Volume 2, Number 5, September 2002
Arizona Public Service Company (APS) has filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) a long-awaited “application to surrender” its license for operating the Childs-Irving Hydropower Plants at Fossil Creek. The Application to Surrender marks perhaps the most significant milestone yet in Living Rivers battle to restore Fossil Creek and the surrounding riparian habitat.
The Childs and Irving plants are 90 and 100 years old respectively and draw the entire flow of Fossil Creek out of the streambed and into a series of penstocks, flumes and tunnels for hydropower production. The plants produce a miniscule amount of power in comparison to the major damage they wreak on Fossil Creek, a perennial stream in the central Arizona desert.
The United States Forest Service (USFS)however is somewhat concerned. “Although the Forest Service strongly supports the goal of surrender and decommissioning to restore full stream flow to Fossil Creek, the Forest Service opposes certain provisions of the settlement agreement.” Of particular concern is the USFS’s request that “Additional or different structures are retained in the project site.” Before the agreement was signed, each of the significant 52 components of the plants was considered, studied and its removal or retention painstakingly negotiated. To reopen these negotiations would be an unnecessary bureaucratic burden.
Living Rivers and the other environmental groups involved in the initial negotiations are still highly engaged and prepared to battle for nothing less than the initial goal: full flows to Fossil Creek. No compromise is acceptable.
