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Plans for plant face possible impasse
By ALEX LEARY, Times Staff Writer INGLIS -- The developer of a controversial hydroelectric plant on the lower Withlacoochee River was dealt a potentially fatal blow this week as a federal agency rejected a request for more time to begin construction. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also said it will likely revoke an exemption granted in 1997 that cleared a number of hurdles for the developer. "If we take that back, they cannot proceed," commission spokeswoman Celeste Miller said Friday. Southern Hy Power Corp., based in Gainesville, has spent more than a decade trying to develop the 3-megawatt plant at the Inglis Lock Bypass Spillway. In January, the company asked the commission for an additional year to begin construction. The agency had previously ordered the company to start building by Feb. 8, 2002, and for the plant to be completed in three years. But Hy Power said it needed an extension because it had trouble marketing the project to parties interested in purchasing power or building and operating the plant. It also cited delays caused by numerous appeals filed by opponents, who argue that the one-turbine plant would damage the environment and disrupt the neighborhood. In an order issued Wednesday, the commission said Hy Power had enough time to pursue a power contract and financing and to begin construction. The plant "appears still to be in the earliest stages of project development and no closer to commencing project construction than it was in 1997," the order stated. "Furthermore, the exemptee has failed to persuade us that this project is likely to be developed should the construction deadline be extended another year." Hy Power has 30 days to appeal the commission's intention to revoke the 1997 exemption. Company officials could not be reached Friday. The company's attorney, Sam Poole of Fort Lauderdale, conceded that the project's future does not look bright. "At some point you have to say it's not worth pursuing," he said. Aside from problems with federal regulators, Pool said, the project has come along during a time when other energy sources, such as coal, may be cheaper. He maintained, though, that the concept is a good one, saying the plant would not have emissions and would rely on a renewable energy source. "It's a green power project," Poole said. "You already have the water going over the spillway. The project was to just build a turbine for the water to go through." Opponents have long argued that the plant would render useless a park just downstream from the spillway falls, endanger the Inglis area with higher possibilities of flooding and harm wildlife, killing fish caught in its spinning turbine. Recently, the National Marine Fisheries Service weighed in, citing concerns over the plant's impact on the endangered gulf sturgeon. Officials in Inglis and Yankeetown, who argued that the plant could affect drinking water supplies, opposed Hy Power's request for more time, as did the Citrus County Audubon Society and several residents, including Betty Berger of Inglis. "They are down the tubes," Berger said of Hy Power. "There is no way they can come back from this. It would be a miracle if they did." -- Alex Leary can be reached at (352) 564-3623 or leary@sptimes.com.
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