Word: buckleys
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Brockway Mills is on line, ready to feed 850 kilowatts of electric power from the Williams River falls into the Vermont power grid. For David F. Buckley, who swam at this same scenic spot as a boy and who has been struggling since 1979 to bring the modest $1.9 million plant into being, it is a rhapsodic moment. Standing inside the powerhouse as the 18-ft.-high generator whirs, he says, "For me this is like music...
...Buckley, 52, is a soft-spoken lawyer of philosophic bent who likes to walk the woods of Vermont hunting for chanterelles. He started the hydro project because of a boyhood fascination with moving water and dams, which abound where he grew up (and lives), the riverside village of Bellows Falls, and out of a growing concern in the 1970s over energy sources. "I saw those gas lines, and it seemed the Ayatullah could make it much worse on us if he wanted to," he says...
...also believed the project would benefit society in another way. Every kilowatt generated from the river's waters means less burning of fossil fuels, and less atmospheric pollution, less increase in the greenhouse effect. Operating Brockway Mills will save 4,000 bbl. of oil each year. And Buckley readily admits that he hoped to make a profit from his work -- a concept known as doing well while doing good...
First, to obtain the required series of federal and state permits and authorizations, various studies and projections had to be prepared by engineers and consultants. Buckley applied for the key federal document, issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in November 1981, then waited 14 months to get the license papers. It was also necessary to get a Water Quality Certificate from the Vermont department of environmental conservation. All told, permits or approvals were required from almost two dozen federal, state and local boards and agencies, and it cost some $200,000 to get them...
...worst part was the agencies," Buckley says. "The historic preservation division of Vermont's development and community affairs agency, Environmental Protection, Fish and Wildlife, National Parks, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the public service department of Vermont, the state agency of transportation...