Public Meetings Scheduled For Hydropower Relicensing

Since 1995, the Housatonic Valley Association has been leading information sessions and workshops for municipalities, regional planning agencies, and other interested groups on the relicensing of Connecticut Light & Power Company’s hydroelectric plants along the Housatonic River. HVA wants to assure the public that the new licenses will include conditions and operational procedures that will protect and enhance the health of the river and improve land protection efforts. The organization urges the public to be involved in the procedure.

CL&P licenses will expire in August and September 2001 for the Falls Village and the Housatonic Projects in Litchfield, Fairfield, and New Haven counties. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is considering the merits of CL&P’s relicensing application.

FERC has scheduled two evening public information meetings, in New Milford and Falls Village, to present an overview of the commission, the status of the pending license application, a description of the procedures used in the relicensing process, and instructions on how the public may participate. FERC will answer questions about the presentation but will not entertain questions pertaining to the merits of the pending application.

The first meeting will be on Tuesday, May 23, from 7 to 9 pm, at New Milford High School, 25 Sunny Valley Road. The second meeting will be the following night, Wednesday, May 24, also 7 to 9 pm, at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, 246 Warren Turnpike Road in Falls Village.

Founded in 1941, HVA is the only nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to protecting the Housatonic River and its entire 2,000-square-mile watershed, stretching from the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, through western Connecticut and a small part of eastern New York, to Long Island Sound. HVA works to achieve a balance between resource protection and community growth through research, education, advocacy, and community assistance.

For additional information contact HVA’s resource center director Ruth Malins at 860/672-6678.