By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer
Repairs to the covered bridge, dam, and hydroelectric plant at the Simon Pearce restaurant and glass factory in Quechee are awaiting comprehensive engineering assessments, cost projections, contracting, and scheduling.
An embankment at the base of the Quechee Covered Bridge washed away in the recent, catastrophic flooding of the Ottauquechee River on July 10-11. The raging flood waters also contributed to what Hartford municipal officials termed potential “structural abnormalities” at the top of the dam at Simon Pearce, as well as to irregularities in water flow over the dam.
In addition, the hydroelectric plant at Simon Pearce, which is by the river’s flow through and over the dam, sustained extensive damage from silt, mud, and flood waters that will require “several months of repair work at best,” Simon Pearce CEO Jay Benson said in a phone conversation on Monday. The glassmaking company owns the hydroelectric dam and is responsible for monitoring it in coordination with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Vermont state regulators do not have a hand in the process. The dam and hydro plant provide power for the renowned glassmaking firm’s factory, which is shut down indefinitely.
“The repairs to the dam and the hydro plant are related, but they are not dependent on one another,” Benson commented. “With the loss of the height on the dam, your head — basically the amount of water that can ultimately go down into the penstock — is reduced.” The penstock is the sluice or intake structure that controls water flow to a hydro turbine. “We don’t really have all the flow figures right now. By law with our dam, we’ve always been required to have water go over the dam. We turn off the hydro at many points of the year when water is low, because if we took all the water through the penstock, we wouldn’t have water going over the top of the dam. But with less water being pushed to create pressure, the hydro would produce less power,” the Simon Pearce CEO continued.
Potential repairs to the dam await a full inspection once water levels recede, which had not occurred yet when the Standard went to press this week. A preliminary inspection by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on July 19 suggested that there may be damage at the top of the dam, where a portion of the wall seems to have been knocked off-kilter by either the strong flood waters or some sort of water-borne object. Benson said that a FERC inspector assessed the dam on Friday and “did not express a lot of concern. But what we’ve said all along is that as the water continues to come down, what we see now may not be what we see later,” Benson noted.
“One of the important distinctions that we want people to understand is that the dam is a hydro dam designed to create a head for the hydro plant. It is not a flood dam,” the Simon Pearce CEO noted. “Therefore what it’s holding back is not, in our opinion, huge. In any event, right now, we’ve got to wait a few weeks to figure out what exactly is going on. We want to first and foremost coordinate everything with the town. We really strive for that and are thankful for the support of the town and the community. Like everyone, we are also interested in the covered bridge and when that will be reopened.”
Hartford town officials have asked the public to stay away from the Ottauquechee between the Simon Pearce dam and the Quechee Gorge Dam for all recreational activities, including boating, swimming, fishing, and walking along the shoreline. “Right now, the site has fireline/do-not-cross tape on it and it has since the dam incident was noted,” Hartford Fire Chief Scott Cooney said Monday afternoon. “We also did a door-to-door visit with all the property owners all the way up to the Quechee Gorge State Park, asking them not to recreate in and around the water until we get a structural analysis of the dam. I believe the Hartford Recreation Department is also planning to put up sandwich boards saying ‘No Swimming’ along that stretch.”
Cooney noted the town has closed the entry points to the Quechee Covered Bridge and public parking areas in the vicinity of the dam. At a special meeting on July 18, the Hartford Selectboard voted to authorize the expenditure of up to $100,000 to rebuild the flood-ravaged embankment at the foot of the bridge. Town officials expect the cost of the embankment repair to be fully reimbursed by federal and state funding, Acting Town Manager Gail Ostrout told the board.
Raging waters at Simon Pearce during the flooding on July 10
Repair of the Simon Pearce hydroelectric plant, however, is likely to be a much more complicated and costly process, with the availability of any public funding to a private enterprise such as the glass manufacturer uncertain at best, Benson reported. “We’re still really waiting to see what the state and FEMA will be doing in terms of supporting the cleanup work,” he stated. “I think now we’re thinking more seriously that when you have two 200-year floods within 13 years, you start to think about what the best efforts are to mitigate those and the risks they pose to the building. Because we are in a flood zone, typical insurance doesn’t apply. So we’re really interested in seeing how FEMA will support this from the company’s perspective because this is our flagship location.”
It’s clear that the Simon Pearce staff and the company’s contractors have a rocky road ahead of them for now. “Fixing a hydro in a few months after a flood is probably looking on the bright side because of the extent of the work,” the Simon Pearce executive lamented. “We’ve cleaned out the initial mud — the visible mud — so that it is no longer under 10 to 12 feet of mud. But the bearings need to be replaced, because it’s like wheel bearings — they just don’t work with the dirt. The electronics need to be dried out and the hydraulics that have been underwater have to be tested and repaired. Mud has to be cleaned out of the penstock.
“There’s just a significant level of work to do on all these things. It’s just a series of events that are tied together,” Benson concluded. “We opened the retail store last week and we’re aspiring to open the restaurant next weekend, provided that some needed kitchen equipment is delivered. But the hydro plant and the factory have a long way to go.”