Applegate is eyed for power plant 

Jun. 2, 2001 
Associated Press Newswires 
Copyright 2001. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. 

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - A hydropower firm has applied for a preliminary permit 
from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study the feasibility of 
building a hydropower plant at Applegate Dam. 

Symbiotics LLC, a subsidiary of Northwest Power Services Inc., based in 
Rigby, Idaho, and Ecosystem Research Institute in Logan, Utah, want to 
retrofit the dam to produce about 12 megawatts of electricity. 

The dam, on the Applegate River about 20 miles south of Medford, currently 
has no hydropower capacity. It was built in 1980 by the U.S. Corps of 
Engineers.

"The price of energy has made it economical now to look at a project of this 
kind," said Hart Evans, a spokesman for ERI. "We started looking at a lot of 
different dams this year to see what the potential is for hydropower plants."

Applegate Dam is one of more than 100 dams for which ERI has filed 
preliminary permit applications in the Pacific Northwest, including Savage 
Rapids Dam on the Rogue River just upstream from Grants Pass, Evans said.

Northwest Power and ERI, which he described as an environmental consulting 
firm, have been working jointly on power projects for 25 years, Evans said.

Symbiotics was launched early this year to focus exclusively on hydropower, 
he said.

The permit, if granted, would give the firm three years to study the project, 
said FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller in Washington, D.C.

"It does not authorize any construction," Miller said. "If an applicant 
determines at the end of the permit period that they want to develop the 
project, then they would have to file for a license."