LEAD Agency launches request for multi-county community participation in Pensacola Dam relicensing
MIAMI, Okla. — Local Environmental Action Demanded (LEAD) Agency, Inc. is calling for the creation of a plan to engage Northeast Oklahoma residents in the relicensing process for the Pensacola Dam.
Licenses to operate hydroelectric dams must be reissued every 30 to 50 years. Last issued in 1992, the Pensacola Dam license officially expires in March 2025.
The Pensacola Dam, a hydroelectric dam that creates Grand Lake, is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and managed by the Grand River Dam Authority.
LEAD Agency, an active stakeholder in the relicensing process, recently filed a request with FERC, which grants the licenses to operate hydroelectric dams nationwide and sets the conditions that dam operators must agree to follow under the license.
LEAD Agency’s request is calling upon FERC to establish a comprehensive Community
Participation Plan where stakeholders will all have a seat at the table to voice their concerns.
Stakeholders include individuals, organizations, or governments that are affected by the dam relicensing.
The proposed plan seeks: tailored engagement with tribes and communities through public meetings; extended comment periods with phone access to FERC including connections to legal and technical professionals for assistance; transparent agency and government coordination with meaningful public access to information and communications.
The GRDA is seeking a new license that will determine its operating conditions for the next 30 to 50 years, including factors directly influencing the area’s flooding.
GRDA is asking for authorization to maintain higher Grand Lake reservoir levels. However, maintaining higher lake levels could cause detrimental flooding to residents and property owners located in the floodplain, including several Native American tribes, as well as thousands of properties remediated of mine waste.
“Our communities, and the injustices committed against us, have been ignored. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for FERC, and the federal government more broadly, to work with historically disregarded communities,” said Earl Hatley, president of LEAD’s board of directors.
“We need a community-driven process, and that’s exactly what this submission demands.”
Rebecca Jim, co-founder and executive director, created LEAD Agency in 1997 to secure the health and safety of the communities most impacted by environmental degradation in Miami and the surrounding areas.
“We need comprehensive solutions to the harms flooding from the Pensacola Dam has inflicted on our community,” said Jim, who also serves as the Tar Creekkeeper. “That starts with robust community participation.”
Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic (EAC), which has been representing the LEAD Agency since the fall of 2022, submitted the nonprofit’s request to FERC on Nov. 7.
“It is essential that FERC use all of its authority to ensure a community-driven, equitable and inclusive relicensing process for the Pensacola Dam that will meaningfully address the dam’s impacts and consider more protective alternatives to GRDA’s proposals,” said Professor Christophe Courchesne, director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic. “FERC can and should get this right from the start.”
Tar Creek, a tributary to the Neosho River, feeds into Spring River to form the Grand River, created by the Pensacola Dam.
The Tar Creek Superfund site spans over 40-square miles in the former mining area of Ottawa County. Since being declared a Superfund Site in 1983, millions of gallons of acidic mine water have flowed daily into Tar Creek.
The Pensacola Dam is contributing to backwater flooding and recontamination of upstream areas, affecting more than 31,000 residents. If lake levels rise, area residents and future generations will be reaping the negative repercussions for decades, if not centuries, to come.
Flooding events in the region can redistribute toxic sediments and threaten the health and safety of neighboring communities and Native American Tribes, which have experienced harms from toxic pollution originating from historic lead and zinc mining in the region.
The GRDA is steadfastly refusing to conduct studies into the impact dam operations have on the spread of sediment contaminated with toxic heavy metals such as lead, zinc and cadmium.
“GRDA has not been responsive to the community’s requests. Frankly, they have ignored the community’s requests,” said Grand Riverkeeper Martin Lively. “By adopting the measures articulated in our submission, FERC would be affirming its commitment to public participation and environmental justice.”
President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created the Office of Public Participation (OPP) to promote and support public voices at FERC proceedings. LEAD Agency has also been collaborating with the office and are encouraging other stakeholders to join the relicensing process.
For resident inquiries and assistance with making filings about the dam relicensing, such as interventions, comments, or requests for rehearing, the public is encouraged to contact OPP at (202)502–6595 or OPP@ferc.gov
For additional resources on the Pensacola Dam relicensing, visit
https://www.leadagency.org/flooding
work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu