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U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, made a trip to the east side of Lewis County Friday afternoon to visit the Lewis County Public Utility District’s (PUD) Cowlitz Falls Hydroelectric Project.
The visit came at a time of transition, with the coming expiration of an agreement with the Bonneville Power Administration that will allow the PUD more flexibility in its control of the small power-generating dam. The expiration of the agreement will bring the power generated by the Cowlitz Falls Hydroelectric Project back under the local utility’s control.
The Chronicle joined Gluesenkamp Perez and her team on the Aug. 8 tour along with officials from Lewis County PUD, including members of its board of commissioners, Mike Hadaller and Dave Fenn, the board’s clerk, Stacy Davis, and the man in charge of the dam, Cowlitz Falls Generation Manager Joe First.
The tour of the PUD’s only hydroelectric facility began around 2:30 p.m. with the representative for Washington's Third Congressional District arriving with her team and immediately sitting down with First and the PUD commissioners.
During the visit to the energy-producing facility situated south of U.S. Highway 12 between Glenoma and Randle, the representative heard detailed explanations from First on just about every element of the dam and asked many questions. While the subjects varied, they gravitated to common themes such as training, hiring, maintenance and manufacturing.
Before entering the dam, the group donned hard hats and made the short walk to the top of the concrete mass. During the tour, First guided the group throughout the facility from top to bottom, starting by entering on the top side and viewing the spillways and other exterior features.
The tour took place during a low-flow period, during which the dam operators perform routine maintenance. That allowed the group to tour even the lowest levels of the dam, getting to see the actual turbines used to turn the dam's generators.
In either a very well timed or poorly timed comment, First shared a story of a failed and flooded dam in Russia as much of the group viewed the deepest parts of the dam, to the humor and mild discomfort of some following along.
Other parts of the tour included the control room with walls full of gauges and levers and many screens to monitor every aspect of the dam, as well as quick looks and explanations of parts of the dam designed to catch vulnerable fish species to be released further downstream in the Cowlitz River below the Mayfield Dam, which, along with the Mossyrock Dam, is owned by Tacoma Public Utilities.
Before and throughout the tour, First provided detailed descriptions, anecdotes and information about the facility he manages. Gluesenkamp Perez followed closely behind, asking followup questions and receiving detailed explanations of different parts, such as the generators of the dam or the massive turbines that turn them.
Gluesenkamp Perez made a point of asking throughout the tour where different elements of the facility were produced and if the utility district could buy them from American companies. First explained that, for the most part, the facility has not needed any major repairs or replacements as it is one of the youngest, if not the youngest, hydroelectric facilities in the state.
But, responding more directly to the congresswoman’s question, he shared that the different components of the facility have been sourced from all over the world — mostly Europe and Japan — and any that were sourced originally in North America would likely have to be replaced by foreign-made parts as the American companies that produce them have since gone out of business. He included that it's not just an American issue as many of the foreign companies that made the original parts for the facility have also gone out of business since its construction in 1994.
“Much of the large, expensive equipment that is no longer manufactured in North America, large transformers, turbines, generator rotors, ours are new and in good shape, and so we're not needing those types of replacements for a while,” First said. “But they aren't made in North America anymore … Our original generating unit components came from Japan, Hitachi. A lot of our auxiliary equipment came from Europe, like Switzerland, Germany.”
He added that, even so, the team at the dam does manage to get some replacements domestically. The team running the dam asked for many of the blueprints and plans for parts of the facility when it was first built. Having the plans allows them to send designs and commission new part replacements from large scale machine shops in Seattle. In cases where they don’t have plans for a part, the team goes to lengths to reverse engineer what they already have and make new designs.
Also in response to some of the representative’s questions about staff and training, First spoke about the staff he has at the dam. According to First, the facility has 13 full-time staff members, which is roughly double what it had originally, but remains relatively small compared to most hydroelectric facilities.
He said that, unlike other dams, the smaller facility trains most of its relatively small staff on every aspect of the job instead of specializing into a more specific niche. The job is not one for the faint of heart and requires commitment, according to First, who is on call 24/7. Working at the facility even comes with a requirement that employees work within a 30-minute drive of the facility to keep emergency response times reasonable.
“All the Snake and Columbia River dams, they have very defined crafts,” First said. “So they would be electricians just doing what's in their box. Hydro mechanics do what's in their box. And operators can't touch tools, but they could operate the dam. So their workforces are much larger, and a lot of those are larger dams, which lead to having a bigger workforce. But, yeah, it's worked really well for us having combined crafts. You just have to be very selective. Sometimes it takes me a couple of years to find the right individual.”
He mentioned multiple times throughout the tour that he is extremely picky when hiring staff and that he at times will take over a year to fill a position for the sake of finding the right person. He often recruits from other nearby industries. Current employees have in the past worked at other dams or in other styles of power plants like the TransAlta Coal Plant near Centralia. Others come from other large-scale factories like paper mills.
After seeing the deepest and most important parts of the dam, Gluesenkamp Perez and her team exited the facility in a rush to make their way to Morton to speak with locals and visit the Loggers Jubilee.
As the representative and the rest of the group exited and walked away from the facility, she reflected on the experience. Looking over the dam in the narrow ravine and surrounded by hills of timber, Gluesenkamp Perez called out the importance of the dam and referred to it as one of the things that makes the United States of America special.
When asked why she chose to visit the facility, Gluesenkamp Perez said she wanted not only to see but to appreciate the facility that is working so well.
“What they’re doing here is a real manifest patriotism,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “This is the kind of thing that no one’s doing by themselves, that takes a longer view of what keeps the wheels on the bus and what kind of skills our economy and the stewardship and, you know, service to your neighbors, being useful to your community.”
Gluesenkamp Perez said she speaks regularly with the PUD in Skamania County and knows Lewis County PUD Commissioner Dave Fenn well. The relationships apparently drew her to the facility. It's worth noting that the congresswoman once ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat on the Skamania County Public Utility District Board of Commissioners.
When asked about how the tour connects to her legislative goals, the representative pointed out that the facility offers a look at many aspects of American life that she is concerned with including domestic manufacturing, vocational training and overall providing stability and reliability for Americans.
“People need reliable energy if we're gonna have family wage jobs and domestic manufacturing,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “And, you know, independence and agency in our daily lives … I want to understand the regulatory environment and the long view … domestic availability and manufacturing of the equipment used here. Those are all things that we need to pay attention to.”
As the representative said goodbye, she offered hugs to the Lewis County PUD commissioners and left with a parting gift from Hadaller, who gave her a Lewis County PUD hat much like the Skamania PUD hat she has sometimes worn in Congress.
