Musquash River may again be home to hydro power
The ghostly remains of hydro power infrastructure surprise the visitor who stumbles into them in the Musquash woods.
There's a tumbled-down boat house, high and dry, the water's edge nowhere in sight, as well as a towering concrete building that once directed millions of litres of water into a pipeline now nearly invisible in the forest.
These structures were abandoned by NB Power four decades ago when they decommissioned a crumbling dam at Scott Falls on the West Branch Musquash River, allowing much of the reservoir behind it to drain away, but on the nearby East Branch Musquash, the dam infrastructure is largely intact.
NB Power decommissioned the Musquash Power station in 2009 when the last of its three antique 2.5 megawatt generators finally broke down.
Feasibility study
The city of Saint John's power utility, Saint John Energy, has hired a Mississauga-based engineering firm, Hatch, to determine whether installation of a new hydro generator at Musquash is feasible.
Longtime Musquash Fire Chief Wayne Pollock thinks that would be a good idea.
"Any time you can take advantage of a hydro system, it's great to have that. Be nice to see that back in the area, there was a lot of history, lot of power come from Musquash years ago. Be nice to see Musquash producing a little more power," he said.
And there's a huge resource to be had. The Musquash watershed includes the two rivers, along with Sherwood Lake, Seven Mile Lake, Loch Alva, and a host of smaller lakes and streams sprawled across hundreds of square kilometres of wilderness to the west of Saint John.
Pollock took CBC on a tour of the dam infrastructure, once managed by NB Power and more recently by the Department of Natural Resources.
Four concrete dams are still active along with numerous stretches of earthen dams. Two wooden penstocks that once transported water from the dams to the power station have been removed. The station itself remains in place, its outdoor electrical equipment rusting, its water towers now missing.
Despite the loss of the dam and reservoir at Scott Falls, there is still a link between the West Musquash River and its sister the to east. In the 1980s, a three metre tall underground tunnel was cut two kilometres through the rock to make West Branch water available when needed in the east branch for either power generation or as reserve for the City of Saint John's water supply.
