U.S. Water News Online
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- Two proposals for large natural gas-fired electrical generating plants near the Washington-Idaho state line have been shelved following denial of water permits.
Cogentrix Energy all but pulled the plug on its proposed plant, once one of the company's highest priorities.
``The practical reality is that things are going to have to change fairly radically for the project to move forward,'' spokesman Jef Freeman said from company headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.
Cogentrix will not appeal Idaho's denial of its request to take 7 million gallons of water a day from the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, Freeman said.
`I'm greatly relieved,'' said Buell Hollister of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, part of an environmental and labor coalition that opposed the water withdrawal. ``This gives us some breathing room to take the time to study the aquifer.''
Congentrix's request and one from Newport Generation Inc. ignited a fierce debate over the size of the aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for 400,000 people in Washington and Idaho.
Officials from both states are now cooperatively planning a $3 million study of the water supply, which straddles the state line.
Newport Generation opted not to appeal Idaho's denial of a request for permission to take 10 million gallons of water a day from the aquifer, said Robert Kahn, a spokesman in the company's regional office in Tacoma
``I think that in this case inaction speaks louder than words,'' Kahn said.
Newport could still challenge the decision in court, an alternative Kahn said had not been discussed by company officials.
The 1,300-megawatt plant could still be built, he added, refusing to elaborate.
Similarly, Freeman said Congentrix's proposal would be placed on ``market hold,'' meaning development will no longer be pursued but is still possible.
Others in the industry have indicated existing water rights could be purchased or alternative cooling methods could be proposed in new applications.
Cogentrix proposed its 810-megawatt plant in March 2001, when fears of power blackouts pushed energy prices to $300 per megawatt-hour. Prices have dropped to $20 per megawatt hour and many large utilities are struggling under the market collapse.
Together, the proposed plants had a potential value of $1.1 billion and would have provided enough electricity for two cities the size of Seattle.
In hearings this spring, environmental and labor groups argued that the region's energy demands would not grow fast enough to make the plants profitable.
The Pacific Northwest should still have enough power, said Jeff King, a senior resource analyst with the Northwest Power Planning Council in Portland, Ore.
Renewed focus on long-term energy contracts and greater scrutiny of large power companies should also help stabilize the market, he said.
``The boom-and-bust we saw over the last few years probably was an anomaly,'' King said. ``I'm sure there will be some restructuring of the industry that will help dampen that effect somewhat.''
In another issue involving North Idaho water, the Kootenai Environmental Alliance and the Sierra Club's local chapter have filed a formal protest against a water rights request by Silverwood Theme Park.
The Athol theme park seeks rights to about 1 million gallons daily from the aquifer. It is a key component in Silverwood's plans to construct a water park, said Nancy DiGiammarco, Silverwood's director of marketing.
Although theme park managers say they will use only a fraction of the water requested, mostly to replace evaporation, the request has sparked concern among environmentalists.
DiGiammarco said Silverwood would treat the remaining water at summer's end, then pump it to a holding pond where it would percolate back into the ground.
Opponents want the Idaho Department of Water Resources to force companies pondering large water withdrawals to wait at least until a study is completed on the aquifer.
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