Snoqualmie, King County comment on Black Canyon Hydro draft application

Published 9:30 am Thursday, March 24, 2016

King County and the city of Snoqualmie have responded to a draft license application (DLA) submitted for a proposed hydropower project on the north fork of the Snoqualmie River, the Black Canyon Hydro project.

Both organizations criticized the application for being incomplete and lacking important information regarding impacts to Canyon Springs, a high-quality water source for the city.

Black Canyon Hydro, a subsidiary of Tollhouse Energy which builds and operates hydropower facilities in Washington and Montana, is planning to build a 25-megawatt hydropower plant near Canyon Springs. The plant is proposed to generate 104,000 megawatt hours with a maximum diverted flow of 900 cubic feet per second.

A letter, written by Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson and addressed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), explains that Snoqualmie holds the water rights to Canyon Springs, which provides more than half of the city’s water supply.

Canyon Springs is an important location for the city due to its extremely high quality of water and its natural flow, which runs to the city without the need for pumping or extensive treatment.

According to a press release from the city on Feb. 4, the last two sets of lead and copper measurements in Snoqualmie were low enough to make the top 10 percent of Department of Health requirements.

The city’s problem with the Black Canyon Hydro project is the proposed location, an area that has a large amount of groundwater passing through.

Larson wrote, “If there is a problem with construction or the operation of the facility, it is conceivable that a significant portion of the aquifer flow would be affected.”

Larson also wrote that the draft application did not appear to have any plans to fix possible negative effects that could appear during construction and operation of the project.

“The city cannot support any project that does not contain a clear mitigation strategy for maintaining the full Canyon Springs source capacity during construction and through ongoing operations,” Larson wrote.

Larson also wrote the DLA was missing data and analyses that were promised to the city last fall.

King County officials Christie True, director of Natural Resources and Parks, and John Starbard, from the Department of Permitting and Environmental Review raised four issues with the application in their letter to FERC.

They stated that the filing of the application was procedurally flawed and substantively deficient, the preparation of an environmental impact statement should be required, the DLA significantly mischaracterized the flow impacts, and the project does not comply with the county’s shoreline master program or the Washington State Coastal Zone Management Act.

In Snoqualmie’s letter, Larson concludes that potential negative impacts to the quality or quantity of water the city recieves is an “unacceptable risk.”

The Black Canyon project has been in the works since 2011. Following a review of the draft application, the company is expected to submit a final application for the project in September.