Energy and Technology Committee
AN ACT CONCERNING A COLLINSVILLE HYDROELECTRIC FACILITY
SUMMARY: This act requires the environmental protection commissioner to execute an agreement with Canton, Avon, and Burlington that allows the towns to:
1. enter upon and conduct physical examinations and studies of the upper and lower Collinsville dams on the Farmington River and associated structures, including power houses or gate houses, to determine the feasibility of using the dams and structures for hydroelectric generation;
2. install, operate, and maintain hydroelectric generating facilities and associated appurtenances, including fish ladders, at the dams; and
3. control the flow of water at the dams to maximize hydroelectric generation while maintaining minimum flows required by federal and state regulatory agencies. The agreement may not provide any compensation to the state or additional costs to the towns for use of, or liability concerning, the dams and structures.
The act also requires the commissioner to execute an agreement, jointly or individually, with these towns under terms and conditions acceptable to her, that allows the towns to engage in the activities identified in number 1 above and to install, operate, and maintain hydroelectric generating facilities and associated appurtenances, including fish ladders at the dams, without adjusting river flows. It is unclear how the commissioner could enter into the two agreements simultaneously.
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage
OLR Tracking: KM: JK: PF: ts