Public comment open for Black River hydro

The public may now comment on two proposals to install hydroelectric power dams on the Black River near Great Bend and Felts Mills.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has deemed the applications complete for the facilities from Free Flow Power Corp., Gloucester, Mass., and opened a 60-day window for comments.

FERC can give Free Flow a preliminary permit after reviewing the application and comments. A preliminary permit allows the developer to proceed with feasibility studies only, FERC staff said. Building and operating the facilities would require a license.

Free Flow has said it would use the permit to investigate the sites, including the possible use of hydrokinetics, which uses turbines that are driven by the natural movement of water instead of water released through a dam.

"I think this is a key difference from any previous proposals," Jon Guidroz, director of project development, said in November.

In the past, similar proposals by Brookfield Renewable Power and others met with opposition from some environmental groups, state agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, based on the threat of environmental damage.

Some local opponents want that stretch of river returned to a natural state for kayaking and other recreational opportunities.

"We need to keep it free-flowing, wild and scenic so our children and grandchildren can use it and enjoy the scenery," Watertown resident Steven S. Massaro said in November.

According to application materials, both projects would have two 2.5-megawatt turbines. Free Flow expects to spend up to $350,000 on studying the feasibility of each project.

The Great Bend project, sponsored by Free Flow's Qualified Hydro 22 LLC, was deemed complete March 1. The electricity producer is applying to build a dam, 19 feet high by 272 feet long, at the site of the partially breached dam just upstream of the Route 26 bridge over the Black River.

The reservoir created by the dam would cover 220 acres and extend 2.3 miles upstream, two miles short of the Deferiet hydroelectric dam.

A 23-kilovolt transmission line would run 3.8 miles to a substation in Deferiet.

The Felts Mills project, sponsored by Free Flow's Qualified Hydro 23 LLC, was deemed complete Wednesday. There, the company would build a dam 18.5 feet high by 292 feet long, refurbish the partially breached dam at Mill Island, which would be 5 feet high by 520 feet long, and add an earthen embankment, 6 feet high by 1,000 feet long.

The reservoir created by the dam would cover about 140 acres and reach 2.5 miles upstream almost to the Great Bend project. The 23-kilovolt transmission line would run 2.6 miles to a substation north of Great Bend.