Feud over Eklutna Hydroelectric Project continues with Anchorage Assembly investigating all options

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - With an ongoing dispute between owners of the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project and the Anchorage Assembly, Monday marked the last day to submit public comments on the project’s updated plan for minimizing its environmental impact.

The Municipality of Anchorage, Chugach Electric, and the Matanuska Electric Association own the hydroelectric project, which is located about 30 miles northeast of Downtown Anchorage.

As a part of a 1991 agreement, the project owners agreed “to protect, mitigate damages to, and enhance fish and wildlife impacted by the original Federal Hydroelectric Project.”

The new plan was one of the federal requirements at the time of the agreement.

In October, Chugach Electric released an alternative that uses part of the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility infrastructure to return water to the Eklutna River. Eklutna Lake provides about 90% of the municipal water supply and is the source of a quarter of Chugach Electric’s renewable energy production, according to the new plan.

Early in February, the Assembly passed a resolution that stated their resistance to the selected alternative and instead called for the full length of the river to be restored.

The project owners responded to the Assembly through a letter on Feb. 12, in which they highlighted “certain incorrect factual and legal assertions” in the resolution and accompanying public statement.

The Assembly then turned to a consultant with experience working on water supply and water treatment projects for an outside opinion, which suggested alternatives other than the one selected by the utilities.

“What we know is that the portal valve that they have proposed is a failure to start, it doesn’t actually protect wildlife, it will have cycles where it doesn’t work so there isn’t water down [on the river],” Assembly Chair Chris Constant said.

Constant said the municipality is aligned with the Native Village of Eklutna on wanting to restore the river completely, either through removing the dam or an alternative method.

“Until the fish are restored to the river, the harms continue every single day,” Constant said.

Constant was also not pleased with the project owner’s public process for the project, in which he believed people were not given the opportunity to speak.

Julie Hasquet, the senior manager of corporate communications at Chugach Electric, says they have been studying the 1991 agreement and its assessment for the past five years.

The word “restored” was never in the print in the 1991 agreement, but instead asks for a program that will mitigate damage to the natural environment, according to Hasquet.

Hasquet maintains their alternative puts water in 11 out of 12 miles of the Eklutna River while protecting the water supply and renewable energy resources.

“It’s also the cheapest, renewable power on the Railbelt,” Hasquet said.

Over the past five years, Haquet claims there have been hundreds, if not thousands of hours of meetings open to the public. She said they also completed an extensive alternatives analysis looking at 36 different ways to mitigate damages against the fish and wildlife.

Hasquet stating the $57 million project is spread out over 35 years, but they are also studying dam removal, which if brought to fruition would be a multi-million dollar project. The company is also not interested in pausing the project any further, as they believe it would only delay getting water to the Eklutna River.

The utilities must submit their final program to the governor by April, and the governor has until October to make a final decision.

Editor’s Note: The article has been updated to clarify Chugach Electric is part of a group of Eklutna Hydroelectric Project owners, that also includes Matanuska Electric and the Municipality of Anchorage.

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