Duke receives counter proposal

By Rose Hooper

That was the message presented by a public interest/conservation group as part of a counteroffer to Duke Power Co.'s draft proposal for the Tuckaseigee River.

In making the presentation July 18 to members of the Tuckasegee Cooperative Stakeholder Team, Roger Turner said the proposal was backed by American Rivers, American Whitewater, Jackson County government, Trout Unlimited, N.C. Wildlife Federation and WNC Alliance.

"We view all of the Duke hydropower facilities in the Little Tennessee River basin as one unit when assessing impacts from Duke's facilities," said Turner of WNC Alliance. "We believe the separate Nantahala and Tuckaseigee group meetings have been useful but support an effort to bring these teams together."

The counter proposal asks Duke to consolidate its hydropower licenses as part of its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing process. "We need to be looking at the entire watershed," Turner told the stakeholders.

He further suggested that Duke "permanently protect the entire 4,600 acres of the Needmore Tracts on the Little Tennessee River in Swain and Macon counties as a mitigation measure related to all current Duke relicensing projects."

Another concern, Turner said, is the current schedule for deliberations, "which may unduly pressure stakeholders to commit to decisions before all study results are available."

John Wishon, Duke's Nantahala Area relicensing manager, questioned Turner as to who specifically in his group represented Jackson County government and if the commissioners had taken an official position. Ken Westmoreland said as county manager he was representing Jackson County's Greenway project concerns.

Some stakeholders, like Doug Odell of Friends of Lake Glenville, voiced concern that including the entire watershed would only lengthen the relicensing process.

"We have enough of a task now dealing with the Tuckaseigee and getting 60 people to reach an agreement by November," Odell told Turner. "We can't add more now. We'd be bogged down another two years."

The operating license for the Dillsboro, Thorpe and East Fork hydroelectric projects, issued by FERC, expires in 2005. The FERC licensing renewal process requires Duke Power to submit relicensing proposals in July 2003.

Duke District Manager Fred Alexander said he hopes the stakeholder team can reach a consensus by this November.

No action was taken on Turner's counter proposal. The team did, however, take action to accept Susan Leveille as a stakeholder representing the town of Webster.

"The Tuckaseigee River affects our town and its residents. It always has and always will," said Leveille, Webster's planning board chairman.

Back to Archive: 07/25/02.