Representatives from McMillen LLC, Barnard Construction, and the city cut the ribbon, including (l to r) Andrew Pharis, Dean Orbison, Mim McConnell, Mark Gorman, and Jessica Stockel (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo).
Although there are a lot of loose ends to tie up, the Blue Lake Expansion Project came to a formal close in Sitka today (Wednesday 11-13-14) with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new powerhouse.
Clif Stump of Barnard Construction has been the project manager since the beginning. In his hand is a golden shovel .
“We had these golden shovels when we broke ground almost two years ago today,” said Stump. “So we’re bringing it back out for the ribbon cutting ceremony.”
The golden shovel was used to break ground on the project in December 2012 (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
For a project of this size, which cost over $150 million, it’s only fitting the ribbon be cut with a giant pair of scissors. Mayor Mim McConnell did the honors.
McConnell: “1, 2, 3…Yay!” [Crowd applause]
Upstairs in the Control Room, Senior Operator Frank Rogers brought one of the three new turbines online. Painted blue and curling like snail shells, the three new turbines can generate over twice the energy than the original two. Before, Green Lake was Sitka’s energy workhorse, with Blue Lake assisting it. And now?
“Now that this plant is expanded and it’s bigger and the dam is higher, we can make more electricity from the Blue Lake plant than Green Lake,” said Dean Orbison, the city’s Generation Engineer.
The three new turbines can generate 5.3 MWhr each. With them, Sitka’s generation capacity increased 30%. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
Before and after photos lined the railing. Here is the powerhouse before generation equipment was installed. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo).
With this expanded capacity, about 165,000 MWhr per year between the two lakes, Orbison hopes citizens will wean themselves off of oil and switch to electric heat.
Orbison went out back to watch the water leave the powerhouse and return to the river.
“To think that we’re going to control the lake level to do what we want is joke,” said Orbison. “Mother nature rains when she wants. But still, the idea is to keep the water level as high as you can in both lakes at all times. And so we have a choice. ‘Should we run the generators at Green Lake or should we run them at Blue Lake?’ So have some ability to manage the water levels, whereas in the past we didn’t.”
As for Clif Stump, the man with the golden shovel, he and his crew will return to Bozeman, MT to start another project. Stump majored in Civil Engineering.
“When I graduated college, I had no idea what it was I wanted to do,” said Stump. “So, to be able to finish something like this is a pretty cool feeling. It’s a pretty major accomplishment.”
As the new power station was born, Clif Stump coincidentally turned 34. His crew surprised him with cake.
Clif Stump, the project manager, turned 34 the day of the ribbon cutting ceremony. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
