Hydropower Reform Coalition - Missouri

Taum Sauk, Missouri: Rebuild a failed hydropower reservoir?

Rebecca Sherman — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:39:08 -0500

July 9th was the deadline to provide comments on FERC's Environmental Assessment for the rebuilding of AmerenUE's Taum Sauk hydropower project, which failed in December 2005.

Citing concerns over whether the project should be built at all, or whether a fair review should be shifted to the relicensing (Taum Sauk's license expires in 2010), several groups protested the conclusions of the draft. Their comments are attached below.

As the Associated Press reported in its July 10th "Groups Criticize Ameren Taum Sauk Plans":

Environmental regulators and activists criticized parts of Ameren Corp.'s plan to rebuild the Taum Sauk reservoir in public comments submitted to federal regulators this week.

The comments were filed Monday and Tuesday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is deciding whether to let Ameren rebuild the mountaintop reservoir in rural southeast Missouri.

BACKGROUND

Early in the morning on December 14, 2005, the upper reservoir of the Taum Sauk Project failed, blowing out one wall of the earthen berm and flooding Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park with over one billion gallons of water. The catastrophic breach emptied the reservoir in 30 minutes. A park ranger and his family were seriously injured in the flood.

The Taum Sauk project operates as pumped storage. It has two reservoirs - one in the East Fork of the Black Rivers channel, the other carved out of a chopped-off mountain neighboring the river. When peak power is in demand, the top reservoir releases water into the lower reservoir; on off-peak hours, the water is pumped to the top reservoir. Often, pumped storage is a net-loss energy facility, generating power that is financially advantageous and using another source of power (commonly coal power) to return water to the upper reservoir.

In preparation for St. Louis's power needs on the morning of December 14th, project owner Ameren began filling the upper reservoir. However, the upper reservoir was known to have safety issues, and to compound the problem, Ameren overfilled the reservoir. In its weakened state, the reservoir collapsed. A review of the situation by dam safety officials suggests that the reservoir's permitted high-end levels were already too close to the lip of the reservoir; that the safety issues were not dealt with appropriately by regulators; and that the safety review conducted only three months before the collapse may have contained inaccurate data.

FERC conducted a review of the breach and fined the company for its error. The state of Missouri pursues its own claims, including criminal negligence, against the company.

Read FERC's website on Taum Sauk failure.

Read the Missouri DNR's coverage of the disaster, including photos.

Attachment	Size
American Rivers comments on Taum Sauk_July 2007.pdf	87.44 KB
Comments of Ozark Chapter_July 2007.doc	69 KB
Comments of MO Coalition_July 2007.doc	77.5 KB

FERC issues preliminary permit for Mississippi Lock and Dam No. 21

John Seebach — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 09:07:55 -0600

FERC issued a preliminary permit for a proposed 17.7-MW project on the Mississippi River in Missouri and Illinois. The project would use an existing Corps of Engineers dam.

From the order (docket P-12724):

The proposed project would use the existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Mississippi Lock and Dam No. 21, and consist of: (1) a proposed powerhouse containing 16 generating units with an installed capacity of 17.70 megawatts; (2) a proposed 12-mile-long, 69-kilovolt, or a proposed 1/4-mile-long, 34.5-kilovolt, or a proposed 3⁄4-mile-long, 138-kilovolt transmission line; and (3) appurtenant facilities. The average annual generation is estimated to be 69,185 megawatt hours.

FERC issues preliminary permit for Mississipi Lock and Dam No. 22

John Seebach — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 23:00:00 -0600

FERC issued a preliminary permit for another proposed 17.7-MW project on the Mississippi River in Missouri and Illinois. The project would use an existing Corps of Engineers dam.

This permit goes to the City of Quincy, Illinois. A private developer had filed a competing permit, but FERC gave preference to the municipal applicant in this case.

From the order (docket P-12725):

The project proposed by the City of Quincy would utilize the existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Mississippi Lock and Dam No. 22, and would consist of: (1) a proposed powerhouse containing 16 generating units with a total installed capacity of 17.70 megawatts; (2) a proposed 10-mile-long, 69-kilovolt or a proposed 8-mile-long, 69-kilovolt or 11-mile-long, 34.5 kilovolt transmission line; and (3) appurtenant facilities. The average annual generation is estimated to be 81,429 megawatt hours.

FERC issues preliminary permit for Mississipi Lock and Dam No. 20

John Seebach — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 23:00:00 -0600

FERC issued a preliminary permit for a proposed 17.63MW project on the Mississippi River in Missouri and Illinois. From FERC's Order Issuing Preliminary Permit (for docket P-12723):

On August 18, 2006, the City of Quincy, Illinois (permittee) filed an application for a three-year preliminary permit under Section 4(f) of the Federal Power Act (FPA) to study the proposed Mississippi Lock & Dam No. 20 Hydroelectric Project No. 12723. The project would be located at the existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Mississippi Lock and Dam No. 20 on the Mississippi River, in Lewis, Missouri, and Adams Counties, Illinois.

The proposed project would use the existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Mississippi Lock and Dam No. 20, and consist of: (1) a proposed powerhouse containing 16 generating units with an installed capacity of 17.63 megawatts; (2) a proposed 12-mile-long, 34.5-kilovolt or a proposed 4-mile-long, 69-kilovolt transmission line; and (3) appurtenant facilities. The average annual generation is estimated to be 68,527 megawatt hours.

Missouri's Taum Sauk Pumped Storage facility breaches; loses 1 billion gallons of water in 20 minutes

John Seebach — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 06:00:00 -0600

Project: Taum Sauk : P-2277

At 5:12am on December 14, 2005, the upper reservoir of the Taum Sauk Pumped Storage hydropower project breached.

The failure released one billion gallons of water - a weight of 8 billion pounds, and more than the entire City of St. Louis consumes in two days - over twenty minutes. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is covering the breach in depth.

The project is in rural Missouri, about 120 miles southwest of St. Louis near Lesterville in Reynolds County. The flood crashed through the home of the superintendent of Johnson's Shut-in State Park, injuring his three children. No other injuries have been reported, although the town of Lesterville was temporarily evacuated.

The upper reservoir - which can hold 1.5 billion gallons of water - is not part of the Black River's riverbed. It actually sits in a carved-out berm on top of the aptly named Proffit Mountain.

AmerenUE, the project owner, reported that the reservoir has been leaking for two years, although they believed the problem was on the mend. No seismic activity or abnormal rainfall precipitated additional pressure to open the leaks and cause the breach.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licenses this facility under docket P-2277. According to the docket, available online in FERC's eLibrary, FERC inspected the project's safety within the past three months and certified in October that the project was satisfactorily compliant. FERC also agreed with AmerenUE's assessment that the leaks from the floor of the upper reservoir appeared to be "dramatically" lessening.

The project had just begun the permitting process to receive a new license and begin compliance with modern environmental laws. AmerenUE planned to use the traditional licensing process, no longer available without special permission from FERC.

About Pumped Storage

The Taum Sauk project is called a "pumped storage" facility because it generates power on the margin. Pumped storage facilities have at least two reservoirs, one at higher elevation than the other. Dam managers release water from the higher reservoir when power is most needed and profitable, usually early morning, then pump water back from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir at less profitable times.

It is not a closed system - the project loses water to evaporation, aquifers, seepage, and basic environmental requirements to keep water in the river below the project. When the water loss was greater, however, AmerenUE had simply not placed minimum flows in the Black River below the dams. Minimum flows were expected to be a core issue for locals in the upcoming licensing process.

For more information, please contact Dan Sherburne at the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.