Water as Energy
Planning for a sustainable future in southern New Jersey
Still Run stream behind my childhood home. Growing up I spent countless hours exploring the wetlands and streams in the area.
This is a published preview, not a final draft. Please help me finalize this short essay by pointing out any grammatical errors and sharing any other information you believe is relevant. Note: references and images are not finalized.
Introduction
This essay is part of a series of writings in which I hope to explore how my hometown of Franklinville, New Jersey might transition from a current system of consumption and dependency towards a sustainable model based on local independence within ecological constraints. I’ve organized my writings around the subjects of food production, energy production, and also touch on several sub-topics such as energy consumption and local culture. I hope to explore practical solutions that make sense to me and those I’ve shared them with.
Setting the scene
Within just three miles of my childhood home there are five man-made lakes. All of which, not that long ago had a gristmill or sawmill and used the flow of water to power local industry. As our original forest was cut and grain production moved to the Midwest, these mills closed and fell into disrepair. They were eventually demolished and with them went the visual reminders of our local history. Driving by Iona Lake today it’s easy to believe that there was always a lake there - that it’s just a natural feature of the area. However, if one spends enough time in and around the water they would know otherwise. They would see that when the sunlight hits the water just right, there are shapes under the surface. There, through the red tannin-stained water, sits hundreds of tree stumps; remnants of the White Atlantic Cedar forests that covered these once low wetland swamps. It was these straight, strong, and rot-resistant trees that were milled in those old sawmills, and sadly most of the trees, like the mills, are gone.
Today we are left with the lakes and the winding streams that feed them. They are beautiful reminders of our past and the enormous amount of control we exert over our surroundings. They also remind us that water was, and still is, the defining element of our local landscape and that the only way people ever survived here was with its help.
2015 map on left and 1930s map on right. The landscape remains largely unchanged however there were two small subdivisions built in the 1980s on Taylor rd, also highway 55 now passes through the area. Source: NJ Geoweb
Looking ahead, local energy and local culture
It’s clear to me and many others that our dependence on fossil fuels needs to be minimized and our individual energy consumption must lower in relation. Our local environment is polluted and its resources are wasted or taken for granted, all while our individual lifestyles become increasingly based on foreign and externalized costs. Current solutions only reinforce current trends. Statewide or national fixes, although important, fail to empower citizens to make substantive lifestyle changes. Nor do they consider the intricacies of the local environment.
Instead, let’s look at what historically has worked in this area. Let’s work within the constraints of our environment and create a local culture that respects the ecological uniqueness of our home instead of allowing the popular culture of extraction, consumerism, and pollution to destroy it. With that goal in mind, one can ask many questions: What practical technologies can help us become energy independent? How can we cause as little damage as possible, work with the infrastructure and environment we currently have, yet move quickly towards sustainability and a less polluting lifestyle? How can we nurture a local culture that intertwines our success with that of our environment? It’s these questions and my love for my hometown that led me to begin thinking about local sustainability and the possibilities of small-scale hydropower.
A historical map, circa 1859, of my hometown, then called Porchtown. You can see Porch’s Grist and Saw Mill on the south side of Iona lake marked by small X. I grew up just down the road in a home built in 1832 from lumber milled in Porch’s Saw mill.
Water as energy
Creating energy is the first step in truly localizing our production of food, fiber, and shelter. If we cannot produce our own local energy then all other downstream activities are essentially unsustainable, as they are dependent on the import of energy. In this case “local” is the small town or neighborhood - determined by following historical and regional examples of community divisions. For example my hometown of Franklinville is made up of several smaller communities that naturally formed around man-made lakes and the mills that accompanied them. Each of these historical districts had a few basic elements: (1) farmland, (2) wetlands/wild space, and an (3) infrastructure/urban area with a mill as the centerpiece. Building on this historical structure we already have in place, imagine updating each district into an independent energy producing area with each utilizing a small hydroelectric generator where in the past a mill once was. If we tackle our energy production problems at different levels- at a state level, a community level, and an individual level, with each striving towards sustainability, I believe small-scale hydropower would sit firmly in the community level and could be the missing link between individual home-scale efforts and state-level regional utilities.
We are fortunate to have the historical infrastructure already in place to make hydro power the backbone of a community-scale energy production system. All of our local lakes funnel their energy towards dams and each one is currently wasting the power of it’s falling water. We don’t need to do any massive earth moving, or damage already struggling wetland ecosystems with elaborate projects. Imagine just a small hydro generator, such as the one pictured below, sitting beside each existing dam. Then imagine if the generator was accompanied by a nearby community building which housed local food processing and storage, shared refrigeration, a technology center, and emergency services, all of which were independently powered and catered to local needs. This community center would in effect be the Saw and Grist Mill of the past updated to today's needs.
Energy districts organized around hydroelectric generators.
