Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
panies had little incentive to publicly support competitors in adjacent market territories.
But it should also be clear that many Georgians supported Trotters Shoals on one condi-
tion. Newspaper editors, business interests, and Georgia governor Carl Saunders explained
that they would prefer private development and industry in the Savannah River valley. But
if companies like Mead could not make firm commitments, Georgians vowed to endorse
Trotters Shoals. 30 Mead's and Duke's wavering in the Savannah River valley eventually
tipped the scales in favor of Trotters Shoals, Georgia, and the Corps.
Breaking the impasse over the Middleton Shoals coal burner and Trotters Shoals hydro-
electric dam ultimately involved another water and energy site Duke coveted in the up-
per Savannah River valley, on the Keowee River. In 1965, Duke Power Company presid-
ent William B. McGuire announced plans to build a $700 million Keowee-Toxaway hy-
droelectric and thermoelectric steam plant complex. Congressman Dorn enthusiastically
pronounced the Oconee and Pickens County project “fantastic and almost incomprehens-
ible.” 31 As reported in local papers, the company claimed the Middleton Shoals coal plant
was still on the table while also promising to build two new hydroelectric dams to cre-
ate Lakes Jocassee and Keowee in addition to three steam plants on Lake Keowee's new
shoreline. This was a strange twist for Duke executives to discuss new hydroelectric dams
after spending five years criticizing the Corps' Hartwell and Trotters Shoals hydroelec-
tric facilities on economic grounds or because hydro facilities were inefficient compared
with steam facilities. (See Chapter 5.) But according to news reports, “The Duke pres-
ident said his company needed hydro plants for use in peak hours and could use steam
plants” throughout the rest of the day to maintain base loads (i.e., “peak hours” would in-
clude morning/evening or the hottest/coldest part of the day, when consumer demand can
spike above the “base load”). 32 When the company formally submitted an application to
the Federal Power Commission (FPC) for a license to build the energy complex, Duke al-
luded to the possibility that future steam generation might be produced by nuclear fission
reactions instead of pulverized black coal. 33 Sure enough, one year later, Duke submitted a
formal application to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to build three nuclear react-
ors, which now comprise the Oconee Nuclear Station. As the company began to move the
Keowee-Toxaway hydronuclear energy complex project through the FPC and AEC licens-
ing processes, electrical cooperatives established during the New Deal objected to further
privatization of the Savannah River valley's energy and water.
Congressman Dorn broke the impasse. Under his stewardship, the electrical co-ops re-
lented because Duke Power Company agreed not to oppose the Corps' Trotters Shoals dam.
When Dorn announced the “Trotters Shoals, Middleton Shoals, and Keowee-Toxaway”
compromise terms in July 1966, he pledged to support authorization for Duke's Middleton
Shoals diversion dam, Duke's Keowee-Toxaway project in Oconee and Pickens County
(S.C.), and the Corps' Trotters Shoals development. When Dorn was done, after fighting
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