ANOHER "THUMBS UP" TO XCEL ENERGY

WHITE RIVER POWER DAM...

WHITE RIVER DAM FLOWAGE...

...IMPOUNDMENT  ON THE WHITE RIVER

Monday, 8:30 AM.  64 degrees F at both the ferry dock and on the back porch.  Wind N, light with occasional slightly stronger gusts.  The sky is overcast and cloudy, and it is raining lightly, the humidity 88%.  The barometer is more or less steady, at 29.97".  Rain today and tomorrow, highs in the low 60's, then cooler and clearing somewhat.  Guess the lawn mowing will have to wait a few days.
   In our travels around Wisconsin we often come across ruined old power plants on small rivers; they are forlorn and abandoned, with broken doors and windows, the generating machinery inoperative or looted long ago.  
   The dams themselves, the "millponds," have become part of the cultural infrastructure of small communities and will remain; and we think, "What a waste, if they were operational they could still power that entire community."
   Back in the 1980's I was involved with the restoration of a major historic estate located on a small tributary to the Hudson River north of New York City, and had the opportunity to inspect an early 20th Century power plant that had powered a small community.    Very simple and straightforward, without even the necessity of a dam, it diverted flowing river water to a generator, taking nothing but the force of gravity, and in return giving light and motive power. Beautiful! 
   There is a small dam and power plant on State Highway 118, seven miles south of Ashland on the White River, that looks like it still functions, and having bought coffee at MacDonalds on Saturday we pulled off the road to drink it, and took a closer look, after years of simply driving over the dam on the road.  Believe it or not, here is an old dam, with a "millpond," that still produces electricity as it did years and years ago.   Doing a little internet search, I can report:
   "White River Hydro plant is an automatic electric generating plant located seven miles south of Ashland, Wisconsin. White River Hydro is operated as a run-of-the-river operation where water is traversed along a 1500 foot pipeline running from the dam to the power plant. The water returns to the river channel as it exits the plant. Many people fish the stretch of river below the plant during spring steelhead and fall salmon runs."
    Operated by Xcel Energy Corporation, the little plant produces .6 megawatts of clean, completely renewable energy, enough electricity to power 650 homes.  The "millpond" above the dam is a sport fishery for northern pike.  The power company maintains free boat launches there, as it does at its power plant in Ashland  on Chequamegon Bay (one of the few power plants that burns sawdust and wood chips, another important environmental effort).
   Xcel Energy also encourages the nesting of peregrine falcons on its stacks and towers, and operates bird cams to watch the parents and chicks.  
   As a society, we can't afford to continually abandon concepts and facilities that have been paid for in money, human effort and often lives whenever a new idea comes to town.  A truly wise and efficient society will keep the old along with the new where it is paid for, practical and makes sense.  That to me is true environmentalism.
   So, I am giving a conservative environmentalist's "thumbs up" once again to Xcel Energy, a truly great and wise American corporation. 
   For more information, visit Xcel Energy's corporate web site, also use the Almanac search engine.