Rome,NY – A Rome-based statewide river advocacy group last week filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a nationally-significant Clean Water Act case to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court next month. New York Rivers United (NYRU) is fighting to retain a 35-year old provision in the federal CWA that gives states the right to protect their rivers from water quality problems caused by hydropower dams, according to NYRU executive director Bruce Carpenter.
“Hydro dams can devastate fisheries and river ecosystems, limit recreational and economic opportunities, and even dry up entire stretches of river,” said Carpenter. “States have been using the Clean Water Act for more than 30 years to require dam owners to implement modest changes that offset most of these problems.”
On February 21, 2006, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case attempting to overturn this protection. “If the hydropower industry wins, rivers everywhere will lose,” Carpenter said.
There are more than 150 federally-licensed hydropower dams in New York State. “Since the majority of the rivers in New York (e.g., Mohawk, Oswego, Beaver, Black, Salmon, West Canada Creek) have multiple dams, most of them producing hydropower, this Supreme Court case will directly affect New York’s rivers,” Carpenter said.
The issue before the Supreme Court is the S.D. Warren v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection case brought by a South African-owned paper company that owns several dams on Maine’s Presumpscot River. Last week, NYRU joined a broad coalition filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Maine’s right to protect its rivers from hydropower-related harm.
“Hydropower dams have a profound impact on New York’s aquatic systems, affecting water quality, fisheries, wildlife, river-based recreation, and tourism,” said Carpenter. “Under authority of the Clean Water Act, New York and other states have required dam owners to protect these assets. If the hydropower industry’s court challenge is successful, rivers across the nation will lose this vital protection and will return to being used primarily to generate profits for a few energy companies at the expense of lost benefits to local communities.”
Carpenter has participated in virtually all hydropower licensing and relicensing proceedings in New York since 1992, more than 50 in all. He is an active member of the national Hydropower Reform Coalition's steering committee and is recognized as a state and national leader in this specialized field.
In addition to NYRU and other environmental and recreation groups, other parties filing briefs in support of Maine include the Bush Administration, the Attorneys General of 35 states and territories, several American Indian Tribes, sportfishing groups, leading rivers scientists and engineers, Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT), and others. “The hydropower industry’s position in this case is totally self-serving,” said John Seebach, National Coordinator of the Hydropower Reform Coalition in Washington, DC.
Carpenter leads the Hydro Reform’s New York State Coalition. He said, “When you look at the diversity of the groups that filed in opposition – everyone from environmentalists to the Bush administration - you can really see how the industry has isolated itself from the mainstream.”
New York Rivers United was created in 1992 principally to address the environmental and recreational consequences of the relicensing of hydropower projects on various rivers across the state. New York State had 43 separate hydro dams up for relicensing as part of the nation’s “Class of ’93,” the most of any state in the country.
These hydro dams are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which grants 30-50 year operating licenses that balance energy production with other equally important public values.
NYRU is an active intervener in all of the New York State hydro relicensing cases — as well as applications for new licenses — currently under review by FERC and takes the lead in coordinating the efforts of state hydro coalition interveners in these cases. NYRU is also a party in all of the proceedings before the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to certify the projects’ future compliance with state water quality standards. (It is this opportunity to protect water quality that is being threatened by next month’s court proceeding.) In proceedings before FERC and DEC, NYRU submits technical data and analysis and legal briefs regarding project impacts and alternative operating regimes which would allow economical energy generation while also complying fully with modern environmental law.
By virtue of its involvement in FERC and DEC proceedings, expert knowledge relating to river resource protection, recreation and hydropower development, and ability to represent the public's interest in the non-developmental values of the hydroelectric projects, NYRU has demonstrated the potential of restoring rivers through the hydropower licensing process.
Because of NYRU efforts, stretches of New York rivers dammed for more than 50 years are free-flowing again on the Beaver River, the Salmon River, the Sacandaga/Hudson River, the Black River and − most recently − the Raquette River, where NYRU's advocacy led to the successful relicensing affecting 14 dams on 90 miles of this stunning natural resource.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
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