Planned Grasse River hydro dam's federal studies complete; state in works
MASSENA — After years of investigating fish, ice, shoreline erosion and creatures living near the proposed Grasse River hydro dam site, the Massena Electric Department has completed all of the federally mandated studies needed to apply for a license to operate the facility.
While work is continuing to fulfill additional study requests made by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, officials said they are one step closer to knowing whether the multifaceted energy and community beautification project will become a reality.
To operate a hydropower dam, MED must obtain a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But before the federal agency would accept a license application for the project, MED was required to participate in a complex and rigorous series of studies, meetings and reports with FERC and interested parties such as DEC, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe. Each of those parties has demonstrated to the federal agency that it has an interest in the outcome of MED's project and they are considered project stakeholders that must be involved as the utility moves forward.
The study process has taken several years as MED has gathered data for 15 separate investigations that probe the river's environment — from the way fish use the river for spawning and migration to population counts of mussels and threatened species such as lake sturgeon. The studies also investigate potential effects felt by nearby communities, such as cultural implications for Akwesasne residents or impacts on municipal water sources and wastewater treatment systems.
MED Superintendent Andrew J. McMahon said this extensive information-gathering effort will help guide the utility through the next step of the project: designing a dam that has as little negative impact on the environment and community as possible.
"We've completed the studies we were told to do by FERC, and the additional studies requested by DEC are nearing completion," he said. "We are now awaiting a response from our stakeholders."
Over the next several months, FERC and the other interested agencies will review the data collected in the studies and the conclusions reached by MED, Mr. McMahon said.
By February, FERC will tell the Massena utility whether the information it has collected so far is enough to move forward with a formal application for the dam's license, or whether it needs to dig into certain issues further.
Then MED will have to coordinate with involved agencies and the federal government on the project's design phases.
Mr. McMahon said the utility's biggest responsibility during that phase will be to find ways to protect the environment and nearby communities. Some of the plans already discussed include building gates near riverfront properties adjacent to the dam to protect against flooding as well as installing racks in front of the dam's turbines to keep large fish from being pulled into the blades.
The process of building a hydro dam across the full span of a river will mean some environmental impacts are unavoidable, so MED also will have to find ways to mitigate those.
The utility also will be required to find ways to make the project enhance the environment in order to gain FERC's approval. Officials have discussed the substantial benefits the village of Massena would gain when the dam creates a pond area near Water Street, which could be used for recreation. MED also is looking at adding fishing piers to its plan to increase the community's access to the river environment.
