Symbiotics has filed a pre-application document with the Federal Regulatory Commission. Company officials say all the electricity produced would be used along the increasingly in-demand Wasatch Front. Unlike coal-fired power plants, Symbiotics says its project will not produce air pollution or emit carbon dioxide, believed to be a major cause of global warming.

The company's plan is to do a two-year environmental study that will include looking at the impact of tunneling under the lake to draw enough water during the night that will reduce the lake's level by three inches.

Olsen is worried the tunneling process will damage the lake by stirring up centuries worth of a fine sediment at the bottom and disturbing the ecosystem, in particular the habitat for four species of fish found nowhere else in the world. The long-term impact of Symbiotics' plan could mean those fish will one day become federally listed as endangered, thereby creating "chaos" in the way people use and access the lake.

The plan calls for storing water in a 1,210 acre-feet reservoir, behind a 160-foot dam, and then pumping it back into the lake during the day to generate electrical power through 14 reversible pump-turbines. About nine miles of transmission lines would need to be installed, which Symbiotics said would likely be buried underground. With that, Symbiotics officials say the Hook Canyon Pumped Storage Project would have a minimal impact on the environment.

Olsen hopes that as Gov. Jon Hunstman Jr. gets involved in examining the project that he will conclude the plan is not right for Bear Lake. If Huntsman still likes the project in theory, Olsen said he could suggest other lakes in Utah with less fragile ecosystems that might be able to tolerate the impacts.

Logan-based Symbiotics was created in 2001 by Ecosystems Research Institute and Northwest Power Services and it currently has 30 active projects around the country. Symbiotics claims on its Web site that it selects projects that can be built in an environmentally sound manner while promoting environmental stewardship.

"I'd like to believe that," Olsen said about applying those claims to the company's Bear Lake proposal. "I think the realities are otherwise."

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com