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Hydropower Flow Release Summaries

Hydropower Flow Release Summaries Photo by Canva

Helping you understand the impacts of your local hydropower flow release license in a summary

The process of applying for a hydropower license or a license renewal every 30-50 years is complex, and the process results in license documents that are lengthy (often 150-200 pages), cumbersome and often tough to interpret. So the Hydropower Reform Coalition and the River Management Society identify licenses of varying complexity and geographies that have been completed recently (within the last ten years). 

These documents (often 150-200 pages) are then distilled to highlight the topics of greatest interest to members of the public as well as important plans and provisions affecting public use and access to the river. Additionally, these summaries acknowledge "hydro" project stakeholders who are signatories to settlements. These may be utility company planners, river managers and planners, river conservation and recreation advocates, and municipal leaders and planners. 

These summaries are GREAT to reference when you want to find out how a license affects access and use, quickly! If you know about a hydropower dam whose license has been completed recently and would like us to work on handy summary for that project, email RMS or the Hydropower Reform Coalition.

2020 Updates

Several summaries have been updated to provide links to project updates intended to allow stakeholders and members of the general public to learn about important ongoing, post-license activities, including amendments and the results of studies required by the original agreement. Those that have been updated are noted. 

If the project you are interested in is not updated here, you may find helpful information in FERC’s ELibrary. For a general search, you will be asked to provide

  • the Project number,  P-______
  • check “Hydropower” box
  • enter a date range; and
  • “text” (keywords) as applicable.

You'll experience the most effective searching method by browsing the latest quarter filings with key words: “annual report”, “monitoring”, “status”, etc..

Summaries by Region

Alaska 

Northwest

Pacific

Southwest

Midwest

Southeast

Northeast

These summaries are also available on the Hydropower Reform Coalition website, www.hydroreform.org along with links to the complete license, other hydropower projects and a wealth of information about the relicensing of hydropower dams. 

This project has been made possible by the Arches Foundation and Mott Foundation, with support from the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.

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