On 4/9/04 12:23 AM, "Chris Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:That's true -- Crown Hydro is not Manitoba Hydro, and Crown is a run of the river deal so the problems caused by damming the river with many hydro projects are not as likely here. My remark was more in response to Young's remarks at the meeting which sounded to me as though she believed hydro-power, per se, was non-polluting -- not just specifically this project.
* Young states she is a big supporter of renewable energy with no pollution
[Young needs some educating on the environmental aspects of hydro power if she
things it is 100% clean power].
In defense of Commissioner Young, while the Crown Hydro project has its
issues, pollution is not really one of them from what I have seen. This
isn't like Manitoba Hydro in Canada, for example.
The Crown Hydro project may have some environmental problems, however. We just don't know well enough what they might be to make an informed decision. For example, I've read someplace they want to re-use some of the Cataract Mill tunnels and races. What's in those tunnels now that we might not want washed into the river? We don't know, but I've seen photographs of some of the tunnels under the mill ruins taken before the park was built that showed quite a wide variety of mechanical debris, some of which might well be contaminated.
* Young is concerned about the $1.1 million that Crown Hydro will use from the
state's renewable energy fund. The Crown Hydro project will build 3.6
megawatts of power at about $3,000 per kilowatt. Wind power can be built for
about $1,000 per kilowatt. Wouldn't that $1.1 million perhaps be better
invested in wind power?
One small point - The Crown Hydro project was approved for $5.1 million from the Xcel Energy Renewable Development Fund - not $1.1 million. I'm not sure where this $1.1 million figure comes from, but it's wrong and needs to be corrected as it seems to have grown a life of it's own...
For details, see:
http://www.xcelenergy.com/XLWEB/CDA/0,3080,1-1-1_4359_8118_2716-2239-5_406_6 64-0,00.html
If the above breaks, go to: http://makeashorterlink.com/?H27D32AF7
$1.1 million is what I thought I heard spoken at the meeting. I thought the number was funny at the time, too, but simply typed up what my notes said. Clearly, $5.1 million is the correct number. Maybe I misheard, or maybe someone misspoke.
On a different note, if I'm reading Chris's highlights correctly, it soundsMight be my mistake. It was a jam-packed meeting with a lot of ground covered. This vote came near the end of a 4-hour meeting, so I may well have missed the actual wording of the motion which was being voted upon. Then again, maybe the Daily reporter heard wrong instead of me? I don't know.
like the Park Board denied the request for a memorial plaque at Van Cleve
Park.
Yet the MN Daily reported that the request was approved.
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/04/09/9174
I welcome all corrections to my reporting.
And in response to recent postings about cell towers: I can't say that I particularly like the looks of most of them, either. I can see two of them out my windows here at home. One is not so bad -- looks mostly like an ordinary telephone/streetlight pole, which although not particularly attractive, is very common and fairly innocuous. The other is a steel behemoth and is truly ugly. But with the vast amount of property the Park Board owns, many locations of which already have towering light poles for the athletic fields, it doesn't seem unlikely that locations for 3 or 4 cell towers could be found.
Chris Johnson Fulton
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