Susitina-Watana hydro project studies: 600 more Railbelt megawatts from proposed $4.76 billion dam.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: ENERGY

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This was a summer of studying for the state-owned Susitna-Watana Hydro project.

The State of Alaska could open a massive hydroelectric dam on the Susitna River, just below Watana Creek and about 90 river miles upstream of Talkeetna in 2024, if the project is ultimately built. The dam could supply Railbelt communities--those between Fairbanks and Homer--with 600 megawatts of power-producing capacity, about half the power needed each year.

The dam would be one of the largest state-built projects in Alaska and, although the project estimate and other aspects may change as the details come into focus, the cost is now estimated at $4.76 billion.

What's proposed is a 750-foot dam backed by a reservoir that would stretch 41 miles north and would be two miles wide at its widest point. According to the state, the project would include three generating units and it could tie into the Railbelt Intertie, which carries power from Fairbanks to Homer.

The project could have significant impacts on the Susitna River, a major sport-fishing river, and on the surrounding area, which is prime habitat for moose, caribou, sheep, bears and bald eagles. The river upstream of the dam is also a major supplier of fresh water to Cook Inlet. And like much of the rest of the state, the dam is in an area prone to earthquakes.

Supporters say the impact on local wildlife and fishing will be negligible. Animals will have two years to move to new territory, longtime supporter Bob Penney says, and he believes the dam will even out the flow of the Susitna River, bringing stability to a sometimes-raging waterway and adding a new fishery at the reservoir.

Penney is the chairman of SHURE, or Susitna Hydro Unlock Renewable Energy, a nonprofit registered to promote the hydro project. He's pushed the project since its first iteration in the 1970s and says he'll continue to do so until it's built.

"I probably won't still be alive when it's built but I want to be active until it does get built," Penney says.

A Second Push for the Project Penney worked on the project decades ago, when it was first envisioned. That version of the project halted in the 1980s when the state's income grew shaky and oil prices plummeted. An initial Federal Energy Regulatory Commission application was withdrawn in 1986.

Instead, legislators agreed to fund two other projects--a four-dam pool of hydroelectric projects serving Southeast Alaska and power-cost equalization, a program that...