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If all goes well, Granite County officials hope to have the mothballed generating plant at Georgetown Lake up and running by next year
By ROBERT STRUCKMAN of the Missoulian
The powerhouse below Georgetown Lake still contains the original turbines, generators and transformers that produced electricity from 1900 until it was mothballed by the Montana Power Co. in 1990 and sold to Granite County. A plan is in the works to begin making electricity again with a new generator and powerhouse.
Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian
GEORGETOWN LAKE - Ray Waldbillig unlocked the front door of the former Montana Power Co. generating house and slipped in past a “Danger High Voltage” sign.
“When it ran, it was a real sweet operation,” said Waldbillig, the facility's caretaker.
He flicked a switch. The room's cold fluorescent tubes snapped to life, casting a dim glow into the dark recesses of the rafters.
Two idle sets of 10-foot-tall, century-old General Electric turbines and generators filled the cold barn-like space. A metal stairway led from the concrete ground floor to an overhead control deck and a bank of dials, knobs and levers.
After nearly a century of operation, Montana Power mothballed the plant in 1990 and sold the entire works - generator, flume, dam and reservoir - to Granite County for $1.
Waldbillig has been tending the property for the past 16 years. It's a quiet, shaded spot at the bottom of a steep-walled canyon. Moose tracks crisscross the deep snow. The waters of Flint Creek pass in an icy rush in the early afternoon stillness.
If all goes as Granite County officials plan, electrical generation will resume within a year to help pay for the upkeep of Georgetown Dam and, maybe, earn some revenue for the county.
In 1900, a subsidiary of the Granite-Bimetallic Mining Co. of Philipsburg completed construction of the Georgetown Dam and powerhouse to provide electricity to nearby mines and concentrators.
In 1906, the electricity supplied a smelter in Anaconda, and three years later the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. bought the facility. Montana Power Co. took over power generation from the Anaconda Copper Co. in 1912.
The Georgetown works were an industrial marvel.
Water from the reservoir traveled through a tongue-in-groove wood-stave pipeline for about 6,200 feet along the canyon wall.
“It's basically a mile-long wine barrel,” Waldbillig said.
From a surge tank at the top of the near-vertical cliff, water dropped about 1,000 feet straight down into the powerhouse on the canyon floor.
When Bob Graves, now employed by PPL Montana in Great Falls, served as Montana Power's final caretaker in the 1980s, he enjoyed poring over the original logbooks from the engineer who built the powerhouse.
“It starts at day one and goes all through the construction,” he said.
Granite-Bimetallic was in competition with the Anaconda Co. at the time, and the log entries mention the spies the two companies hired to watch one another.
“They'd see them hiding in the trees,” Graves said.
The early workers lived in tents year-around until the wives complained, and the company built four homes.
It's a great place to live, but bitterly cold, Graves said.
“It's depressing in the wintertime. There's no sun for about two months,” he said.
Much of the detail in the logbooks is technical, a blow-by-blow account of the construction and operation of the plant.
“It's good reading,” he said.
The generators arrived by rail in Philipsburg during the winter. Crews used sleds to drag them up Flint Creek to the powerhouse. One made it up the canyon, but a thaw stranded the second until the following year.
“It was so heavy they couldn't move it without the snow,” Graves said.
By the time Graves arrived, the job was like working a living museum, he said.
“It was just me. I did all the maintenance and operating. I took care of the powerhouse and the dam,” he said. The generators produced about one megawatt per hour.
Over the decades, the flume had begun to deteriorate. In 1989, it needed to be replaced. So Montana Power sold it all to Granite County and gave the county nearly $1 million to help pay for continued maintenance of the dam.
Three years ago, the Granite County commissioners issued a request for proposals to get the generator back online.
At the time, wholesale electricity rates were high and the fund to maintain the dam was getting low.
The town of Philipsburg, which has two generators on its water supply, was earning about $35,000 a year by selling electricity to the local school, hospital and the town itself. Extra power went to NorthWestern Energy.
“It's a good deal for the town,” said Councilman Garland Shaw.
Despite the apparent profusion of local electrical production in the Philipsburg area, county- and city-owned electrical production is rare, said Gary Wiens, assistant general manager of the Montana Electric Cooperative Association.
A Bozeman company called Hydrodynamics Inc. won the Georgetown bid with a plan to invest about $2.3 million in a steel or polyethylene flume and a smaller, more efficient powerhouse, said owner Roger Kirk.
Hydrodynamics has eight employees and runs generators in California and Montana and sells about 1,000 gigawatts of electricity per year.
Kirk hopes to generate about 1.5 megawatts per hour, enough electricity to power about 20,000 homes.
The county's share of the gross revenues will depend on its investment in the cost. It will likely be in the 5 percent to 10 percent range. The county's yearly budget is about $4 million.
Commissioner Susie Browning doesn't think the dam will have a big effect on the county's bottom line. Still, it will pay for its own upkeep, and clean energy is a good thing, she said.
Construction of the facility is awaiting approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But that process will likely continue to run smoothly.
“It's a known entity. The reservoir has operated well. The fishery has been healthy. That's one reason I'm attracted to the project,” Kirk said.
“The paperwork phase always takes the most time. Then it'll be three months of fun,” he said.
