GRDA's floating water quality profilers, like this one, can gather information on several different water parameters up and down the water column. GRDA's plan is to link information from the floating profiler at Pensacola Dam to the GRDA website in the future.

Gathering data, sharing data with other resource agencies, and utilizing that data to address water quality issues in the Grand River system …
Since its inception in 2004, those have all been top priorities of the Grand River Dam Authority Ecosystems Management Department. The department’s efforts took a major step forward in early 2010 when GRDA opened the doors on its state-of-the-art water quality laboratory at the Ecosystems and Education Center in Langley. Recently, with the addition of some high-tech electronic monitoring equipment, located above and below Pensacola and Robert S. Kerr Dams, GRDA is again moving forward with its commitment to water quality issues in the Grand River system.
Mounted on small pontoons and operated by solar power, these floating water quality “profilers” have the ability to gather information at three-foot intervals, from the top to the bottom of the water column.
 “These profilers will help us to begin a long-term data set,” said GRDA Ecosystems Management Director Darrell Townsend. “Its information we need in order to address water quality issues in the future.”
Its also data that GRDA wants to make available to the general public. Plans are to link the floating profiler at Pensacola Dam to the GRDA website in the future. Those interested in dissolved oxygen levels, pH, water temperature, blue green algae conditions (as needed), and other water quality parameters will eventually be able to find what they need at grda.com.
“We feel this is something the public would be interested in as well, so we do hope to make it available on our website,” said Townsend. “We also plan to have it displayed on a monitor outside of our water laboratory here in the Eco Center.”
Eventually that display monitor – located just outside the entrance to the water laboratory – will also be able to display real-time images from laboratory microscopes, added Townsend.
“GRDA was established to be a conservation and reclamation district for the waters of Grand River,” said Townsend, “and these tools and these data collection efforts will help GRDA to enhance its stewardship role.”  
Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years
        

        – Justin Alberty
        GRDA Corporate Communications Director

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This article is part of the GRDA Power For Progress series.

GRDA Lake Policemen Scott Cox (left) and Jason Littlefield answer the question of a young lake enthusiast at the GRDA information booth during the Tulsa Boat Show earlier this year. GRDA will have several information booths set up during the upcoming Summe Lake Launch event, to be held this Friday, April 6, from 6 to 8PM at the GRDA Ecosystems and Education Center in Langley.

Power for Progress…
A weekly column from the Grand River Dam Authority

This Friday, April 6 …
GRDA hosting “Summer Lake Launch” at Ecosystems Center

With over 70,000 surface acres of water under its control, including Oklahoma’s premier water destination – Grand Lake – the Grand River Dam Authority has a lot going on during the summer boating and recreation season.

Promoting life jacket safety, enforcing lake rules and regulations, assisting the public with lake related questions, conducting lake enhancement programs, inspecting and permitting boat docks, coordinating with groups on fishing tournaments and other lake events… the list goes on and on.

So, in an effort to inform the public of all its lake-related programs, GRDA is hosting its first “Summer Lake Launch” event this Friday, April 6, from 6 PM to 8 PM at the GRDA Ecosystems and Education Center in Langley.

During the event, GRDA will have several booths and displays set up where the public can gather information on a variety of lake events and programs. GRDA personnel, including the GRDA Lake Police and Ecosystems team, will also be on hand. GRDA CEO/Director of Investments Dan Sullivan will also be giving a “State of the Lake” address during the event.

The Summer Lake Launch is free to the public and is being held in conjunction with Grand Lake’s “Welcome Back Weekend.” For more information or to RSVP, contact Lori Starks at 918-256-0644 or by email at lstarks@grda.com

Of course the public can get more lake-related information year-round from GRDA by visiting grda.com; GRDA’s Facebook page or by calling 918 782 4726.

