Deerfield River, MA

New England Power Company Pioneers Landmark Settlement Agreement
 
 

Photo of Zoar Gap by AW StreamKeeper Shawn Sullivan

On October 5, 1994, whitewater boaters, fishermen, conservationists, government agencies, and the New England Power Company took a giant step together to protect one of New England's most important watersheds. NEPCO, a major regional utility based in Westborough, Massachusetts, together with twelve environmental and recreation organizations and government agencies joined in an agreement that commits the company to enhance recreation, fisheries, and conservation along the Deerfield River in western Massachusetts and southern Vermont. In return, NEPCO will have the support of the environmental and recreational groups, and the government agencies in its quest to secure a 40-year license renewal from FERC.

The Deerfield River Settlement Agreement demonstrates the ability of diverse interests to come together in good faith to balance environmental quality, recreation, fishing, energy production and other purposes served by America's rivers. The agreement ensures that the Deerfield River will be managed over the next 40 years to improve resource protection while recognizing the value of hydropower as a renewable energy resource.

"The successful conclusion of this landmark agreement underscored New England Power's commitment to providing electric power in an environmentally responsible manner," said John W. Rowe, president and CEO of New England Electric Systems. "It is a model of the ability of industry, government, and environmental and recreation organizations to work together on complex public policy issues. This benefits fish and wildlife, recreational users and the entire Deerfield watershed for decades to come."

The unifying objective of the settlement negotiation has been to maximize the most beneficial mitigation and enhancement package for the whole watershed from the headwaters in Vermont to the Deerfield River's confluence with the Connecticut River in Massachusetts. For the past five years, resource agencies, regional planning commissions, intervenor groups and others have worked to develop comprehensive plans and data needs pertinent to the settlement process. The American Whitewater Affiliation along with New England FLOW, the Appalachian Mountain Club, Trout Unlimited, the Conservation Law Foundation, American Rivers and key federal and state resource agencies worked together to develop the concepts for balancing the resource values of the Deerfield River.

The estimated net present value (NPV) of the settlement negotiation package is estimated to be between 27 and 30 million dollars. Whitewater boating flows and other recreational facilities are valued at 3.2 million dollars.

AWA's conservation director Rich Bowers stated that "the Deerfield Settlement Agreement demonstrates the national potential for restoring rivers through the FERC relicensing process, especially where an enlightened and forward thinking public utility is involved. He continues, "New England Power is to be commended for the bold initiative that the settlement agreement represents and has to be recognized as an industry leader with a strong ethic of environmental responsibility."

Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, New England Power will:

• Assure whitewater releases from two of its dams at agreed upon times for kayakers, canoeists and other boaters.
• Provide the public free access without fees or costs to all non- developed river resources and non-developed project lands.
• Install fish passage at various sites along the river.
• Implement a program of wildlife enhancements within project boundaries.
• Provide minimum flows and reservoir management to protect aquatic habitat.
• Establish a Deerfield River Basin Environmental Enhancement Trust Fund to finance future conservation and educational projects.
• Grant conservation easements to land management organizations on more than 18,000 acres of land that NEPCO owns to help preserve the land in its natural state and to prevent private development along riparian boundaries.

Out of the Deerfield relicensing process, New England FLOW was born, and with support from the AWA, grew to establish itself as the dominant advocacy group representing boaters and whitewater enthusiasts in the New England region. What FLOW did was to develop the first coalition in the region and began negotiating with NEPCO as early as 1988. FLOW was the first interest group to reach an agreement with New England Power and then participated in bringing other important interested parties to the bargaining table to successfully broaden the whitewater agreement to encompass the comprehensive settlement that was eventually developed. By doing so, New England FLOW's board of directors received the nationally recognized Outstanding River Advocate Award in 1993 presented by American Rivers each year.

Tom Christopher, FLOW's secretary and AWA board member said, "The best aspect of this agreement is that it not only puts forward a whole new level of cooperation between a major public utility and conservation and recreational groups, but is also sets a standard that other relicensings can strive towards. Hopefully we can take the Deerfield victory and show a balance can be achieved--rather than an adversarial position--to utilities and natural resource agencies in other states."

The whitewater release schedule puts 106 days of releases annually below Fife Brook Dam, a regionally important Class III run used for races, training, squirting, and rafting from April until October.
 
 

The Class IV Monroe Bridge section will also be provided with 32 releases during the same time period with most of the days occurring on every summer weekend when good water is extremely scarce. These two outstanding boating resources virtually assure that the Deerfield will become another world class whitewater mecca in the years to come and will help pump needed boater dollars into a rural economy.

Photo of a surfer at Dragon's Tooth by AW StreamKeeper Shawn Sullivan

The Deerfield Settlement agreement will now be filed with FERC, and the parties hope FERC will expedite New England Power's license on the terms and conditions set forth in the Agreement. In many other hydropower relicensing cases pending before FERC, contentious battles are being waged between utilities, environmentalist, boaters and fishermen. This Agreement is an alternative to a potentially costly and protracted litigation process to reconcile the various interest at stake in the Deerfield River Watershed which could delay improvements to the watershed indefinitely.

Congratulations to all of the conservation and recreational groups, to New England Power, to the federal and state resource agencies, and to everyone that put in thousands of hours working together to make this historic settlement agreement happen. Never has a river's future shined so brightly in the spirit of cooperation and in the name of compromise.

Deerfield River: Fife Brook
Deerfield River: Monroe Bridge (Dryway)
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