He hopes to begin construction as early as this fall or next spring.
By ROBERT STRUCKMAN of the Missoulian
The powerhouse below Georgetown Lake still contains the original turbines, generators and transformers that produced electricity from 1900 until it was mothballed by the Montana Power Co. in 1990 and sold to Granite County. A plan is in the works to begin making electricity again with a new generator and powerhouse.
Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian
GEORGETOWN LAKE - Ray Waldbillig unlocked the front door of the former Montana Power Co. generating house and slipped in past a “Danger High Voltage” sign.
“When it ran, it was a real sweet operation,” said Waldbillig, the facility's caretaker.
He flicked a switch. The room's cold fluorescent tubes snapped to life, casting a dim glow into the dark recesses of the rafters.
Two idle sets of 10-foot-tall, century-old General Electric turbines and generators filled the cold barn-like space. A metal stairway led from the concrete ground floor to an overhead control deck and a bank of dials, knobs and levers.
After nearly a century of operation, Montana Power mothballed the plant in 1990 and sold the entire works - generator, flume, dam and reservoir - to Granite County for $1.
Waldbillig has been tending the property for the past 16 years. It's a quiet, shaded spot at the bottom of a steep-walled canyon. Moose tracks crisscross the deep snow. The waters of Flint Creek pass in an icy rush in the early afternoon stillness.
If all goes as Granite County officials plan, electrical generation will resume within a year to help pay for the upkeep of Georgetown Dam and, maybe, earn some revenue for the county.
In 1900, a subsidiary of the Granite-Bimetallic Mining Co. of Philipsburg completed construction of the Georgetown Dam and powerhouse to provide electricity to nearby mines and concentrators.
In 1906, the electricity supplied a smelter in Anaconda, and three years later the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. bought the facility. Montana Power Co. took over power generation from the Anaconda Copper Co. in 1912.
The Georgetown works were an industrial marvel.
Water from the reservoir traveled through a tongue-in-groove wood-stave pipeline for about 6,200 feet along the canyon wall.
“It's basically a mile-long wine barrel,” Waldbillig said.
From a surge tank at the top of the near-vertical cliff, water dropped about 1,000 feet straight down into the powerhouse on the canyon floor.
When Bob Graves, now employed by PPL Montana in Great Falls, served as Montana Power's final caretaker in the 1980s, he enjoyed poring over the original logbooks from the engineer who built the powerhouse.
“It starts at day one and goes all through the construction,” he said.
Granite-Bimetallic was in competition with the Anaconda Co. at the time, and the log entries mention the spies the two companies hired to watch one another.
“They'd see them hiding in the trees,” Graves said.
The early workers lived in tents year-around until the wives complained, and the company built four homes.
It's a great place to live, but bitterly cold, Graves said.
“It's depressing in the wintertime. There's no sun for about two months,” he said.
Much of the detail in the logbooks is technical, a blow-by-blow account of the construction and operation of the plant.
“It's good reading,” he said.
The generators arrived by rail in Philipsburg during the winter. Crews used sleds to drag them up Flint Creek to the powerhouse. One made it up the canyon, but a thaw stranded the second until the following year.
“It was so heavy they couldn't move it without the snow,” Graves said.
By the time Graves arrived, the job was like working a living museum, he said.
“It was just me. I did all the maintenance and operating. I took care of the powerhouse and the dam,” he said. The generators produced about one megawatt per hour.
Over the decades, the flume had begun to deteriorate. In 1989, it needed to be replaced. So Montana Power sold it all to Granite County and gave the county nearly $1 million to help pay for continued maintenance of the dam.
Three years ago, the Granite County commissioners issued a request for proposals to get the generator back online.
At the time, wholesale electricity rates were high and the fund to maintain the dam was getting low.
The town of Philipsburg, which has two generators on its water supply, was earning about $35,000 a year by selling electricity to the local school, hospital and the town itself. Extra power went to NorthWestern Energy.
“It's a good deal for the town,” said Councilman Garland Shaw.
Despite the apparent profusion of local electrical production in the Philipsburg area, county- and city-owned electrical production is rare, said Gary Wiens, assistant general manager of the Montana Electric Cooperative Association.
A Bozeman company called Hydrodynamics Inc. won the Georgetown bid with a plan to invest about $2.3 million in a steel or polyethylene flume and a smaller, more efficient powerhouse, said owner Roger Kirk.
Hydrodynamics has eight employees and runs generators in California and Montana and sells about 1,000 gigawatts of electricity per year.
Kirk hopes to generate about 1.5 megawatts per hour, enough electricity to power about 20,000 homes.
The county's share of the gross revenues will depend on its investment in the cost. It will likely be in the 5 percent to 10 percent range. The county's yearly budget is about $4 million.
Commissioner Susie Browning doesn't think the dam will have a big effect on the county's bottom line. Still, it will pay for its own upkeep, and clean energy is a good thing, she said.
Construction of the facility is awaiting approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But that process will likely continue to run smoothly.
“It's a known entity. The reservoir has operated well. The fishery has been healthy. That's one reason I'm attracted to the project,” Kirk said.
“The paperwork phase always takes the most time. Then it'll be three months of fun,” he said.
He hopes to begin construction as early as this fall or next spring.
