More Government Dams

(Or more dam government?)

Following the case of Vermont’s Community Hydro and all the problems of getting permits to do the right thing- that is to develop enough hydropower to replace the pollution generated by the oil and coal industries- we started looking around.

And we found that there are locations throughout the nation where small hydroplants can be created and we didn’t have to look far for a perfect example of a lost – or at least delayed - opportunity to activate such a plant.

This one is in Connecticut, a few hours away from Vermont’s abundant hydro potentials.
The Collinsville section of Canton, CT is a typical New England factory town most of which was built to house the Collins Company which operated from 1826 to 1966. Like so many other factories in the northeast, water power was the main driving power.

Two dams were built in Collinsville in the 18th and 19th centuries to provide that power.
While the dams are now owned by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) FERC issued licenses to a private company, Summitt Hydropower, to update the dams to generate electricity. So far so good.

However Summitt’s license stipulated that construction begin by 2005 and when Summitt failed to proceed with the construction the license was rendered “moot.” Now in order to extend the license to the town, federal legislation is required.

Congressman Christopher Murphy has taken on the challenge to obtain the appropriate legislation so that the dams, when properly retrofit would produce enough electricity to power about 2,000 homes.

The congressman’s effort began in January of this year and so far no results. And it should be no surprise that general opinion is that getting the government to act is only a sure thing if a war is concerned.

The fact is that there are hundreds of thousands of small potential hydropower locations to be found all across the nation. And perhaps we can find more legislators, federal and state who will get involved in the way that Congressman Murphy and CEO Barg or Vermont have and that they work to get the government “red tape” and unnecessary controls over the development of clean energy removed. We can only hope.