RBC | The RBWCD board met on Oct. 30 at their regularly scheduled board meeting. Discussion included:
Loan for Turbine Repair
The board approved a loan for $2.5 million with a different vendor than the one that had been expected. General Electric had been expected to be the contractor to do turbine repair, but last-minute significant price increases resulted in a change of vendor to a company called Taking Care of Business (TCB).
The turbine will be shipped to California, starting in November, and completed in April 2025. The generator is currently down. When running the plant is operating at 53% capacity.
Details of Turbine Repair Loan
The $2.5 million loan was granted by the Colorado Water Conservancy District and is secured by future revenues of the Taylor Draw hydro plant. The board unanimously approved the loan. Revenues from the power plant are pledged to pay for the loan. Past tax returns from 2018 to 2022 indicate losses of nearly $1.5 million from the Taylor Draw hydro operation.
Review by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
In addition to the $2.5 million repair the District has committed to a $400,000 review required by FERC to assess the risk of flooding from Taylor Draw Dam. As part of the review, an analysis was completed on the remaining water capacity in Kenney Reservoir. The results were not available.
Extended Moon Lake Power Purchase
The board also learned that Moon Lake Electric has extended an agreement to buy available energy from Taylor Draw through 2026 at the same rate they have been paying.
Water Plan
The District is also working on an RBWCD Water Supply Plan which is not available for public review until approved by the Division Water Engineer. According to the discussion, it includes the replacement of Kenney Reservoir by the Wolf Creek Reservoir. District Executive Director Alden VandenBrink stated, “the purpose of Wolf Creek is to replace Kenney Reservoir.” The Water Supply plan recommendation draft currently includes recommendations to give up conditional rights for stock watering, manufacturing and domestic rural water rights.
Zebra Mussel
The board briefly discussed concerns regarding the spread of the invasive zebra mussel — an issue the Yampa White Green Roundtable is following —which are nearly impossible to get rid of and can drastically damage river systems, power plants and irrigation pumps. The mussel has been found in several places on the Colorado River, but no procedures are in place on the White River to implement a rigorous program for prevention such as boat inspections.
The next regular board meeting in November is delayed until Dec. 4 to allow for Thanksgiving week and give the board time to review a proposed budget for 2025.
