More than just prehistoric fish would be disturbed if an Alabama company proceeds with its proposal to turn a nearby lock and dam on the Mississippi into a hydropower plant, according to an environmental expert.
“When you have to have water somewhere for the purpose of producing power, you are limiting that resource for agriculture use downstream, for tourists, and for recreational use downstream,” said James Owen, an attorney, and executive director of Renew Missouri, a renewable energy advocacy group. “Someone is going to pay for that use being allocated by somebody else.”
Owen was responding to the proposal by Hydro Green Energy that would place 10 turbines underwater on the west side of the Mississippi next to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam in Alton.
“Missouri law defines hydro as a renewable resource but we don't believe that's an accurate characterization of it,” Owen told the St. Louis Record. “We see water as a finite resource as far as how the waterway is used. We're having massive droughts, which is another reason not to put too much into hydro because I think we will see more droughts."
Environmental activists oppose wind turbines because birds are allegedly killed by the blades and the same is true for fish underwater, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).
“Hydropower turbines are underneath the water and the water pours through them and turns the turbines as opposed to the windmill turning the turbines,” said Sarah Peper, MDC fisheries management biologist. “Sometimes, fish go through the turbines and get chopped up.”
If the proposal is approved, the plant could produce some 438,000 megawatt-hours of renewable electricity, which would power about 40,000 American homes yearly, according to media reports.
But Owen said there are less intrusive ways to produce renewable energy.
“We advocate for solar,” he said. “We advocate for wind. We advocate for energy efficiency. We advocate for geothermal production. We are not an anti-hydro group but we do believe there are better ways to produce power.”
The Hydro Green Energy proposal isn’t the first that has come across Peper's desk.
“A lot of times these proposals come through showing impacts to the aquatic ecosystem from them but this one has a really specific impact on the Lake Sturgeon population that I have personally been studying for seven years,” she said. “I've spent a lot of time there trying to help the fish recover their population at this location.”
Their spawning site is under the dam and the plant, if the project proceeds, will potentially eliminate the popular mating location.
As previously reported, Lake Sturgeon are an endangered species of fish statewide and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering including the freshwater fish on its federal list by 2024.
“It would be bad for the fish and it'd be a little sad for me because I've spent a lot of time there trying to make that a good place for sturgeon to spawn and if it were suddenly gone, then that was a lot of work for nothing,” Peper added.