I’ve been out for a few hours and came back to the office and found an email from Mike over at Madison River Fishing Company – the news isn’t good this afternoon. 

Here’s Mike’s update today –

Here are the facts at the moment; the flow out of Hebgen Dam is still just over 3000 cfs at Kirby just under 3500. The water level in the reservoir is eight feet below full. We’re still losing five and a half to six inches of water elevation every 24 hours. This year the target elevation for March would be eleven feet below full so there’s still 3 feet of water elevation left before we reach that threshold. They’ll, of course, still need to run the reservoir all winter with at least minimum flows. The longer this goes on the more we will be counting on a generous snowpack this winter. Actually counting on precipitation or any other weather related issues in the Rocky Mountains is Russian Roulette at best. It looks now like minimum flows over the winter are inevitable. It’s going to be AT LEAST another day or two until we see any meaningful drop in flow. More bad news, another obstacle.

Apparently PP&L worked until 3 A.M. this morning and were at it again early. Two crews are tag-teaming the mess and will keep at it until they succeed. But even my contact at PP&L is starting to sound frustrated and frazzled. This is going on much longer than anyone wanted or predicted. If they can’t get a handle on this the reservoir will be at its March 1st drawdown level by the end of the weekend.

Late last night the crew discovered an I-beam bent and lodged into place, blocking the passage of more new stoplogs. They got some of the new ones back in place again after finally cutting loose the old ones and now this. Unbelievable. It’s hard not to be pissed. It’s tough to not place blame. I feel though like PP&L is doing everything it can and they’re as frustrated as we are. There is also an inspector from FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; the folks who license dams) onsite and overseeing the work.

There is a 150-ton crane on the way to the site and they are trucking in what must be a very large barge (it’s coming in on 11 separate trucks!). This will be used to yank the I-beam out of the way so work on the new logs can progress. The barge is supposed to be on the way right now and will likely be there tomorrow. I would have to assume it’ll take them a while to assemble it as well. More lost time, more lost water…

The fears and possibilities are clear by now. There’s really nothing left to say except PP&L needs to get it done. Fast. As in yesterday. Tick, tick, tick boys…

I called and spoke with an engineer friend in SLC about this who does a bit of work with dams, and he opined the 150 ton crane is a sign that this is probably a bigger issue than is being openly discussed, and immediately began to question the ability of the intake tower structure to bear the stresses that will be required to bend or remove the I beam.  He’s also done some work with the huge work barges and cautions that these things don’t reassemble in the field in a matter of a “few hours”.  He notes that just loading the crane on the barge or assembling it on the barge can be a matter inducing some excitement.  We may have to run up for some more pics and film tomorrow if we can get away; I have an interview for a business I’m involved with in the morning, but may be able to get away after lunch. 

Damn. 

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