A26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday,' August 14,1582
Grange asks “Is there a place for hydropower?”
By PATTY GROSS
Staff Correspondent
HUNTINGDON - What better
place to talk about hydroelectric
power than at Raystown Lake in
Huntingdon County.
Members of the Pennsylvania
State Grange gathered at the lake
last month for their first energy
conference. The day-long seminar
was sponsored by the Grange and
the Pennsylvania Rural Electnc
Association.
State Grange Master Charles
Wismer said the seminar was
organized for the Grange’s energy
and legislative committees, to
leam about the potential for
hydroelectric, power development
in the future.
They heard the bad along with
the good. Hydropower is dean,
safe and dependable, but it’s an
expensive proposition.
“Pennsylvania’s Rural Electric
Cooperatives have been actively
looking at the potential for
hydroelectric generating for five
or six years,” explained Joe
Dudick of the Pennsylvania Rural
Electric Association and
Allegheny Electric Cooperative.
Dudick told the group that his
firm commissioned a study in 1977-
78 of the potential for water power
facilities. The engineering study
concluded that there were over 100
sites that were worth looking at
more closely. Those sites have
been evaluated to indicate which is
the most feasible to develop.
The Raystown Lake is one of six
sites being studied for water
power. The Raystown branch of
the Juniata River extends 30 miles
and covers 118 shoreline miles. The
land and water, over 29,000 acres,
owned by the federal government
Richard Osborne
Specter pushes hydropower legislation
WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Sen.
Arlen Specter (K-l a) testified last
month that the nation’s Northeast-
Midwest region desperately needs
to tap its hydropower resources to
cope with rising costs which have
almost quadrupled in this area
over the last decade.
Specter told the Water and
I ower Subcommittee ot the Senate
Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources that S. 1918, the NE-MW
States Federal Hydropower
Financing Authorities Act, will
help lower energy costs in the
region and tacihtate economic
development.
The bill was introduced last
December by Specter and Senator
Donald W Hiegle, Jr, (D-Michi,
who are co-chairmen of the Senate
Northeast-Midwest Coalition.
The legislation would make the
18 stales ot the region eligible to
apply tor low-cost loans and loan
guarantees to cover up to 70 per
cent ot the costs involved with
hydcueiectncjtleyelopmeni
entertains the public year-round
with boating, fishing, hunting,
camping and swimming. The dam
was constructed between 1968 and
1973.
The other locations under study
are Emsworth at Nevil Island and
the Montgomery Project in Beaver
County, both on the Ohio River.
'There is also the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers Locks and Dams
number B and 9, navigation
facilities on the Allegheny River in
Armstrong County.
There already are three “hydro”
facilities operating in the state.
A number of factors are con
sidered for a site to be able to
produce electricity: the “head” of
the site the greater the water
fall means the more energy there
is to be captured; the annual
flow of the body of water; en-
vironmental concerns which would
result in condemning land; the
facility surroundings and the cost
of possible relocation; and tax and
regulatory policies that could
throw the project out of the realm
of feasibility.
Grangers were told candidly that
money is the stumbling block for
power. “A project that produces a
relatively small amount of elec
tricity, creates a very large in
vestment for the utility that is
building the hydroelectric site,”
commented Dudick.
“The major savings for a
hydroelectric facility, is the fact
that the “fuel” water is free
and the operating costs are very
small."
Dudick went on to say that a
“hydro” plant is more expensive to
build, than nuclear which in turn is
more costly than coal. Also, along
with the free water and small
upkeep cost, “hydro” sites will last
100 years or more. Plants, such as
nuclear and coal, may only be in
use 25 to 35 years.
He concluded his portion of the
seminar by saying that
hydrelectricity is a good thing to
support. “We believe that for the
future of our state, water power
and coal will be major sources of
energy. They will provide us with
lower energy costs and enable us to
decrease the amount of unported
oil that we use.”
Dudick promised increased
development of hydroelectric
generation when the problems of
taxation, excessive regulation and
interest rates are successfully
addressed.
A representative of the
Governor’s Energy Council up
dated the Grangers on the Energy
Council’s job. "We are trying to
simplify the process and make the
Specter told the subcommittee
that the NE-MW region is bur
dened with the highest per
household energy costs in the U.S.
1 art ot the reason tor this, he said,
is that just about every other area
ot the country except the NE-MW
has received federal aid in tmding
solutions to energy problems.
Specter noted that the average
household energy cost in New
England rose trom $386 in 1971) to
$1,325 in 1980, while in the West the
cost rose trom $263 to $676. The
State ot Washington, tie said, is
blessed with the lowest residential
energy costs in the nation, largely
because of the Bonneville Power
Administration, an example of
energy aid by the federal govern
ment.
"In 1980,’ he said, lesidenlsot
my own Stale ot 1 ennsylvama
spent 227 percent more on energy
costs than did households in
Washington slate. Similar pallei ns
exists in the commercial and m
.duslnal sectors. J -
“Raystown Belle” furnishes tours of recent day-long seminar oh hydroelectric
Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County. The power. Raystown is sited for a hydro plant
Grange enjoyed the boatrjde during their during the 1980’s.
Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County is one Pennsylvania State Grange held a hydro
of six sites currently being studied for the seminar at the dam, which takes in 29,000
development of a hydroelectric plant. The acres of government land and water.
burdens on developers easier while
at the same tune not greatly in
crease the risk of environmental
harm,” stated John Buffington.
Buffington advised anyone in
terested in launching a "hydro”
muse aieas which nave ueen
able to produce hydroelectric
power pay less lor energy, he said,
noting that over 80 percent of the
electricity generated in Oregon
and Washington comes trom
hydropower, whereas almost 80
percent of the electricity in Hhode
island and Massachusetts is
produced with petroleum.
"Yet the tael is the Northeast-
Midwest has an abundant, but
largely unused, source ot energy in
Us waterpower,” said Specter.
In arguing tor subcommittee
approval tor the legislation, he
said that the Congress in the past
had clearly responded to the
energy needs ot the rest ot the
nation.
'1 believe the federal govern
ment has the responsibility to do no
less tor the economically . _j- > t ..
depressed Northeast-Midwest Joe Uu(3,ck of Allegheny Electric Cooperative explains the
i egion ot Ainerii_a than it has done potential of hydroelectric generation in Pennsylvania'. Ben
from tune to time tor other areas Slick, left, was chairman of a hydroelectric seminar,
with similar economic develop- organized by the Grange and Pennsylvania Rural Electric
meat problems, bpeclei con- Accnriafinn
a. a
<5 .» *
project to get a professional
consultant with experience in the
field. "The most important thing I
have to say is don't try to go it
alone,” he stressed.
The Governor’s Energy Council
is preparing a "how-to” book on
“hydro.”
Those attending the energy
seminar also were told to contact
V4 -\ i *^ / * -> "fy. ;*
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the Department of Environmental
Resources to acquire site in
formation.
During the day an overview of
the Raystown project ' was
presented by Richard Osborne,
staff engineer for Allegheny
Electric Cooperative. As the
gathering looked out from the
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