06/16/2023
City of Miami PRESS RELEASE:
Miami’s Mayor Calls for Citizen Comments to FERC Regarding GRDA License Request
(MIAMI, OK.) Recent developments in the ongoing process before FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) regarding the operations relicensing request by an Oklahoma state agency, GRDA (Grand River Dam Authority) for the Pensacola Dam at Grand Lake has prompted a response from Mayor Bless Parker and a call for area citizen comments to be made to FERC.
Now that GRDA has filed their version of a final license request with FERC for operations of the Pensacola Dam and specifying proposed lake levels at 745 feet, area residents have received propaganda informing them that FERC wants to potentially lower the lake’s operating level substantially and asking them to use the online comment eFile form to tell FERC how this would negatively impact their lake properties.
For example, one resident’s comment reads in part, “We are greatly concerned that some stakeholders who live upstream of the lake have continued to raise unfounded, biased interests that would threaten the ability for the rest of us to enjoy Grand Lake. Lowering the reservoir level as low as 734 feet as some stakeholders suggested would be catastrophic for Grand Lake. Not only would it put an untold number of boat docks on the ground causing even more damage plus greatly reducing the size and usable parts of the lake.”
If GRDA’s relicensing request is granted, it will be in effect for up to 50 years. The current license expires in 2025.
After reading many of the comments more recently filed to FERC, Miami Mayor Bless Parker responded. Parker’s filed comment to FERC reads, “I have noticed that there have been comments being made to FERC on both sides of this issue. The most interesting part for me and the difference I see in the comments is this…”
Parker wrote that Miami residents’ comments ask FERC to consider the consequences, destruction and devaluation flooding has on their homes, the economic impact of flooding to existing business and industry and recruitment of new business and industry, and health and safety concerns with emergency services hindered and substantial access cut off during flooding.
In contrast, Grand Lake residents’ comments ask FERC to consider the consequences of lowering the lake level on their docks and boats and express concern that lowering the lake level might devalue lake homes or affect their “playground.”
Parker wrote, “It’s an amazing contrast and two very opposite ends of the spectrum. You have one community fighting to save their community from the state government agency that is trying to destroy them and the other community that is trying to feed them to the state agency for their fun and pleasure. So, we have a state agency in the middle pitting two neighboring communities against each other for their profit. This sounds disgusting because it is disgusting. FERC is the ONLY one here with the power to do the right thing. I believe wholeheartedly FERC knows what the right thing to do is, but political pressure seems to get in the way of the right thing sometimes. I encourage you to not let this be one of those times. This small community has fought valiantly for many, many years. Not because it’s about money, power, and greed, but because it’s about people! Real people! People that only have one home and don’t want it flooded again and again. People that can’t afford their home and a lake home with a dock and boat. Should they really have to stand by and allow their homes to be flooded and destroyed so docks and boats can have fun eight Saturdays out of the year? I’m asking that you do the right thing for everyone involved. All citizens need to be represented by FERC and a decision be made that is beneficial to all parties involved.”
Built in 1940, Pensacola Dam generates 126 megawatts of hydropower to serve more than 120,000 homes across Oklahoma, including in Miami and forming the Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, a 46,500-acre lake known for fishing, boating and high-end waterfront real estate.
The City of Miami and multiple tribes assert FERC should hold GRDA liable for flooding across roughly 13,000 acres of land in Miami and across Ottawa County.
GRDA filed their final relicense request in a years-long process which began in 2013. The City of Miami and GRDA have battled over the license and re-license in subsequent filings and responses in the relicensing process since that time. A separate proceeding, a civil lawsuit involving 446 plaintiffs, including the City of Miami, is also ongoing seeking damages from the 2007 flood devastation.
In the relicense process, the City of Miami continues to fight GRDA’s request to operate the lake at the higher levels, use prerelease to avoid flooding and backwater effects beyond natural stages, and to purchase necessary easements as agreed to in the original license. Environmental concerns over the transport of lead contaminated floodwaters and sediment are also addressed by the City of Miami and others in the relicense proceedings.
The City of Miami has used Tetra Tech hydrological studies to support these arguments which have resulted in favorable legal opinions. Following a successful appeal by the City of Miami, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, widely recognized as the second highest court in the U.S., ruled back in January of 2022 that the City of Miami provided “powerful” evidence showing the Pensacola Dam’s operations by GRDA caused flooding. In its decision, the D.C. Circuit Court found that FERC didn’t study the extensive evidence presented by the City and stated that FERC failed to address whether GRDA had acquired adequate rights to allow the flooding occurring in Miami.
Miami area residents are encouraged to file comments about how they have been impacted by flooding with FERC by mail or electronic submissions. All comments regarding the Pensacola Project should include the docket number P-1494. Mail comments to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Debbie-Anne Reese, Deputy Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426.
You may eFile comments on their website at FERC.gov, click on eFile, and log in, then click on eComment and fill out the form, be sure to Enter Docket Number P-1494 and enter your comment. You may also subscribe to email comments pertaining to the Pensacola Project P-1494 on FERC’s website.
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Link to register to comment: https://ferconline.ferc.gov/eRegistration.aspx...
Link to submit comments: https://ferconline.ferc.gov/QuickComment.aspx