Expert panel talks Green River Reservoir issues

Without a dam, there is no Green River Reservoir.

Since that time, the utility has asked the state to purchase the dam, the path of least resistance for both the utility and those anxious about the reservoir’s future. In the 2022 session, legislators allocated $350,000 for a study to identify what would be required to maintain the dam in the short and long term.

Morrisville Water & Light is also attempting to have the Hyde Park dam removed from the certification process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with the other two dams it operates. This is the first step in potentially decommissioning the dam, a process that could lead to a variety of outcomes.

As a resolution to the dam’s operational status slowly moves along, activists have been pushing for protections for the recreational amenities and environment of the reservoir.

The Nature Conservancy, whose associate director Tom Rogers moderated last Tuesday’s forum, owns the easement on the land immediately surrounding the reservoir. He was joined by its director, Heather Furman, who called the reservoir one of Vermont’s few undeveloped shorelines.

Michael Snyder, commissioner of Vermont Forest, Parks and Recreation, which manages the 5,503-acre state park surrounding the reservoir, was also on hand to answer questions, along with Julie Moore, head of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, which filed the lawsuit that forced the utility to adhere to water quality standards and is conducting the study that may potentially lead to the state purchase of the dam.

Jon Groveman, director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council, represented the environmental non-profit and provided insight on the dam licensing process, while Anthony Iarrapino, an environmental attorney who provides council to the friends, weighed in on the decommissioning process.

Though Morrisville Water & Light was the subject of much discussion on the panel, it was not invited to appear on the panel, a snub the utility took offense at.

“It is disappointing and frustrating that the (Friends of Green River Reservoir) chose to host a webinar about the future of the hydro facility owned by Morrisville Water & Light without inviting Morrisville Water & Light to participate,” Penny Jones, the utility’s general manager, said.

Jones also reiterated the utility’s position that it cannot operate the Green River dam with the costs mandated by the Supreme Court decision, citing its obligation to ratepayers, but also said the utility “greatly appreciates the value of the Green River Reservoir.”

The Friends of the Green River Reservoir board noted in a statement that the utility had presented its perspective on the dam on multiple occasions and thought the general discourse would benefit from having a wider range of perspectives.

The dialogue between conservationists and the utility wasn’t always so fraught.

In his introduction to the panel, founding member of the friends Milford Cushman remarked that Morrisville Water & Light had, for decades, been a great steward of the reservoir, keeping it free of motorized boats and promoting its wild character. Sally Loughlin, president of the friends, said that in the 1970s the utility began managing water levels to help protect loons before they were even declared endangered.

But last Tuesday night there was a palpable frustration with the utility among some panelists and in questions asked from the audience regarding the interminable process and uncertainty generated by the Morrisville Water & Light’s management of the dam.

“It’s very frustrating now that we finally have a decision, that’s basically saying that the agency scientists are correct, the fisheries, biologists and the water quality scientists,” Groveman said. “We know what’s needed to meet water quality standards. It’s frustrating we’re not doing that right now.”

“(Morrisville Water & Light has) definitely benefited from the drawn-out litigation process that has forestalled (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) from actually moving forward with the license but I think their patience is running out,” Iarrapino said.

Morrisville Water & Light took an initial step toward resolving the licensing issue when it filed an amendment last November and is now waiting for federal commission to review prior studies and reports before establishing next steps.

The slow pace doesn’t bode well for the Agency of Natural Resources, whose director, Moore, said the agency wants to wait and see results from the commission’s reports so the state’s study doesn’t overlap.

Moore also said that she didn’t believe the money allocated for the study would be enough to provide all the answers sought about the dam, and that an invitation to the Army Corps of Engineers, which helps operate the Waterbury Reservoir dam, to get involved was declined.

The panelists did identify some certainties within an uncertain process to console anxious environmentalists and community members. Iarrapino clarified that a decommissioning of Green River dam could take any number of forms, from removing the dam entirely to just removing the hydroelectric equipment, but the process between Morrisville Water & Light and the federal government will demand input from the public.

“A key takeaway for the audience today is not only do you have a voice as a member of the public and in saying what (the federal government) might want to do eventually, but also there are all these agencies closer to home, these state agencies, that are very sensitive to and, in many cases, required to gather public input about the right approach for the future,” he said.

Even if the worst-case-scenario for environmentalists comes to pass and the dam is somehow removed, which would be an extremely expensive option for Morrisville Water & Light, Furman took the consolatory long view.

“It’s so important we take a really long view on ecological processes and the habitat conditions that have been created over the last 75 years,” she said. “This dam and place are wonderful resources, but if something changes in the future, nature would come back. It would be a different set of habitats and a different resource. It could be a series of wetlands that would attract different species. There is a future where the conservation easement could continue to protect the ecological integrity of this place regardless of what humans choose to do with regard to the dam.”