It’s taken 44 years, but a hydroelectric project in Angoon finally has all of the funding, and most of the permits, to launch. And while construction on the Thayer Creek Project is still a few months out, organizers say they’re ready to celebrate.
Angoon mayor Peter Duncan remembers first hearing about a proposal to develop Thayer Creek when Jimmy Carter was president.
“When I first heard about all this, I was still in high school — back in 1980, but it could have been earlier than that, that they were talking about it,” Duncan said. “But back in 1980, I know for a fact. So for sure that was the serious talks with the corporation and everybody about the possibility of a hydro.”
In December 1980, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and established the Admiralty Island National Monument on the ancestral lands of the Angoon Lingít. In the process, Angoon’s village corporation, Kootznoowoo, negotiated the right to develop hydroelectric resources in the area.
But, those rights didn’t come with funding. Jon Wunrow, director of tourism and natural resources for Kootznoowoo, said that stopped the project from ever getting off the ground.
“We’ve had lots and lots and lots of attempts at getting funding in a community the size of about 400 people, in rural remote Alaska, where everybody has needs,” Wunrow said.
For the past four decades, residents of Angoon have relied on diesel to heat their homes, power their freezers, and keep their lights on. And that fuel gets expensive – up to 8 times the national average.
A few years ago, spurred by rising fuel prices, Kootznoowoo decided to move forward without federal funding, using a seven million dollar grant from the Alaska Energy Authority. They started designing a run-of-river hydroelectric facility on Thayer Creek, a few miles north of town. The project they envisioned would generate more than enough electricity for the community of Angoon – if they could find another 30 million or so dollars.
Earlier this year, Wunrow was ready to give up.
“Several of us were about ready to just sort of toss in the towel there,” he said. “We just had had one funding denial after another, after another, after another.”
Then, this February, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan announced that Angoon would receive 27 million dollars in federal funding to develop the Thayer Creek Project as part of a bipartisan federal infrastructure bill that funneled 125 million dollars to clean energy projects in Alaska. Combined with smaller grants, that means the 34-million dollar project is fully funded.
Although they’re still waiting on some final reports, Wunrow considers the project fully permitted – another hard-fought success.
“Not only is it federal land, it’s National Monument land,” Wunrow said. “And so it’s a tough place to get permission to build, even though Thayer was granted, the right to develop Thayer, to the community and to Kootznoowoo 40 years ago through legislation, that doesn’t mean that it was an easy project.”
There are a couple more boxes to check off before construction begins. A Forest Service team is drafting a report to confirm that the project won’t damage historic or cultural artifacts. And a team of engineers will bore down into the seafloor, where the underground cable will sit, to make sure the rock composition is suitable.
Once construction begins in spring 2025, Wunrow estimates that it will take three years to complete the hydroelectric facility, plus a barge landing, service road, and underground cable system. When the project is complete, it is expected to stabilize or reduce electric costs for residents for at least 50 years – and provide a lot of extra power.
“Probably up to 70 percent of the hydro will be excess,” he said. “So we’re looking to be able to work to establish reduced rates for that excess hydro to incentivize heat pumps in homes, someday maybe electric vehicles, electric boat motors, and attracting business to the community that maybe isn’t here in part because of the high cost of energy.”
Mayor Duncan said that collaboration between the city, Tribe, and village corporation helped make this project a reality. And he said the hydroelectric project is just one way that Angoon is moving into the future.
“This is the result of working together,” he said. “Good things can happen. And that’s what we’re seeing right now today is, you know, everybody working together to make something happen. And I haven’t seen something like this for Angoon in quite some time, so we’re all excited.”
The community held a celebration to officially launch the project – and to look back on its 44-year history – on Friday afternoon (6-14-24) in the elementary school gym. The agenda included speeches from local leaders, as well as stories of Angoon elders testifying in front of Congress and adopting President Carter into a clan.
