Energy & Mining

Tulsequah Chief Mine officials are expected to be part of a Taku River task force meeting later this week.

The fact-finding group meets Thursday evening for the first time since Juneau legislators created it in September. A second meeting is scheduled for Saturday.

The eight-member task force will primarily gather facts about the salmon-producing Taku River. One catalyst is mine redevelopment on the Canadian side. The Tulsequah Chief closed down in the 1950s, and acid mine drainage has been a concern since. Mine owners Chieftain Metals installed a treatment plant at the site this fall, and water coming out of the old mine is now being treated.

The issue that seems to have Juneau most anxious is barging. Former Tulsequah owner Redfern Resources proposed an air-cushion, or Hover barge, towed up the Taku River by an amphibious vehicle. But Redfern went bankrupt and Chieftain Metals announced last year that they want year round road access to the mine. Chief Operating Officer Keith Boyle says even traditional barging up the Taku – as the company did last summer – is difficult.

 

“Our preference is the overland route, just simply because it’s a much lower risk alternative for the operation. We’ve seen a huge variability in what Mother Nature has dealt in terms of river levels and the ability to barge,” Boyle says. “The financial communities are nervous when they see you can’t get your product to market in a consistent manner.”

Chieftain last year struck an agreement with Taku River Tlingit First Nation that covered mine exploration, water treatment and employment. But the company is still negotiating on a road through First Nation territory. It could be years before a road is ever built.

Chris Zimmer is Alaska Director for Rivers without Borders. He says the state must make sure barging doesn’t harm the river and salmon resource.

“It raises all kinds of issues about spills, of diesel fuel and toxic materials and groundings and damage to habitat, so we really want to see the task force take this on, and understand that barging will happen for the next few years and very likely beyond that,” Zimmer says. “That’s something Alaska doesn’t really have a regulatory or permitting handle on.”

The task force is an outgrowth of an effort last year to create a legislative group to study Taku River issues. Meetings between sport and commercial fishermen, and property owners, proved to be very contentious. Juneau legislators said it was clear everyone needed more information and less opinion before any new river protections could be considered.

Task force facilitator Kevin Ritchie says the group will hear about river habitat and salmon stocks as well as current regulatory protections, which are not clear.

“So this is going to be a very valuable process of determining exactly the types of things that will occur if there are specific industrial or other types of issues that involve the Taku River,” Ritchie says.

Chieftain Metals C-O-O Boyle is expected to participate by teleconference in Saturday’s task force meeting. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and has offices in Vancouver and Atlin, British Columbia.

The Taku River Fact-Finding Task Force will meet Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon, in House Finance chambers at the state capitol.

After a three-month delay, the Taku River Fact-Finding Task Force will meet next week for the first time. The task force was created in September by Juneau’s legislative delegation to gather facts about the river and possible impacts of Tulsequah Chief Mine redevelopment on the Canadian side of the Taku River watershed.

The Taku River is the most abundant salmon-producer in Southeast Alaska.

Scheduling difficulties prevented task force members from meeting with Fish and Game, Natural Resources, and other agency experts until January 5th, about three weeks after a report to Juneau legislators was due.

Facilitator Kevin Ritchie says the first two meetings will chart the course of the task force. No formal deadline has been set for the report.

He emphasizes the task force’s fact-finding mission:

“It’s not out there to make decisions, or recommendations, or to propose legislation or anything like that, but to provide the community, legislators and other folks information about what the issues area, what kind of things the state can do and so on,” Ritchie says.

Task Force members represent the Alaska Native community, commercial and private property owners, commercial fishing and fish processors, sport fish and charter boat operators, and include a retired biologist.

Ritchie says they will review the biological health of Taku River fish stocks, habitat, and game; determine the agencies responsible for monitoring industrial river traffic, vessel safety and spill response; and also assess the effectiveness of current state and federal statutes and regulations.

Ritchie says Tulsequah Mine developers Chieftain Metals have been invited to the task force meetings.

Construction on the multi-metal mine is to begin sometime next year. Chieftain recently reached agreement with Denver-based Royal Gold to pay up to $60 million for the right to gold and silver produced from the mine. Royal Gold has pledged a $10-million advance payment at closing of the deal, and an additional $50 million mine construction.

