An arbitration panel has determined the Salish and Kootenai Tribes would have to pay nearly $18.3 million to acquire a northwestern Montana hydroelectric dam from PPL Montana.
Energy Keepers Inc., a tribally-owned corporation, said Wednesday the tribes will notify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of their intent to acquire the Kerr Project southwest of Polson in September 2015.
An arbitrator has pegged a fair price for the Kerr Dam at a little more than $18.2 million, a much lower cost than what PPL Montana was asking the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to pay for the dam.
The number arrived at by the American Arbitration Association was announced during a Tuesday meeting at the Tribal headquarters in Pablo.
A price has been set for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to acquire Kerr Dam next year – and the number is tens of millions of dollars closer to what the tribes said it was worth than what PPL Montana had sought.
CSKT almost immediately filed formal notice with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding their intent to acquire the Kerr Project.
The American Arbitration Association’s (AAA) panel has made a final ruling regarding the estimated conveyance price that Energy Keepers, Incorporated (EKI) will pay on behalf of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) to PPL Montana in order for CSKT to acquire the Kerr Hydroelectric Project.
An arbitration panel is preparing to announce the final price tag for Kerr Dam, the 194-megawatt hydroelectric plant at the natural outlet of Flathead Lake near Polson.
The American Arbitration Association held a hearing late last month in Newport, Calif., involving the facility’s current owner, PPL Montana, and Energy Keepers, Inc., the new corporation tasked with acquiring and eventually operating the dam for the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
After several days of intense arbitration hearings, now the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have some answers on the cost of purchasing the Kerr Hydroelectric Project from the current owner, PPL Montana, when the Tribes get the chance to sign on the dotted line in September 2015.
After extensive hearings, held in Newport, Calif, the Tribes and PPL Montana got the opportunity to present their cases in front of a three-person American Arbitration Association (AAA) panel.
Fifteen years before the Hungry Horse Dam and 37 years before the Libby Dam, at the tail end of the Great Depression, the Kerr Dam was completed five miles south of Flathead Lake. Today, it is one of the oldest federally licensed hydroelectric projects operating in the United States, generating enough energy to power nearly 150,000 homes. But if the facility’s electricity production has long been reliable, the question of who is in charge of that production has been less certain.
Now, more than 80 years after the dam was first licensed and in the wake of decades of legal wrangling, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are poised to take over full ownership for the first time. In exercising their ownership option, expected to come to fruition in the fall of 2015, they will become the first tribe in the country to own and operate a major hydroelectric power plant.
A major question asked by tribal members and the general public regarding the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ (CSKT) efforts to purchase the Kerr Project has been, “What will it cost?”
This question will soon be answered and the Tribes anticipate it will result in an immediate resolution to the $35 million challenge posed by CSKT regarding the conveyance price.
With less than two years until September 2015, the date in which the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) will have the right to acquire the Kerr Hydroelectric Project (Kerr Project), the Tribal corporate enterprise, Energy Keepers, Inc. (EKI), is preparing for this important acquisition of resources.
For CSKT, acquiring the Kerr Project is one way the Tribes will provide future, sustainable economic development for the Tribal community. More importantly though, by owning the Kerr Project, the Tribes regain control over an important cultural and natural resource site, historically linked to the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille people…
Last August, a tour of the Kerr Project included several Tribal Elders, interested community members and personnel from SXʷNQ̓EʔELS L SUW̓EČM / KSUKⱠIⱠMUMAⱠ ʾA·K̓͏AⱠMUKWAʾITS, Inc., the Tribal corporation which does business as Energy Keepers, Inc. (EKI), and whose job is managing the acquisition of the Kerr Hydroelectric Project.
Simply, it was a walking tour of the Kerr Project works, starting in the powerhouse shop, then moving onto the walkway of the arched dam itself…