GRDA also reminds the public of the upcoming, federally-required roadway inspection across Pensacola Dam. This will require the portion of Highway 28 that crosses the dam to be closed Monday, April 9 through Friday, April 13, from 7AM to 5:30PM. More information is available at grda.com. 

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.

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One planned for April…
Pensacola Dam roadway inspections

The roadway across Pensacola Dam has been a popular tourist destination since it first opened in 1940. Next month, GRDA will be performing a required inspection of the roadway and bridge decking.

Since its completion in 1940 historic Pensacola Dam has not only been responsible for creating magnificent Grand Lake and generating low-cost, reliable electricity, but it has also served as one of the main passageways on the lake’s southern edge. In August of that year, the first cars were able to travel between Langley and Disney along a stretch of highway that went all the way across the dam. In all the years since, many travelers have enjoyed the view and the feeling of passing over a mil of multiple arches that define one of the region’s greatest engineering endeavors.

Obviously all that traffic over the years necessitates road maintenance on a routine basis. GRDA not only performs much of that maintenance, but the Authority is also responsible for inspecting the roadway across the dam. By using a special “snooper truck” inspectors can get an up close look at the bridge decking from the bottom side; part of an inspection that is required every two years to meet federal highway standards. One of those inspections is planned for April 9 – 13 (more details to be released later this week).

During the work, the roadway must be closed to all traffic. GRDA is in the process of sending out public notices — in the form of flyers, news releases and alternate route maps — to inform the public of the temporary closure. 

GRDA personnel will be conducting the work that requires an inspection of the underside of the bridge between each of the dam’s arches … 51 total. GRDA understands that closing the roadway will present an inconvenience, however a complete road closure during inspection hours does allow the work to move more quickly, smoothly and safely. 

The inspection of the roadway is just one of many required inspections that are completed at GRDA’s electric generating facilities on routine basis. Structural integrity, operating efficiency, security and safety are key reasons behind those inspections along roadways, along dikes and inside and outside of the powerhouses. 

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.

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This article is part of the GRDA Power For Progress series.

Volunteers help build artificial fish habitats during a previous GRDA Ecosystems' Rush For Brush event on Grand Lake.

For the past five years, the Grand River Dam Authority’s (GRDA) Ecosystems Management Department has hosted Rush for Brush workshops on Grand Lake and Lake Hudson.  

The workshops are a concentrated effort to improve the fish habitat in GRDA’s Grand and Hudson lakes. By enhancing the natural fish habitat with the artificial structures, or spider blocks, small fry are given a place to hide from the bigger fish. This, in turn, creates a fish attractant which is popular with area fishermen.  

“Our motivation was to supplement the natural fish habitat with artificial structures,” said Brent Davis, GRDA Fisheries Coordinator. “As a fisherman, I have actually made the habitats out of different materials and found that the way we make the spider blocks works the best and is by far the easiest. The cinder blocks are small, easy to handle and anyone can put them in their favorite fishing holes.”

At the workshops, GRDA provides the materials necessary to build the spider block habitats and lake area volunteers assemble them. Initially, the workshops were held over two days, with the volunteers building the habitats on Friday and picking them up for placement on Saturday. But, in 2009, in order to make the workshops available to more volunteers, it was changed to a one-day event.

“By holding one day events, on Saturday, we feel like we can accommodate more volunteers,” said Davis.

The success of the program can be seen in the growing number of volunteers that attend, as well as the number of habitats deployed. Since the program began, over five hundred volunteers have deployed more than 7,500 structures.

 “This has brought communities together working for a common cause, fish habitat,” said Davis. “Besides providing substantial benefits for fish and fishermen, one of the best things about it is that it doesn’t put anything harmful in the water.”

The popularity of the program has not been limited to the events or even the local area, it has received national attention.  According to Davis, phone calls from all over the United States have been answered. Callers want to know about materials, how to construct the blocks and what is the appropriate water depth to place them.

 “The most frequently asked questions, at our GRDA booths, have been about our Rush for Brush events.”

