Swinging Bridge debacle a dam shame

Dam may soon be safe, but will the reservoir be full?

By FRITZ MAYER

FORESTBURGH, NY — The CEO of the Mirant Corporation promised residents that the Swinging Bridge dam would be safe. He did not promise that the reservoir would ever be refilled.

At a meeting at the Forestburgh Firehouse on Thursday, March 2, Mirant CEO Linn Williams told the overflow crowd that rumors of Mirant filing an application to surrender its license to operate the power plant at the reservoir are true. He also said that his company seeks to sell the reservoir, along with the other two that it owns downstream, the Mongaup and the Rio.

Williams said if a buyer can’t be found, the “property will revert back to the state.”

Gus Tjoumas, director of dam safety for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission underscored the point that Mirant would not be allowed to surrender its license for the dam without making it safe. But residents demanded to know how high the water would be if, and when, Mirant leaves.

The short answer is that no one would answer that question now.

In May 2005, the dam developed a sinkhole and the reservoir level was lowered by some 45 feet to ensure that the dam would not fail. At the time, Mirant executives said the dam would be repaired by September 2005. The date was later moved back to March 2006.

Now, officials say the repairs may be finished by July. Even so, no one knows if the reservoir can be refilled until the results of a new hydrologic survey of the watershed are known.

Residents expressed anger at the shifting timetable and uncertain outcome. Dr. Herman Goldfarb said, “I’m not going to pay thousands of dollars in taxes” for lakefront property when there is no lakefront.

It was a complaint echoed by several other residents, who complained of living on a “mud flat.”

The future is murky

The best-case scenario for Mirant is to find a company that will buy the reservoir and continue to operate the power-producing facility. If a buyer can’t be found, the company will try to surrender its license to produce electricity. At that point, Mirant may attempt to sell the reservoir as a recreational lake. However, any entity that buys the property will be required to operate and maintain the dam. The same is true of the other reservoirs Mirant owns in the county.

If Mirant then fails to sell Swinging Bridge as a recreational lake, according to Williams, the company will cede the property to the state, and the county will lose the $1 million or so in property taxes.

Sullivan County legislative chair Chris Cunningham said he thinks the facility will ultimately become the “property of some public entity,” perhaps in some sort of state and county partnership.

And the price may be attractive for the right buyer. Williams said, more than once, that Mirant would sell the reservoir for one dollar.