Marketing criteria used by the Western Area Power Administration to sell hydropower will be the subject of a public meeting set for Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Oct. 9.
Western, a federal agency, is writing an environmental impact statement on new marketing criteria used to sell power from federal dams in the West. The hydropower in question is generated by the Colorado River Storage Project, the Collbran Project and the Rio Grande Project.The criteria are used by Western for power sales and to set long-term power capacity levels.
The agency has come under heavy fire from environmentalists in recent years because of a federal study showing Glen Canyon Dam's operations are damaging the naturalness of the Grand Canyon downstream along the Colorado River. The operation of the dam could be tied closely to the type of criteria that are used.
The environmental statement will be used to document existing marketing practices, identify alternatives, and analyze the effects of both maintaining and changing the current criteria.
The meeting in Salt Lake City is one of five "scoping meetings" to be held throughout the West, during which the scope of the environmental statement is to be discussed. It is scheduled to start 7 p.m. on Oct. 9 in the Red Lion Inn, 225 S. West Temple.