Electric Currents Battle Builds Over Proposal For Power Plant On Boundary Creek

A Bonners Ferry corporation is reviving controversial plans to build a hydroelectric plant on Boundary Creek.

Continental Lands Inc., which formed in October, soon will file for a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said company secretary-treasurer Chuck Roady.

That first step would allow Continental to begin studies required before the commission would consider giving the company a permit to build the project.

Continental already has begun lobbying Idaho’s Congressional delegation and local officials for support.

Industry and government officials said approval for the project is a long shot and would require years of studies.

Roady is more hopeful. He and his four partners bought about 200 acres that supported a silver mine from the late 1800s until the 1940s.

The Continental Mine had a hydropower plant that supplied power for the camp and the town of Porthill, near the Canadian border.

“A lot of times where there’s existing or previous developments, then it’s a lot easier than starting from scratch,” Roady said.

Conservationists and kayakers are gearing up for a battle.

“We’re definitely concerned,” said Liz Paul of Idaho Rivers United. “You can have a project that seems like a long shot or a total loser, but you still have to fight it all the way.”

American Whitewater plans to add Boundary Creek to its list of the 40 most-endangered streams in the nation, said John Gangemi, the organization’s Montana-based conservation director.

The stream is considered a premier “steep creek” run among a small but growing group of expert kayakers, said Gangemi. He fears the hydro project would shorten the creek’s already short river-running season or spoil its charm.

Tucked against the Canadian border, Boundary Creek flows through areas roamed by endangered grizzly bears and woodland caribou. It is one of the few major streams flowing into the Kootenai River that doesn’t have waterfalls to block spawning bull trout, a species listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

In 1990, Dominion Hydroelectric Associates opened a power plant on nearby Smith Creek. That project met little opposition while Dominion was obtaining permits in the 1980s.

But in 1990, when Dominion proposed a plant on Boundary Creek, kayakers, conservationists and others organized to fight it.

Some of the opponents were upset that the Smith Creek project shortened the kayaking season by drawing water away from the creek bed; others were angry over a mess left in the creek when construction was done. Under orders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dominion later removed construction debris and repaired badly eroded areas.

Dominion gave up its Boundary Creek plans after deciding it would be too costly to complete all the studies, obtain necessary permits and fight opponents, co-owner Fred Moss said from the company’s Salt Lake City office.

Moss said anyone planning to generate electricity at Boundary Creek should count on 10 to 20 years of studies.

“I’d love to see (the Boundary Creek project) built because I think it could be environmentally friendly,” Moss said.

Roady said that until studies are completed, there’s no telling exactly what the Boundary Creek project would look like. It probably would be similar to Dominion’s Smith Creek plant, he said.

At Smith Creek, a low dam forms a small reservoir where some of the creek flow is diverted into a pipe that runs under a paved Forest Service road, losing 1,600 feet of elevation in 5.5 miles. The water builds up speed and pressure before hitting turbines and rejoining the creek, just upstream from scenic Smith Falls.

Dominion officials say the plant generates enough electricity during spring runoff to light 40,000 houses.

Roady said opponents are “definitely overreacting” to Continental’s plans to generate electricity.

Rumors that Continental plans to put a resort or other development on its remote land are untrue, Roady said. Although the corporation lists mining as its primary purpose in incorporation papers filed with the state, the partners bought the land for their own recreational use, he said.

“Nobody enjoys climbing and hiking around and fishing more than my family and the other families that bought it,” he said.

The U.S. Forest Service recently closed Boundary Creek Road to protect endangered species and because the road is susceptible to slides. Although that narrow dirt road presumably would provide the path for the hydroelectric plant’s water pipe, Roady wouldn’t comment about the fate of the project should Boundary County commissioners lose a legal battle to have the road reopened.

“We’ve been advised (by attorneys) that until the litigation between the Forest Service and the county is settled, we should refrain from comment,” he said.

Roady’s partners include Roland Hall of Bonners Ferry; Gary Regehr of Naples, Idaho; and Robert Cegnar of Moses Lake, Wash.

In June, Hall asked the Boundary County School Board to support the project. The board responded by writing a letter to Idaho’s Congressional delegation, asking that they do all they can to help Continental.

“They threw out a carrot to the board of donating 25 percent of their gross revenue to … build schools,” said school board chairman Leonard Kucera Jr.

“That should be an indicator right there of our sincerity in trying to make this work,” Roady said.

The low price of electricity has some critics wondering whether Dominion would make enough profit to share with the schools.

“At the present time, power rates are not real high,” said Roady. “But there are a lot of things on the horizon that could make that change overnight.”

Among the factors Roady listed are energy deregulation, proposals to remove dams from the Snake and Columbia Rivers, and a growing concern over pollution from plants that burn coal to produce electricity.

“There’s nothing that’s more environmentally sound than using hydropower,” Roady said.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE A Boundary Creek hydroelectric plant likely would be similar to the project on Smith Creek. Officials say that plant generates enough electricity during spring runoff to light 40,000 houses.