The historic Albany water treatment and hydropower plant on Jan. 5, 2023.
Every time the bike and I climb up the steep Third Avenue Bridge from Bryant Way, I look off to my right to see if the Albany hydropower generator is turning. Lately it has been still, not moving at all.
You can tell because the turbine shaft is marked with red paint. When the plant is working, you can see the shaft spinning.
All last summer and fall, the plant was idle because under terms of the city’s federal power license, the generator must stop when the flow in the South Santiam River falls below 1,100 cubic feet per second.
Winter and spring is when the plant normally runs. Not now, though.
Albany Public Works Director Chris Bailey says the current shutdown is the result of maintenance work in the Albany-Santiam Canal, which means not enough flow to drive the turbine. And this week there’s a scheduled inspection of the generator itself.
For a report on this site in 2013, the city told me the plant had produced more than $100,000 in power sales the previous year. More recently, officials said annual power sales averaged $80,000.
In the last four fiscal years, power sales have been less — about $54,000 in 2019, $73,000 in 2020, $56,000 in 2021, and a mere $38,000 in 2022.
How much does the plant cost to operate? The city can’t say, exactly.
What the crew does for operation and maintenance of the canal, Bailey explained, might benefit water production at the Vine Street treatment plant, or ensure dam safety, or meet other regulatory requirements, or benefit hydropower, or a combination of any of these.
“It is hard to say which portion of each dollar spent benefits which of these functions,” she added. “The total expenditure budgeted for the canal program is approximately $1 million per fiscal year. The hydropower revenue isn’t going to pay for the entire canal program, but it does contribute roughly half of what we spend in electricity at the Vine Street water plant each year.”
More than five years ago, in the fall of 2017, the city council authorized an attempt to change Albany’s hydropower license to one that would be less burdened by federal regulation.
It has been a slow process, negotiating with state and federal fisheries agencies, and Bailey says it may take until mid-2024 to reach a conclusion.
Albany spent a lot of time and money, including $1.6 million for a Chinese-made 500-kilowatt generator, to relicense and reactivate the hydropower plant in the years before it was finally rebuilt in 2008.
That’s why I’m interested in the plant, and why I look whether the turbine is turning every time I ride up that bridge. (hh)
This is what you can see of the hydropower works on the Calapooia River off the Third Avenue Bridge.
The City of Albany made a deal with the Chinese Communists to purchase a generator?
What ever happened to MAGA?
Now we learn that even the local pols are wheelin’ and dealin’ with the Red Horde when American companies (GE, Caterpillar, Cummins, Kholer) along with several others manufacture very fine generating equipment and, for the most part, these companies build ’em with Union Labor right here in the Good Old USA. The penny-pinching Council of that era when this Chinese Communist generator (probably built by enslaved Uighurs) decision was made ought to be ashamed, if they’re even capable of shame. Perhaps, now that we have the Whiz Kids on the newly formed Albany City Council, this flagrant abuse of the American Way will be ground to a halt.
At the time, the city said that type of generator was no longer made in the U.S.
Your reply is appreciated, but the City’s “argument” at the time seems to prohibit any and all other possibilities. As such, you can certainly understand my skepticism. Consider the generators in use since the opening of the Columbia River dams. They seem to chunk-along just fine.
I grew up in agriculture, an industry heavily populated by folks who absolutely love to own machinery and are loathe to ever get rid of anything once they own it. This is why many farms and ranches resemble a scrap yard.
The famous economist Robert Kyosaki reminds us that only items that actually produce a positive cash flow are called assets. All others are liabilities, no matter how much we love them.
With an annual operating cost of a million or so dollars, is the canal truly an asset or a liability?
I realize it is not the goal of government be profitable. Still, your article brings up some interesting questions. Thanks for that.
When first installed, it would have taken 60-80 years to pay for the installation at the then current projected water flow rates of this Chinese built generator. That wasn’t counting 1 penny toward PERS wages & maintenance and presuming an over reaching government wasn’t going to impose flow restrictions like it has. This was during a time when the govt was removing dams and imposing other water restrictions willy nilly
As far as helping pay for the “Canal Program”- How much of the “Canal Program” is simply to provide water flow to the generator under the guise of “Canal beautification”?
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license for City of Albany:
Project Number P-11509
Project Name City of Albany, Oregon
Licensee City Of Albany, Oregon
Issue Date 10/23/1998
Expiration Date 09/30/2048
Authorized Capacity (kW) 500
State Oregon
Waterways Albany-Santiam Canal
Description Conventional
As Director Bailey describes, it is a protracted (and expensive) process to amend a license, not to mention the Power Purchase/Interconnection Agreement with Pacific Power.
There is significant technical and financial help offered through the Energy Trust of Oregon to promote low impact hydro power generation expansion initiatives.
The Energy Trust put up a significant subsidy for the hydropower to be brought back online. I know because I was tasked with getting the grant by Public Works Director Floyd Collins. The Energy Trust was then a brand-new operation.
I can’t remember the exact amounts anymore but it seemed like the original amount was around $500,000, but was increased later on after the project was underway.
To Hartman: Your “penny-pinching Council,” who are CARA, our urban renewal district, when wearing their second hats, paid over a million dollars for the bank building on First Street to stoke their entrenched dream of downtown looking cutely vintage. That dream hasn’t brought in any tax money to speak of. Those CARA dollars are tax-payer’s dollars. Every time I drive by the Carousel, I cringe at that huge building sitting there with the Carousel at a stand-still…you can see when it is not turning. That Carousel cost the city a pretty penny and was supposed to be the answer to everything. Not so. Now they hope to put expensive apartments downtown to fulfill their dreams.
“Every time I drive by the Carousel, I cringe at that huge building sitting there with the Carousel at a stand-still…you can see when it is not turning. That Carousel cost the city a pretty penny and was supposed to be the answer to everything.”
With the Carousel garnering over 160,000 visitors per year, I’ll suggest it has been eminently successful. In addition, it was also recognized with 6 Best-in Category for “Top of the Valley” voting by the Albany Democrat Herald: https://issuu.com/midvalleymedia/docs/screen_best_of_magazine_2022_final
Come down anytime on Wed. thru Sun. from 11:00am to 4:00pm and take a tour and a ride. You *WILL* be smiling afterwards…I’m there Thurs. thru Sun.. and will be happy to give you a personal tour… :-)
It’s nice to use figures like 160000 visitors but what are the revenues for a year. We had friends who carved a unicorn so I am not against it but they also have a carousel in Salem and had the Gilbert toy museum which has now been moved and it wasn’t successful so why should this carousel be different even with volunteer labor.
Hopefully it gives Ray something to do to keep from spending our tax dollars on other frivolous expenses downtown. Privately funded development is the key to revitalization. If private entities don’t wish to spend their coin downtown, there is likely a reason (or three). Likewise, I’m not sure trumpeting a recognition in the local print rag is worth what Ray seems to think it is either. The couple dozen people that subscribe likely already know about the carousel.
It pleases me no-end that successful endeavors by private enterprise (with some jump-starting via CARA) have dramatically improved the downtown. And in doing so, continue to bedevil the naysayers out there… Albany is hugely better for the collaborations…
I didn’t know/realize the Salem carousel wasn’t successful… Can’t speak to why that may be. Ours is newer & larger. That may have something to do with it? And with 96+% volunteers, we’ve been profitable since day-1. C’mon down & take a tour and ride! :-)
Ray, Al is full of bull as usual. The Salem Carousel has been going for 21 years and the facility is doing an expansion. The pandemic had it closed for a while.
Ray, the Salem Carousel has been subsidized by the City of Salem over time