An agreement between two federal agencies announced Monday leaves just one formal step before the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska – or NPR-A – is open for development.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has refused to allow Conoco Philips to access the area via a bridge across the Colville River. That’s because the Environmental Protection Agency had declared the Colville an Aquatic Resource of National Importance.

The agreement between the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declares a bridge across the river as the preferred alternative for accessing the reserve. Final approval by the Corps of Engineers is expected within a few weeks. That will allow Conoco to begin working on leases it holds in the CD-5 oilfield on the North Slope.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski says the agreement is great news.

“For years we have been talking about the potential available within the NPR-A. So to finally be on the way where Conoco will be able to advance a bridge over the Colville River – to get to the other side – is very welcome news,” says Murkowski.

Conoco-Philips’ spokeswoman Natalie Lowman says the agreement is a positive step. But without final approval she couldn’t say when work would get underway in the CD-5 field.

“Because we haven’t seen the permit or its conditions, we can’t really say when we would start. But receiving this permit is one of the key steps in order to receive the go-ahead to sanction the project,” Lowman say.

Murkowski says she spoke with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who assured her that the EPA is no longer objecting to the development. Though she says it remains to be seen what conditions the agency puts on its final approval.

“We are very hopeful that there will be no surprises with these conditions once we learn the exact nature of them,” says Murkowski.

Congressman Don Young welcomed the agreement, but added – quote – “It should have happened sooner.” And Senator Mark Begich praised Conoco-Philips and the Interior Department for continuing to work toward a deal. He said “Alaska’s oil and gas industry needs to hear some good news on the development front.”

Alaska Electric Light and Power says the cost of the diesel fuel burned during last week’s Snettisham outage is about $430,000, or one-half cent per kilowatt hour.

The hydroelectric project went off line Thursday morning and was back on Saturday afternoon. During that time, AEL&P supplemented with diesel, burning 130,000 gallons, says generation engineer Scott Willis.

Beginning in January, the cost will be spread across commercial and residential consumers in the routine quarterly Cost of Power Adjustment. At an average residential use of 750 kilowatt hours of electricity a month, Willis says the increase will be about $3.75 each month for the first three months of 2012.

Without the Lake Dorothy project, the two and a half-day outage would have cost users even more, Willis says. The company generated about 50 percent of Juneau’s electricity from hydro and the other 50 percent from diesel. Lake Dorothy mainly serves the Greens Creek Mine, until it’s needed in town.

“As soon as Snettisham tripped off line, Greens Creek tripped off line and we did not bring them back on until Snettisham power was restored,” Willis says. That was the same situation with AEL&P’s dual fuel customers, he says.

“All of our hydro was devoted to our firm customers in town. And that saved us about 70,000 gallons of diesel fuel, which saved the community about $250,000,” he says.

The anchor bolts for two guy wires failed, causing one pole of a three-pole structure to lean into the center pole. Willis says the company is still investigating the cause of the broken anchors. He says crews added a level of security during the fix.

“So there’s three anchors and guy wires holding the tower, where before there was two. We’ve tried to improve the situation so there won’t be as much stress on the existing anchors,” he said.

Willis says additional work will be done next summer to drill new anchors.

Alaska Electric Light and Power’s Snettisham hydroelectric facility was back in service by mid-afternoon on Saturday, after a Thanksgiving Day power outage.

The workhorse of AEL&P’s generation system was turned back on about 2:30 p.m., two and a half-days after anchor bolts for tower guy wires failed and a tower leaned on a conductor, causing the outage.

Generation engineer Scott Willis says it’s not clear what caused the anchor bolts to fail. He says the tower was not damaged.

“So that tower leaned over and the conductor that tower was carrying –- the big wire that was carrying the electrical power — touched the guy wire of the tower next door—just downhill from it and that’s what shorted things out,” Willis says.

Estimated time of repairs had been three to seven days. But a repair crew was at the site late Friday afternoon; when equipment arrived the next day, the work went quickly, Willis says.

During the Snettisham outage, the company turned on back-up diesel generators. Willis says he began shutting off the diesel as soon as Snettisham was on line. Due to the Lake Dorothy project, he says the company was still able to draw nearly half of Juneau’s power from hydroelectric.

“Lake Dorothy was the key to keeping the amount of diesel generation lower. During the Snettisham outage, AELP was pulling 40 percent from hydro at peak times of the day.” Willis says power generation would have only been about 15 percent hydro without Lake Dorothy.

