‘Imagine how much savings today that would be’: Hydropower project backed by Spring administration died in 2011

QUINCY — The announcement by Low Head Hydro M 11 LLC from Mount Orab, Ohio, of its proposal to study the feasibility of the proposed Mississippi Lock and Dam 21 Hydroelectric Project is not the first time a hydropower plant has been proposed in Quincy.

The Quincy City Council voted in July 2006 to seek federal permits to build hydroelectric plans at Lock and Dam 20 in Canton, Mo., Lock and Dam 21 in Quincy and Lock and Dam 22 in Saverton, Mo. Once those permits were granted, the City Council voted to spend $600,000 on pre-engineering work. Cost projections for construction were between $170 million and $180 million if all three plants were operational by 2016.

“The goal was to begin generating electricity around 2015 to 2017,” said former Quincy Mayor John Spring, who supported the project. “The power would have been used to operate the city’s wastewater treatment plant, for which the city was paying more than $400,000 a year in energy cost.

“As the country continues to look for alternative sources of energy, and with the river at the city’s doorstep, it made sense to pursue the project. Imagine how much savings today that would be for the city?”

The city later was awarded the right to pursue licenses for hydroelectric plants at Lock and Dam 24 in Clarksville, Mo., and Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield, Mo. Aldermen approved a $6.6 million bond issue in September 2009 to continue licensing work on the projects.

The city agreed in December 2009 to establish a private corporation to help obtain a $30 million federal grant for the hydropower project at Lock and Dam 21. Great River Hydropower LLC was established in March 2010 by the Mississippi River No. 21 Hydropower Co., the city’s hydropower corporation, to attract private investors.

Mississippi L&D 21 of Rigsby, Idaho, and Lock+Hydro Friends Funds XXXI LLC, affiliated with Hydro Green Energy of Houston, both filed applications to study the feasibility of developing hydropower at Lock and Dam 21 in January 2010. 

By May 2010, the city’s hydropower company learned six companies had expressed interest in becoming partners in developing hydropower. The city needed to spend five percent of the project’s expected $100 million cost by the end of 2010 to qualify for the 30 percent of the costs through a grant program. The deadline was later extended to the end of 2011. The city submitted its licensing application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in July 2010, a process expected to take one year.

The hydropower corporation announced in February 2011 that it had signed a letter of intent with Canadian-based Coastal Hydropower Corp. Spring said Coastal was prepared to generate more than two million dollars in new revenue for the city.

However, the FERC announced soon afterward it had dismissed the city’s license application and preliminary permit application.

Spring said he had no indication a problem existed with the city’s hydropower LLC submitting the licensing application when it was filed in July 2010.

“If you’ve been dealing with this agency for 4½ years with some pretty high-powered people on our team, wouldn’t you think they would send us any correspondence, either to let us know this? Wouldn’t you have thought they would have said, ‘Hey, can you clarify this?’” Spring told The Herald-Whig in 2010.  

At the time, the project called for the installation of 30 turbines that would produce 15 megawatts of power.

“Unfortunately, with local elections coming up in 2013, the project became a political issue that ultimately led to the end of the project,” Spring said. “The bonds were paid back in 18 months with no additional debt service for the city.”