Of course, the power generated by a small hydro system won’t be enough to power all the district's homes and services all of the time (especially at consumption rates we have now). The point would not be to meet current use rates, which would only reinforce current lifestyles, but instead act as a starting point in developing an alternative system. A system where those who choose to can limit their personal waste, utilize shared resources instead of hoarding them, and find all their necessities locally.
An example of a small scale hydroelectric generator that can accompany an overflow dam. A screw design allows wildlife to pass through the system undamaged. There are even smaller models that fit into existing dams without having to create a separate inlet channel.
But is there actually a benefit to having dozens of small, energy producing communities rather than a single or a few centralized power plants? I believe there is. By bringing energy production to the neighborhood level, you are allowing people to see the direct impact of their energy use, and no longer externalizing the damage that current energy production causes. Scaling down power generation and spreading out producers would also protect our grid from disasters and empower local artisan industries. I believe it is a historically-tested and regionally-suitable first step towards local sustainability.
Most importantly, creating community-level energy is fundamentally a community-strengthening project. It is a real representation of the uniqueness and life-affirming qualities of our hometown - of the clean and abundant flowing water we are lucky to have, and must protect. At this moment, it is clear that we desperately need spaces that promote civic pride and civic engagement. We already see the value of local farms, restaurants, libraries, small businesses, or a neighborhood butcher. All of whom together add character and connection to our lives. Yet we lack local energy and without it we have no basis to pursue real sustainability. To me the simplest solution is to utilize our existing water-based infrastructure. By doing so I believe we can tie together our obligations to the earth and our neighbors to begin on a path toward local abundance and energy independence.
Research
Practically speaking, hydropower has numerous advantages over other small-scale energy solutions. It provides a continuous power source instead of an intermittent one like wind or solar. Hydropower has always been based on simple mechanical processes not technological or chemical ones, making it easier to maintain and repair a system[1], especially in a rural settings. It is one of the oldest forms of energy production, with thousands of years of development and study. And yes, while large hydroelectric systems can have serious downstream environmental impacts, small-scale hydroelectric systems can be fitted into existing waterways without changing their course or volume.[2] Hydro electric generators are also less environmentally damaging through their entire life cycle[3], requiring less rare & foreign minerals to create than solar [4], and being largely comprised of recyclable metals[5]. Other power generation options that could accompany community level hydropower might be biogas, wind (where applicable), rooftop solar, and wood for home heating/cooking. Converting wild space or farmland into large solar farms doesn’t make sense in our area where all non-developed space needs to be cherished and preserved. But confined to rooftops and backyards, small solar arrays combined with community-level infrastructure could provide all the power a household needs. The largest obstacle to local micro hydropower systems is licensing and regulation requirements. Any work done around wetlands or bodies of water require significant impact studies.
Afterword
These ideas were born from my interest in the history of my hometown and my current life as a farmer and groundskeeper. These ideas are specific to one tiny neighborhood, an area that I know well. I believe that any sustainability plan for any place needs to be born from the unique knowledge and understanding that is given to those who have lived in that place. Porchtown is a special little patch of Southern New Jersey that is lucky to remain largely undeveloped and therefore not yet trapped in a system of consumption. Our natural resources are still mostly intact and so our ability to provide for ourselves is also still intact, and that is partly why I see so much potential in this area to transition successfully toward a sustainable future.
References
https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/iiclr/pdf/vol24p249.pdf
https://www.uidaho.edu/-/media/UIdaho-Responsive/Files/law/law-review/articles/NREL/Gina-Warren.pdf?la=en&hash=2157EBAC6CC6F3D4BDD8FE9E08C2D7EA38CF35BD
Based on 2013 IPCC report: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_greenhouse_gas_emissions_of_energy_sources#2014_IPCC,_Global_warming_potential_of_selected_electricity_sources Most calculations for lifetime carbon emissions for hydro include the creation of reservoirs, which is where most energy is expended in creating a hydro system. In our case we are using existing historic reservoirs that were created predominately without fossil fuel machinery.
see tables in result section: https://www.pnas.org/content/112/20/6277
see tables in result section: https://www.pnas.org/content/112/20/6277
Related Links:
“Micro-hydroelectric Dams Sustain Life in Rural Communities” https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/02/09/micro-hydroelectric-dams-sustain-life-in-rural-communities
Great info on small scale hydroelectric generators https://www.turbulent.be
Energy.gov research and writings on hydropower: https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/articles/hydropower-vision-new-chapter-america-s-1st-renewable-electricity-source
General information on installing hydropower in rural settings https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/iiclr/pdf/vol24p249.pdf
Counterpoint article. I believe most of the problems illustrated here are related to new dams. Again our waterways are already dammed so the counterpoints here are not perfect. It would be interesting to find an example of what happens when existing waterways are undammed and wetlands returned. I don’t know if that is possible in southern New Jersey because so much of the area has developed around existing waterways. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffopperman/2018/08/10/the-unexpectedly-large-impacts-of-small-hydropower/?sh=508bf8517b9d