Portland, Oregon (October 10, 2024) The National Hydropower Association (NHA) awarded four organizations with the Outstanding Stewards of America’s Waters (OSAW) Award at Clean Currents 2024 in Portland, Oregon. The OSAW Award honors deserving organizations in the hydropower and marine energy industry for projects that exhibit exemplary operational, educational, historical, recreational, or environmental enhancement and stewardship.
The winners of the 2024 OSAW Award are as follows:
In the category of Public Education, the Foundation for Water and Energy Education was selected for its Hydropower and STEM Academy.
In the category of Recreational, Environmental, and Historical Enhancement, Kleinschmidt Associates was selected for its Shikellamy Nature-Like Fishway Design & Construction.
In the category of Recreational, Environmental, and Historical Enhancement, Pacific Gas and Electric Company was selected for its Land Conservation Commitment program.
In the category of Public Education, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Benton Conservation District was selected for the Salmon Summit program.
Additionally, NHA recognizes the amazing work of Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for decades spent ensuring the survival of the snail darter, ultimately resulting in the removal of the fish from the endangered species list.
Read on to learn more about the winners and watch the OSAW Award video here.
Foundation for Water and Energy Education – Hydropower and STEM Academy
The hydropower industry’s workforce development challenges are known, and the Foundation for Water and Energy Education (FWEE) seeks to address these issues via its Hydropower and STEM Academy. The Academy, which began in 2016, received support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 2023 to scale-up the program while developing a case study for national hydro generators to adopt the program.
The Academies run one week in length and support up to 24 secondary students, aiming to provide high school students with educational pathways and hydropower career opportunities. Students enrolled in the program utilize hands-on learning activities and take part in mentorships grounded in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). While completing STEM challenges, students learn directly from engineers, plant operators, and skilled trade workers, who help contextualize local employment opportunities, as well as the skills and educational pathways students will need to obtain these jobs.
Currently, up to 72 students a year are able to take part in an Academy, and 40% – 60% of those students identify as female and/or students of color. Additionally, annual student evaluations show strong enthusiasm for the program, including significant increases in the student’s workforce perceptions. A 2022 survey of 2016 – 2019 participants demonstrated that the Academy influenced educational pathway selections, as well as students who later entered the hydropower industry and other clean energy careers.
Kleinschmidt Associates – Shikellamy Nature-Like Fishway Design & Construction
Kleinschmidt was selected by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to provide ecological connectivity at the Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam in Pennsylvania by designing and supporting the construction of a state-of-the-art nature-like fishway (NLF) on the Susquehanna River.
As sub-contractor to Gannet Fleming (lead civil designer), Kleinschmidt was tasked with revising an existing fishway design that was too expensive, developing a set of criteria to assess innovative fishway designs, and creating construction drawings that met the unique project design criteria.
In collaboration with multiple stakeholders, including DCNR, the Pennsylvania Department of General Services, United States Fish and Wildlife Services, and the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, Kleinschmidt conducted a design criteria workshop. This collaborative approach fostered the integration of diverse insights into the conceptualization and refinement of the design. To ensure effectiveness, the team developed a sophisticated 2D hydraulic model, enabling evaluation of the fishway’s hydraulic conditions.
This project marks a significant advancement in ecological connectivity at the dam, restoring migratory passage across to 18,000 square miles of river basin above the dam through the construction of one of the largest NLF’s on the East Coast. This innovative design accommodates a broad range of aquatic life, meeting the highest standards in fishway design.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company – Land Conservation Commitment
Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s (PG&E’s) Land Conservation Commitment (LCC) was an unprecedented undertaking, borne from extreme adversity and wrought with implementation challenges. Its goals were realized at the hands of a group of passionate visionaries, who remained resolute in their actions for almost two decades.
In 2023, PG&E, in close partnership with the Stewardship Council, fulfilled its commitment under the LCC to conserve more than 140,000 acres of PG&E’s Watershed Lands for the benefit of future generations while implementing a Youth Investment Program to connect underserved youth with the outdoors.
Located in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges, and stretching from Shasta County in Northern California to Kern County in the southern part of the state, PG&E’s Watershed Lands comprise more than 1,000 legal parcels of largely undeveloped properties. The LCC resulted in the permanent protection of open space, cultural and historic resources, sustainable forestry, public recreation, habitat protection, and agricultural uses on these lands.
PG&E executed about 100 unique and complex real estate transactions, developing agreements to protect PG&E’s right to provide safe, reliable, and renewable energy while protecting the Beneficial Public Values and preserving public access to these amazing natural resources.
Through the implementation of the Youth Investment Program, PG&E established and enabled grantmaking and philanthropic programs resulting in 270 grants to youth serving organizations, connecting over 260,000 underserved youth to the outdoors, and the development of nationwide programs to advance racial justice and equity in the outdoor and environmental movement.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Benton Conservation District – Salmon Summit
The Benton Conservation District hosts Salmon Summit, an in-person event for the Washington State “Salmon in the Classroom” curriculum, and the Summit provides the opportunity to release school-raised salmon back into the Columbia River, helping students develop a personal experience with the important inland waterway.
The two-day event offers more than 50 field stations. and the most teacher-requested station is the one in which Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) fish passage experts tag fish and explain how data collected about migrating salmon helps researchers understand more about fish populations and passage through hydroelectric projects. In turn, this data helps inform even safer designs and operations for future hydropower facilities everywhere. Additionally, PNNL also shares information on careers in biology, data science, science communication, and hydropower design.
Complimenting the live event, PNNL produced a first-of-its kind live-stream, enabling classrooms, which would not have been able to otherwise participate, to join the event remotely. The live-stream component more than doubled participation in 2023, allowing schools more than 300 miles away, including students from low-income communities and schools where math and science test scores were below Washington’s state average, to join.
Stakeholders praised the event, and a post-event survey of participating live-stream teachers showed that 100% of respondents were interested in participating again and would recommend the live-stream to other teachers.
Honorable Mention – Tennessee Valley Authority’s Snail Darter Delisted
The snail darter has been delisted from the national endangered species list through decades of conservation work by TVA fisheries biologists and river managers, in partnership with a host of others. The revival of the species led to its delisting, one of only 55 species ever to be delisted.
The darter was declared endangered in 1975 and became the posterchild of the Endangered Species Act when a 1978 Supreme Court decision temporarily halted TVA’s construction of Tellico dam. To protect the fish from extinction, TVA aided by state and federal biologists relocated snail darters to various free-flowing rivers in the area prior to the Tellico Dam’s completion in 1979.
Since that time, TVA has continuously invested in efforts to revive the species. TVA installed oxygen injection systems in order to improve water quality. The Agency also constructed weirs and altered release schedules in order to provide the minimum flows necessary for aquatic health.
TVA has worked tirelessly to monitor the health of aquatic ecosystems in the Valley and the species they support, particularly the 62 federally listed species. Since the delisting, TVA has continued to monitor the snail darter through the ongoing partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To learn more about NHA’s OSAW Award, check out the site here; the next award cycle begins in Spring of 2025.