Northwest Power wants to retrofit Applegate

Applegate is eyed for power plant

Jun. 2, 2001
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2001. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - A hydropower firm has applied for a preliminary permit
from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study the feasibility of
building a hydropower plant at Applegate Dam.

Symbiotics LLC, a subsidiary of Northwest Power Services Inc., based in
Rigby, Idaho, and Ecosystem Research Institute in Logan, Utah, want to
retrofit the dam to produce about 12 megawatts of electricity.

The dam, on the Applegate River about 20 miles south of Medford, currently
has no hydropower capacity. It was built in 1980 by the U.S. Corps of
Engineers.

"The price of energy has made it economical now to look at a project of this
kind," said Hart Evans, a spokesman for ERI. "We started looking at a lot of
different dams this year to see what the potential is for hydropower plants."

Applegate Dam is one of more than 100 dams for which ERI has filed
preliminary permit applications in the Pacific Northwest, including Savage
Rapids Dam on the Rogue River just upstream from Grants Pass, Evans said.

Northwest Power and ERI, which he described as an environmental consulting
firm, have been working jointly on power projects for 25 years, Evans said.

Symbiotics was launched early this year to focus exclusively on hydropower,
he said.

The permit, if granted, would give the firm three years to study the project,
said FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller in Washington, D.C.

"It does not authorize any construction," Miller said. "If an applicant
determines at the end of the permit period that they want to develop the
project, then they would have to file for a license."