CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

BLENHEIM -- Four massive upstate reservoirs that supply New York City with drinking water also may one day provide clean electric power to thousands of small-town customers.

The Delaware County Electric Cooperative, one of four customer-owned cooperatives created by the state in 1941 to bring low-cost power to farmers, sees a new source from four dams that hold back the city's Schoharie, Cannonsville, Neversink and Pepacton reservoirs.

"We are excited about this," said cooperative CEO Greg Starheim. "It would mean substantially more power for us."

Plans filed in May with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission propose installation of turbine units that would capture enough energy from water spilling over the dams to power 20,000 homes.

At a total capacity of about 65 megawatts, that is about a tenth of that from a traditional fossil fuel-fired power plant.

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