Upper and Lower Collinsville Hydroelectric Projects Draft and Final Environmental Assessments
Farmington River, Connecticut

The Louis Berger Group, Inc. prepared draft and final Environmental Assessments (EA) for the Upper and Lower Collinsville Hydroelectric Projects, under an engineering and environmental services contract with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Summit Hydropower filed applications for the licensing of the Upper and Lower Collinsville Projects, located on the Farmington River in Connecticut. FERC accepted the applications, conducted scoping meetings, and issued a notice that the applications were ready for environmental analysis. FERC contracted with Berger to prepare the draft and final EA's, a programmatic agreement for the protection of cultural resources, and draft license articles for this proceeding. FERC issued the draft EA prepared by Berger. The final EA and license are scheduled to be issued.

The Upper and Lower Collinsville Projects involve two hydropower sites developed in the early 1900's to augment energy needed by the Collinsville Axe Company. Hydropower generation at both sites ceased in the 1960's and both sites were later sold to the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), which obtained licenses to operate the projects in 1986. The MDC subsequently surrendered the licenses because of the expense of adding upstream and downstream fish passage facilities at both projects.

Summit Hydropower worked with the State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to design fish passage facilities within an overall program to rehabilitate and return both facilities to service. Berger studied Summit's proposal, which included the use of minimum flow turbines at both dams in addition to turbines at each powerhouse, and concluded that the minimum flow turbines were not needed. Further, Berger concluded that minimum flows stipulated in the state water quality certification could be provided as part of the fish passage facilities attraction flows, when operating, rather than in addition to these flows, thereby increasing the amount of flow available for power generation.

Licensing and renewed operation of the Upper and Lower Collinsville Projects would restore the historic use of these facilities. The final EA recommended installation of fish passage facilities, and restoring the historic range of anadromous fish in the Farmington River, a goal of Connecticut fish and wildlife agencies.