The plan may actually benefit many in northern Marquette County.
BIG BAY -- The Alger Delta Cooperative Electric Association announced it will upgrade its system that supplies about 1,000 residents in northern Marquette County with power--a $4.7 million upgrade to be exact--thanks to Kennecott.
The electric provider announced the details at a meeting in Big Bay Monday night.
"We're going to do a complete rebuild of the line coming up here along County Road 550, a new substation and a variety of other improvements," said Co-op General Manager Tom Harrell.
Kennecott originally was going to use diesel-fueled generators to produce its own power for the mine on the Yellow Dog Plains. But Kennecott and the Co-op reached an agreement worth about $6.4 million to have Alger Delta provide power to the mine. But in order to do so, the entire system will need to be upgraded. Plus, a temporary line to the mine will be installed underground.
Kennecott will pay for all construction. However, residents were concerned about how the construction will affect them.
"We intend to use the existing right of ways and easements,” said Harrell. “There probably will be some power outages along the way--scheduled outages."
According to Alger Delta, the almost 60-year-old electric system would take years to upgrade without the Kennecott money.
"I'm glad to see an upgrade of some sort done on our power supply coming from Marquette,” said Powell Township resident Jerry Mattis. “Over the last years, we've had a lot of outages and it's kind of unreliable."
After the upgrades are complete, the Co-op will be responsible for operations and maintenance. However, the deal isn't a sure thing since Kennecott isn't done obtaining all the necessary permits for the mine.
And the Co-op needs better weather to do some geological surveys and may need to obtain permits for the underground line. Despite that, the plan is expected to start in May.
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