拆除波特谷工程大坝的经济效益
引言和结论
The Potter Valley Project is a hydroelectric facility constructed in the upper Eel River watershed approximately 20 miles northeast of Ukiah. 项目所有者太平洋天然气和电力公司(PG&E), is currently working to surrender its federal license to operate the Project and decommission the facilities. PG&E has noted that the Project is uneconomic for their ratepayers as their reason for divesting from it. 估计PG&E每年在项目运营上平均损失5-10百万美元. 在放弃该项目的许可之前，PG&E attempted to auction the facilities, but was unable to find a suitable buyer. 另外, 这些设施缺乏现代化的鱼类通道机制, generate very little electricity by modern standards and would likely be prohibitively expensive to retrofit.
PG&E目前正在决定如何终止该项目. Two key elements that they must face are how to comply with state and federal environmental laws, and how to limit their liability for any long term or ongoing costs associated with the Project footprint.
The Potter Valley Project consists of two 100-year-old dams – 斯科特大坝 and 合恩角水坝, 引水隧洞, penstocks and a powerhouse located in the East Branch of the Russian River. 该工程具有跨流域导流的功能, moving water from the Eel River into the East Branch of the Russian River. 斯科特大坝, 上坝, has no fish passage facility and blocks 288 miles of potential spawning and rearing habitat for the Eel River’s salmon and steelhead populations, both of which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. 合恩角水坝, 位于斯科特大坝下游12英里处, 鱼类通道设施是否不足, which will likely require costly upgrades to meet environmental standards. The power generation facility is currently inoperable due to an equipment failure. 该项目还因引水而受到审查, which represents an adjudicated water right for the Round Valley Indian Tribes. In 2018, Congressman Jared Huffman convened a diverse set of stakeholders in a collaborative process that sought to explore terms for the future of the Potter Valley Project. 这一努力, 被称为双盆解决方案, sought to reduce conflict between stakeholders and work toward a compromise solution that would benefit both the Russian River and the Eel River watersheds.
Five of the participants of the Congressman’s stakeholder group – Round Valley Indian Tribes, 洪堡县, 门多西诺县内陆水电委员会, 索诺玛县水务局, and California Trout – then commissioned several studies exploring various alternatives and their estimated costs. Information from the group’s alternatives analysis narrowed their efforts to acquiring key components of the Potter Valley Project from PG&E and modifying them to function as a water diversion-only facility, including estimating the cost of modifications and operations and additional analysis on removing both 斯科特大坝 and 合恩角水坝.
While negotiations surrounding the fate of the Potter Valley Project continue, this report seeks to provide an understanding of the economic impacts associated with one likely result of the decommissioning process: that PG&他将拆除斯科特和合恩角大坝. This outcome is likely due to the reasonable initial capital outlay and the minimal long-term operation and maintenance costs associated with dam removal relative to long-term operations and maintenance costs coupled with ongoing state and federal liabilities surrounding fish passage, 环保合规, 大坝安全没有持续的收入来源.
Dam removal entails dismantling the dams either completely (in the case of 斯科特大坝) or through modifications such as lowering (in the case of 合恩角水坝). 在这两个例子中, fish passage would be dramatically improved compared to the status quo, significantly increasing the quantity and quality of fish habitat in the Eel River. Removal of both dams and the modernization of associated watershed infrastructure will also benefit residents, 游客, and Tribes who depend on the Eel River and Russian River for water supplies, 防洪, 和娱乐.
The chart below summarizes the potential economic impacts of the combined dam removal projects in the State of California, 正如本报告所分析的那样.
在总, feasibility studies show between $133 million and $185 million will need to be invested to remove 斯科特大坝 and 合恩角水坝. 这些投资将产生1的经济乘数.88x在加州，他们将支持总共9.每花费100万美元创造0个就业机会. 分析的主要结果包括:
大坝拆除工程将支持1,223 to1,在加州有637个全职工作年, 1,037 to 1,332 of which would be withinthe five-county Northern California area of study.
除了工作, the dam removal and riverrestoration projects would provide an estimated$252 million to $345 million in total economic outputfor California, $203 million to $278 million of whichwould stay in the five-county region of study.
The economic output figure indicates the total value of transactions that are generated as a result of one dollar of initial expenditure. The multiplier effect grows as the geography studied gets larger—this pattern is typical as larger geographies have less spending leakage to other surrounding areas. 作为一个拥有多种产业和大量劳动力的州, the California model has very limited immediate leakage to other states. The model assumes that all of the project’s initial capital and labor inputs come from within California.
