Hydraulic & Hydrologic Analyses & Modeling

Great Northern Paper, Inc. Emergency Action Plan

Great Northern Paper, Inc. (GNP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bowater Inc., owns and operates four federally licensed hydroelectric projects which include 11 dams on the Penobscot River and its tributaries in northern Maine. The dams operate as an interconnected system for electrical and mechanical power production for GNP. The hydro system comprises over 3,348 square miles. GNP has developed and maintains an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for its hydro system in accordance with FERC requirements. The EAP establishes a communications network and emergency procedures in the unlikely event of an emergency situation at any licensed GNP hydro facility.

Devine Tarbell & Associates reorganized and modified the EAP to make the plan more effective and easier to use. DTA’s staff directly involved GNP hydro system power dispatchers in the reorganization to provide “hands on” input from a user’s perspective. Public safety agencies and other planholders were also actively involved in the redevelopment of the EAP, and agency comments were incorporated into the 1994 EAP as appropriate. The critical aspect of the update was the need to provide, in one consolidated manual, an effective plan to cover a wide range of possible emergency situations at 11 different dams located throughout GNP’s hydro system, each with different downstream hazard potential.

As part of the project, DTA’s staff developed new notification maps on GIS to incorporate the results of probable maximum flood (PMF) dam failure analyses. The notification line is shown along roads, transmission lines, structures, and other features that can be recognized in the field instead of along topographical contours. The maps also provide the travel times of both the leading edge and maximum stage of the flood wave at selected locations for each possible dam failure scenario. Public safety agencies agreed that the maps are clear and easy to read for emergency response with elimination of contour lines, improved quality of base maps, and the delineation of a single notification line.

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