Want to buy a Boise River dam? Ada County just put this one up for sale
Ada County is looking to get out of the dam business.
County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to auction off Barber Dam, which is near the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. The county will set a minimum bid and give prospective bidders a chance to inspect the dam “before significant water flows begin in spring,” according to a news release.
“The county commissioners want to sell it because they feel there are more important issues to focus on than operating a dam, which is not required by state statute,” Elizabeth Duncan, Ada County spokesperson, said in a phone call.
Ada County has owned Barber Dam since 1977, acquired after the owner at the time failed to pay taxes on it. The dam, which is operated and maintained by Fulcrum LLC and Enel Green Power North America, generates hydropower that is sold to Idaho Power.
Anyone looking to buy it must show that they are able to own and operate the dam under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission guidelines, according to the news release.
The dam made headlines in August after a power failure in the middle of the night cut off the flow of the Boise River. The Idaho Department of Water Resources said that meant fish, recreation and maintenance flows on the river all were interrupted, and downstream irrigators of water were deprived during the 61 minutes of the power failure.
Ada County was hit with a $50,000 fine as a result of the problem. State law allows a fine of $50 per one-tenth cubic feet per second that gets diverted, a fine that would have cost the county $832,500 if not for the statutory maximum civil penalty.
That wasn’t the first time a power outage has effectively cut off the river — a similar 2015 outage led Ada County to create an Environmental Advisory Board comprising members from Idaho Fish and Game, the Idaho Conservation League, the Barber Valley Neighborhood Association and several other stakeholders.
This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 3:24 PM.
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