U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11) has penned a letter with local elected county and state elected officials opposing the preliminary permit application submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for construction of a hydroelectric pumped storage facility at Cuffs Run, proposed by York Energy Storage, LLC.
The letter said, in part:
“The landscape of the lower Susquehanna River gorge has been recognized by both the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the federal government as a landscape worthy of protection and investment. This project, if allowed to proceed, would destroy preserved farms, a regional scenic trail, the viewshed of a popular multimodal rail trail, and forested lands needed to help protect the ecological health of this landscape and an already impaired waterway… We stand united in opposition to this project and York Energy Storage LLC’s application.”
Smucker said the project “would uproot families, impact preserved farms, and irreparably damage the natural beauty that so many have worked so hard to preserve along the Susquehanna River.”
The site for the project is near Chanceford Township in York County, Pa. York Energy Storage LLC said the project will be comprised of an existing lower reservoir, Lake Clarke owned by Brookfield Renewable Energy Group, with the construction of a new upper reservoir. Lake Clarke, formed by Safe Harbor Dam, has a storage capacity of 26,000 acre-feet, and the new upper reservoir would have the same storage capacity. A 44-foot-diameter shaft and tunnel trifurcating into three 20-foot-diameter steel-lined tunnels would lead to an underground powerhouse containing three 286 MW reversible pump-turbine units. The proposed project is expected to connect to the PJM Interconnection via a new three-mile-long 500-kW transmission line.
York Energy Storage LLC submitted a revised preliminary permit application to FERC on Jan. 15 for the York Energy Storage water power project (P-15332). The York Energy Storage project is anticipated to create 300 jobs during a five-year construction period and 25 permanent jobs for the life of the project (50 years). The application said the proposed project was previously studied as the Cuff’s Run Pumped Storage project (P-10868), under a FERC preliminary permit filed in 1990 by Mid-Atlantic Energy Engineers.
“With three electric producing dams already along our river, York County produces its fair share of energy and suffers its fair share of environmental impact. The need to balance energy production and open space preservation is important. The proposed dam would contradict our County’s comprehensive plan, our economic action plan, and our ability to best leverage our outdoor economy – all considerable factors that contribute to our County’s economic competitiveness,” said York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler.
