作者:Tom Acevedo, S&K科技有限公司. 首席执行官.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about the 不言而喻赛利希语 and Kootenai Tribes’ latest significant news. The Tribes recently announced that the American Arbitration Association issued its findings with respect to the Tribes acquisition of the Kerr Dam hydroelectric facility. The current holder of title to the facility is PPL Montana, an energy company.

A short but steep hike takes you to an overlook of Kerr Dam, just west of Polson, Montana. The Tribes are planning to rename the facility once ownership is transferred. Amy schlater摄影(版权所有).

顺便说一下背景, the Tribes and PPL Montana have been co-licensees of the dam under a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued license. This co-license had previously been issued in 1985 to the Tribes and the Montana Power Company. PPL Montana purchased the Montana Power Company and thereby acquired an interest in the license. The Tribes and the Montana Power Company had been in competition to secure a license from FERC independently of one another. 通过妥协的方式, the Tribes and the Montana Power Company agreed that the Tribes would be granted the option to purchase title to Kerr Dam in 2015. This freed up both organizations to jointly apply to FERC as co-licensees.

The agreed upon price was set at the book value with some other miscellaneous values. The crux of the Arbitration case was to put to rest the actual purchase price of Kerr. PPL Montana argued that the purchase price should be approximately $50 million dollars while the Tribes argued that the price should be around $15 million dollars. Over several months each side presented their respective justifications in support of each ones position on price to the Arbitration panel.

The significant difference in the price was that PPL Montana wanted to include funds spent since 1985 on certain mitigation expenditures that offset damages to flora, 动物群和河岸土地的破坏. The Arbitration Association judges disallowed the mitigation funds argument and set the purchase price at approximately $18 million dollars. This is much, much closer to the purchase price sought by the Tribes. Needless to say, the Tribes are extremely pleased with this ruling.

还有, 然而, one more shoe to drop before the Tribes can truly celebrate and that is whether PPL Montana will seek a FERC review of the ruling. 即使PPL蒙大拿寻求进一步审查, 鉴于最初的裁决, 形势看起来对部落有利. Ownership by the Tribes of the Kerr hydroelectric facility will be a major milestone for the future of the Tribes.

When the dam was originally proposed in the early 1930’s, the Tribes were opposed to its construction for cultural and environmental reasons. The dam artificially raised the level of Flathead Lake 10 feet throughout the summer and early fall months. 也, the dam flooded large rapids in the river above the dam that were culturally valuable to the Tribes. It is certainly ironic that after so many years the Tribes are about to become the owners and operators of the dam. They will be the only Tribe in the nation to own a hydroelectric facility.

Per Wikipedia: In 1930, construction began on the dam by Rocky Mountain Power. 一年后的1931年, a lack of funding from the Great Depression caused construction to halt for five years. In 1936, the Montana Power Company restarted the project and completed it in 1938. The dam only raised Flathead Lake by 10 feet so it is not completely responsible for the reservoir. The dam’s hydro power plant consists of three units that receive water from three different penstocks 1,上游700英尺

Kerr Dam is a concrete gravity-arch style dam located on the Flathead River near Polson, Montana.  通过打开溢洪道闸门来控制流量.

Tribal members employed on the Dam construction project.

Kerr Dam is 204 feet high and contains 85,000 cubic feet of concrete. It’s said the dam only raised the level of the existing Flathead Lake 10 feet.

Tribal and community representatives gather at Kerr Dam.

部落代表聚集在克尔大坝俯瞰处.

欲了解更多克尔大坝的历史，请浏览:  http://www.lakecodirect.com/archives/KERR_dam.html