of a local utility. That’s the state’s job. 

As another Morrisville Water & Light official said, “The Green River Reservoir dam creates the Green River Reservoir and the corresponding Green River Reservoir State Park. It is the appropriate role of the State of Vermont to manage this dam so Vermonters and visitors alike can enjoy this incredible resource and so that the dam can be appropriately managed for flood control.” said Tom Snipp, MWL Board Chair. 

To which the State of Vermont says – maybe. We’re thinking about it.

“Any dam in consideration for ownership by the state requires careful consideration, particularly a dam like Green River Reservoir (GRR) which is an aging and high hazard dam that is nearing the end of its original design life and may require significant, near-term capital investments,” Secretary Moore told VDC this week. “The Vermont legislature has directed ANR to explore short- and long-term benefits and costs of state ownership of the dam. This analysis will better inform the state of the liabilities of ownership of the dam and is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. To best serve Vermonters, ANR needs to wait for the completion of the analysis to understand the implications of owning a dam like GRR and to fully contemplate its future.”

So what’s really going on here? Why is the State of Vermont willing to flick away a source of affordable, carbon free power that promotes tourism, created a beautiful state park, and even protects loons?

There may be a mindset that is a holdover from the days when hydro power was considered a tainted source of carbon-free electricity. When Hydro Quebec was officially declared non-renewable and not eligible for renewable energy credits – those financial instruments that make high-carbon emitting businesses look better on paper and lead to construction of massive wind and solar power factories on Vermont mountaintops and in pastures. 

Like Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, although on a much smaller scale, Green River Hydro is a low-cost, carbon-free power source whose very presence challenged the wind and solar industry’s claim as the best solution to the existential threat. 

It makes you wonder.