Government, Latest News, Monongalia County

Extension granted for development of hydro power station in Morgantown

MORGANTOWN — A November filing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission extended the deadline for Rye Development to begin construction on a hydroelectric power station at the Morgantown Lock and Dam until Sept. 29, 2023.

According to Julia Butzler, a hydropower specialist with the Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District, the filing is the last movement on the project since February 2020, when the ACOE finalized a memorandum of agreement with the developer granting access to the lock and dam, which is owned by the corps. 

According to the Rye Development website, the commercial operation date for projects at both the Morgantown and Opekiska dams is sometime in 2022. Combined, Rye estimates the facilities will produce more than 41 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, powering some 3,800 homes.

Attempts to contact Rye Development for project updates have been unsuccessful.

“To date, Rye has not responded to our invitations to discuss the required acquisition of city property involved in the project,” Morgantown Communications Director Andrew Stacy said. “There is nothing set in stone, but the most recent design showed a little under one acre of city property was needed for the project. Those plans are obviously subject to change.”

The project has been in the works in some fashion since 2012, when Rye Development — then called Free Flow Power — came forward with designs that would have required a relocation of the rail-trail, prompting an outcry from various stakeholders, including the city of Morgantown.

Rye altered the plans, placing the powerhouse in the river. It also took steps to appease community concerns by adding things like a fishing platform to the facility’s design.

FERC issued licenses for hydroelectric power projects at the Morgantown and Opekiska locks and dams on Sept. 29, 2017. The projects were two of six proposed for the Monongahela River; another is at Point Marion, Pa., while the other three are farther north, toward Pittsburgh.

In 2018, the city of Morgantown was among a number of stakeholders – including the Department of Environmental Protection, the Division of Natural Resources, the Mon River Trails Conservancy and the Upper Monongahela River Association – to ask FERC to hold another hearing on the project.

That request was ultimately denied, but the DEP worked out memorandums of agreement with the developer in an effort to satisfy state and stakeholder concerns about environmental issues and disruption of local recreational fishing.

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