Glacier View residents oppose Chugach's proposed Caribou Creek dam, council minutes show

Glacier View residents oppose Chugach's proposed Caribou Creek dam, council minutes show

Virtually everyone at a Glacier View Community Council meeting raised a hand to oppose Chugach Electric's proposed Caribou Creek hydroelectric dam, according to minutes in the Mat-Su Borough Assembly's packet for its meeting Tuesday.

Council member Eileen Haines asked for the show of hands. Sarah K said the community's objection was to the location, not hydropower in general. She cited seismic hazards from the Castle Mountain Fault, landslides and complex winter icing known as aufeis.

Fred Hirshmann said he explored the upper headwaters of the Caribou Creek watershed in August and documented a significant amount of landsliding on the walls of the catchment. He said an earthquake that destabilized a dam there could cause significant loss of life in Glacier View, with impacts possibly reaching the Chickaloon area.

Garth Morgan rejected the need to "de-carbonize" and said the project would destroy a significant portion of the Glacier View area without meeting that goal.

Rep. Garret Nelson said he learned of the project by email in February and that it caught both him and Matanuska Electric Association by surprise. He agreed Chugach's communications on the proposal had been "atrocious." Residents asked him to make sure the state understands their concerns. The council is forming a Caribou Creek Dam Committee.

Chugach filed a declaration of intention with federal regulators Feb. 17. A Federal Register notice describes a concrete-faced rockfill dam storing summer and fall runoff, with two turbines totaling 18 megawatts and expected output of 58 gigawatt-hours a year. The land is owned by the state or Cook Inlet Region Inc.

Caribou Creek is one of four Southcentral hydroelectric sites Chugach is studying to reduce its reliance on natural gas.