Willis says the cost of diesel used will not show up in customers’ bills for a couple of months. It will be spread out over a three-month period and covered in the routine cost of power adjustment. Though he doesn’t yet know the amount of the diesel surcharge, he expects it will be very small.

Meanwhile, a snow slide was NOT the cause of last week’s outage. The tower is not in the Snettisham avalanche zone.

For the third winter, AEL&P’s avalanche forecasting program is in place. The company has hired an avalanche specialist, who looks at snow conditions throughout the day, and when needed a snow-control crew brings down small slides before the snow builds up.

November 26, 2011 11:18 pm update
Alaska Electric Light and Power’s Snettisham hydroelectric facility is back in service. 

The workhorse of AELP’s system was turned back on Saturday afternoon at 2:30, two and a half-days after anchor bolts for tower guy wires failed and a tower leaned on a conductor, causing a power outage Thanksgiving morning. 

Generation engineer Scott Willis says he began shutting down diesel generators as soon as the hydro project was on line. 

Willis says it’s not clear what caused the anchor bolts to fail, but it was not an avalanche.

Estimated time of repairs had been three to seven days.

November 24, 2011 5:20 pm
Repairs are expected to take about three to seven days for a set of guy wire anchors for a tower on the Snettisham transmission line.

Two of the anchors failed Thanksgiving morning, causing one pole of a three pole tower structure to lean into another pole. The conductor for the leaning pole touched a guy wire for the middle pole, creating a path to ground and a short that led to the area power outage early yesterday.

Scott Willis of Alaska Electric Light and Power says the outage last from about 6:30 to about 7:45, an hour and fifteen minutes.

Repairs could start as soon as Friday.

Willis says 60-percent of Juneau electricity is being supplied by diesel generation. The other 40-percent from hydroelectric projects like Lake Dorothy, Salmon Creek and Annex Creek facilities.

November 24, 2011 12:15 pm
Alaska Electric Light and Power officials say this morning’s power outage may have been caused by a pair of transmission tower guy wires that broke, eventually causing a phase, or one of the transmission lines to touch another and cause a fault.

The tower was located about three miles from the Snettisham hydroelectric facility. Scott Willis of AEL&P says Tower 3-4 is a three-pole structure that replaced the original single-tower structure at that location. Willis says the original Tower 3-4 was outside of the 2008 avalanche path, but it got pulled down when an adjacent tower got hit by the snowslide.

The uphill pole of the three pole structure for the current Tower 3-4 is supported by four guy wires. Willis says it appears the two uphill guy wires came loose from their concrete anchors. That caused the entire pole to lean over to the middle one and both transmission lines, or conductor cable, touched.

Willis says the tower was not destroyed and none of the conductor was broken.

It is unclear what caused the guy wires to separate from their anchors, whether it was wind, a tree, or a small avalanche that was not immediately visible. It is also unclear how much damage there was to the tower poles.

A line crew surveyed the transmission line during a helicopter flight over the area this morning. More details will be available later after they return to town.

Willis says the one question that everyone asks is whether this means that rates will be going up. Probably not. Willis says repairs will likely last a few days to a week at most. That probably would not be long enough to trigger an Emergency Cost Of Power Adjustment. Any use of diesel generators this week will likely be a small surcharge added to next quarter’s rates.

Willis says hydroelectric projects like Lake Dorothy, Salmon Creek, and Annex Creek are currently providing about 40-percent of the current demand for electricity.

November 24, 2011 7:53 am
Alaska Electric Light and Power reports an areawide power outage this morning that lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. Electricity went out about 6:30 a.m. with all areas restored about 7:45 a.m.

AEL&P generation engineer Scott Willis says it appears the outage was caused by a fault on the transmission line between the Snettisham and Lake Dorothy hydroelectric projects. He says a helicopter is already being prepared for a first-light survey of the transmission line to determine the nature of the fault.

Juneau’s electricity is now being supplied by diesel generators with additional power by other in-town hydroelectric facilities like Salmon Creek and Annex Creek. Willis says the Lake Dorothy generator was tripped off, but the line from that project to Juneau appears to be still intact. Lake Dorothy will be used to supplement power to Juneau once the generator comes back on-line.

Check back here later for further updates.