Assistant Public Utilities Director Kenny Waldroup, who recommended ending the project, said the city had to make sure the project was socially, economically and environmentally viable before it would be considered.<\/p>\n
![\"Falls](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/falls.lake_.dam_.facilities.map_.jpg\")
<\/center><\/p>\nWhile staff decided that it had a lot of support from the community and wouldn\u2019t be a detriment to the environment, the numbers just didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that any investment we make has a reasonable financial risk,\u201d said Waldroup, \u201cand the project, as attractive as it is, just didn\u2019t have a reasonable financial risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with favorable financing conditions, Waldroup said, the project would take 50 years to pay for itself. That\u2019s 20 years longer than the term of the bond that would be needed to fund the equipment.<\/p>\n
Making the project less appealing are possible state and federal changes to how alternative energy is funded, credited or purchased.<\/p>\n
The natural gas boom has also decreased energy costs, Waldroup said, and it has made investing in alternative energies more difficult.<\/p>\n
The city began investigating hydroelectric at Falls Lake in 2009 when private power company called Community Hydro, LLC submitted an application to FERC for its own permit. Since Falls Lake is used as one of Raleigh\u2019s primary water sources, the city wanted to keep private interests away from public water and filed for a competing permit, which it was awarded in late 2010.<\/p>\n
Since then, the city has spent about $300,000 in researching the feasibility of using the dam for power.<\/p>\n
Waldroup said the city often spends money investigating projects that could have a potential cost savings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are examples of successful investigations that have reduced cost. This just wasn\u2019t one of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n