Hydro plant in American Fork is being dismantled

After more than 100 years of electric life, the hydroelectric plant at the mouth of American Fork Canyon is going to a better place.

It's been three years since the facility produced its last volt of energy, and Rocky Mountain Power officials have decided the little old power plant has passed its prime. Slowly but surely, pieces of the plant are being removed in a process that should be completed by this December. Then, all that will be left of the plant will be a shell of the facility's original building and buried pipes that no one will see.

"There comes a time when any generating resource has reached the end of its useful life," said Rocky Mountain Power spokesman David Eskelsen. "It's a good piece of work (taking the plant apart). This is something we've been working on for awhile."

Some of the larger pipes on the canyon's walls will be removed by helicopter, but other parts will be trucked out. Utah Department of Transportation officials say some temporary road closures in American Fork Canyon will be in effect over the next few months to allow the facility to be removed safely.

Eskelsen said it will cost about $3.8 million to remove the plant, but that cost is less than maintaining the facility would have been. Falling rocks and shifting land have mandated frequent maintenance of the plant's flow line. Difficult conditions, coupled with the plant's small size and output capabilities, made it not worthwhile to pay the cost of renewing the plant's operating license, Eskelsen said.

"As we evaluated what it would take to mitigate against future events, together with the fact that after this (power plant) was built the Forest Service was established, and (the National Parks Service) established (the Timpanogos Cave National Monument), there were certain environmental concerns and requirements people were talking about that, had the company agreed to do some of those things, would have made the project uneconomic to operate," Eskelsen said.

The plant was originally built by the Utah County Light and Power company in 1907, Eskelsen said. In 1912, Utah Power & Light — a predecessor of Rocky Mountain Power — bought the plant. The facility powered street lights and mining operations in American Fork Canyon over its lifetime until it stopped operating in December 2004.

Because of the plant's history, representatives from the Utah State Historic Preservation Office asked Rocky Mountain Power to preserve the facility's operation house and give it to the U.S. Forest Service. It isn't clear what the Forest Service will do with the building, but Historic Preservation Specialist Chris Hansen says it is important to preserve.

"It is an important historic resource within that canyon and that larger community," Hansen said. "It helps tell the history of what happened in that area."

Timpanogos Cave National Monument Superintendant Denis Davis says the removal of the plant will help improve water flow in the canyon and — with no more pipes sticking out of the mountain — the view.

"I think it's a positive thing for the canyon, especially for the stream and trout fishery," Davis said. "We'll have a more natural-looking canyon."

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