Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Editorial • LMUD board’s caution proves well founded

Publisher’s note: This editorial originally appeared in the Tuesday, June 14, 2005 edition of the Lassen County Times.

The Lassen Municipal Utilities District Board showed great foresight a year ago in deciding not to pursue involvement in the Arrowrock Hydroelectric Project.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently vindicated that decision by issuing a notice of probable termination of the license to build a 60 megawatt electricity generating plant at the dam on the South Fork of the Boise River in Idaho.

FERC cited repeated requests for extensions of the two-year license five Idaho irrigation districts obtained in 1989 to build the project.

The FERC order denying another extension of the project also said the irrigation districts recently totally changed the project without filing a license amendment application.

It also cited the objection that the districts weren’t pursuing the project with due diligence from Kan We Help, a citizen’s watchdog group in Lassen County.

LMUD got involved in early 2001 when it agreed to help the irrigation districts study the feasibility of developing hydro-electric power production at the dam built in 1915.

In June 2004, the LMUD board voted unanimously not to pursue future participation in the Arrowrock Project, saying the project’s probable price for electricity was no longer low enough to make LMUD participation worthwhile.

Now that the project is basically dead in the water, we applaud the LMUD board for voting not to spend any more money on Arrowrock.

LMUD’s ability to predict the future is as questionable as anyone’s, but this time the board’s caution proved well founded.