Special Bd. of Aldermen — 06/24/2019 Page 3
In addition, even though it isn’t subject to Federal Licensing, we do get it inspected every year and because of
the age of the facility, just like when you buy a really old house, the home inspector comes in and says “Oh
you’re going to need to upgrade some of these things, some of these wooden components like the fish ladder
need to be upgraded a bit”. And also the fish species that we are most concerned about passing every year
has changed since this was first installed. We used to be really concerned about salmon but we have now
accepted the fact that we are never going to have salmon again and so now we are very concerned about
herring and eels and so they need slightly different things. So being able to modify everything to make sure we
are in compliance is important.
At Mine Falls one generator is down and we are doing a complete rehabilitation of it. There are some other
things when that goes off line that you fix if you are fixing things and you have a giant generator out of the way
you are going to fix those things while you can. But most of the bulk of the money that would go for Mine Falls
is the other repairs in that CIP that we have listed out for the next 5 years and all these licensing studies that
are required by the FERC License. The FERC re-licensing process is 5 years; we started last August with our
pre-application document and from that document FERC came back and they have requested 9 studies that
we conduct as the next phase. And we from these different, well US Fish & Wildlife, The National Marine
Services, NH Fish & Game, NH DES together requested nine studies. We have put out an RFP, we are
bringing on a specialist firm to help us conduct these studies. We are not fish specialists. We are going to
start negotiation on what those studies will and will not include. But these are studies that will cost a very
substantial amount of money over the next two seasons and so we need to be ready to do that so that is
included in this bond as well to keep us on track. | think that’s it. lm happy to answer questions if you have
more specific questions.
Vice President O’Brien
Just for a moment, tonight’s Hearing was supposed to be to receive testimony from the public. However |
know that many of us are on a tight schedule to be somewhere else. So we will open it up for brief questions,
but to remind you that it is also on the Budget Review Committee’s meeting, which is going to be immediately
following this. Director Marchant will you be available for the Budget Hearing as well?
Ms. Marchant
Yes.
Vice President O’Brien
So | will allow a limited amount of questioning.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
Yes thank you. Director Marchant, in looking at the life of the bond that is being requested, what is the life
expectancy for the repairs that are being proposed.
Ms. Marchant
Excellent question. So the turbine, the new turbine and the rehabilitated turbine are expected to last another
30 years. The bond that is being proposed is a ten year bond, so certainly a lot longer than that. And the other
repairs that we are doing say fish ladder type repairs, all have those same kind of time frames associated with
them.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
Ok thank you.
