Susitna Dam estimates could be off by 40 percent

June 9, 2011

The Northern Susitna Valley communities have consistently been opposed to a Susitna Dam since the Army Corps of Engineers had meetings in the 1970s and 1980s.

It is a blatant constitutional abuse that there is no state public process that has public hearings in the affected communities to approve going ahead with this massive hydro project. Yes, the upcoming Federal Energy Regulatory Commission process has many public opportunities. But that is a federal process. We want a state process that involves the public to decide if the state should even apply for a FERC license.

 In an apparent effort to keep the cost of future electricity to 6 cents a kilowatt hour, AEA’s current public project cost estimates is under $5 billion. In reality, this cost estimate could be off as much as 40 percent.

 The $4.9 billion cost does not include a road or a bridge. All of the access, including the upgrading and new construction of roads, bridges, and a possible railroad spur to the dam site must be included in the cost estimates.

The transmission infrastructure costs are unrealistically low. The latest estimate of $224 million is a joke. It must include an upgrade of the Anchorage-Fairbanks intertie.

There is no line item for mitigation costs. Yes, mitigation might be included in a $407 million line item for engineering, environmental and construction management. But we need to see a separate line item for mitigation because mitigation is important to the communities and economies of the Mat Su Borough.

The definition of mitigation according to the White House Council on Environmental Quality is avoiding, minimizing, rectifying, reducing, or compensating for impacts.

An Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory report estimates mitigation for Susitna Dam could cost 25 percent of the project cost. That means mitigation for destroyed salmon and grayling fisheries and moose and caribou habitat would be at least $1 billion.

 AEA does not accurately portray project costs.

 For the River.

 Becky Long (Talkeetna)