FERC issues Final Environmental Impact Statement for proposed Juneau facility
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, recently issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Sweetheart Lake Hydroelectric Project planned for Juneau, Alaska.
The original application was filed on May 29, 2014, by Juneau Hydropower, Inc., requesting a license from the FERC for a proposed 19.8-megawatt power facility. The project would occupy 2,058.24 acres of land presently administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, and is expected to generate approximately 116,000 megawatt-hours of energy annually.
The facilities planned for construction in the proposed project include a 111-foot-high concrete dam, which would be constructed at the outlet of Lower Sweetheart Lake, a 525-foot-long outlet tunnel, and a concrete and steel powerhouse, along with various intake structures, tunnels, turbines and underground lines. The facilities would bypass a two-mile-long stretch of Sweetheart Creek, allowing for flow above the maximum operating level to pass over the dam spillway and into the bypassed segment of the creek.
The FEIS takes into consideration oral and written feedback from state and federal agencies, NGOs, and the public, collected by the commission following the release of a draft of the EIS released on October 29.