The event has proven to be successful in more ways than anticipated. It not only provides food and protection for fish, which means more catches than misses for fishermen. It also provides an opportunity for the GRDA Ecosystems Management Department to answer questions face to face, building stronger stakeholder relations. And it has had a positive economic impact on the area.

Be watching for more details on the 2012 GRDA Rush For Brush event, scheduled for Saturday, May 19 at Martin’s Landing, on Grand Lake, from 9AM to 6PM. You can also get more information by contacting GRDA’s Jacklyn Jaggars at (918) 782 4726.

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.
 
        – By Shannon Cook
          GRDA Communications Specialist 

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This article is part of the GRDA Power For Progress series.

Quail habitat being prepared in a GRDA right-of-way. The work was done as part of the innovative POWER Program, which is a partnership between GRDA and Quail Forever.

Because of the roughly 1,200 miles of high voltage electric transmission line rights-of-way it has running across Northeast Oklahoma, the Grand River Dam Authority has been able to lend a hand to a popular feathered friend.

In 2009, GRDA partnered with Quail Forever to formally introduce the POWER (Private Owners Working for Ecosystem Restoration) program to help enhance the habitat for the Northern Bobwhite.

Throughout many places in Northeast Oklahoma, native bobwhite habitat has been replaced by monocultures of introduced fescue or Bermuda grasses. In other places, the land has been overrun with woody vegetation with little grass cover at all. The POWER program is working to change that.

According to GRDA Ecosystems Management Director Dr. Darrell Townsend, the program is designed to blend the needs of GRDA, Quail Forever and bobwhite enthusiasts. POWER promotes and supplies the necessary tools required to implement sound wildlife management practices on private lands. It also provides technical assistance to landowners through coordination with biologists from Quail Forever and the GRDA Ecosystems Management Department.

Private landowners enrolled in the POWER program are taught the importance of native grass restoration to bobwhite recruitment and are discouraged from mowing rights-of-way during the nesting season. They are also provided with sound wildlife habitat management techniques and assistance in implementing those techniques on participating POWER lands.

“The POWER program is a good match for GRDA and Quail Forever,” said Townsend, “because it is consistent with GRDA’s mission to be a conservation and reclamation district. While the transmission line rights-of-way are important to our mission of providing power, the POWER program helps insure that land is preserved for other beneficial purposes as well.”

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.

                 - Justin Alberty
GRDA Corporate Communications Director

Below GRDA's Robert S. Kerr Dam, a new fenced walkway opens up the popular fishing area along the rip rap. Federal requirements prompted GRDA to relocate the fishing access last year.

New security requirements, handed down by the federal government, prompted the Grand River Dam Authority to reconfigure the way the public can access the fishing area located below Robert S. Kerr Dam.

Because it has been a very popular fishing area for many years, GRDA made every effort to spread the word about the access change when it occurred last summer. The area’s ongoing popularity also prompts reminders, like this one.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) required new security fencing to be installed around the Kerr Dam grounds; GRDA constructed a new parking area, just west of the now-fenced area. Along with that, a fenced walkway, leading down to the riprap was installed. That walkway still provides access to the same fishing site the public has utilized for many years.

NERC is actually a non-government organization with the statutory responsibility to regulate the nation’s electric utilities, like GRDA. Those utilities must follow NERC standards in the operation of their portion of the national electric power grid. In 2007, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), granted NERC the legal authority to enforce standards related to electric reliability, which includes security standards at electric generation facilities.

However, NERC’s oversight does not end there. Several GRDA personnel have to be NERC-certified to perform their duties. There are also NERC standards affecting other areas of GRDA, like rights-of-way and power line maintenance, and network security, just to name a few.

At the nation’s electric utilities, the responsibility of meeting such standards falls across many shoulders, departments and locations. For GRDA, the ultimate goal is to maintain its role as a reliable, low-cost supplier of electricity; whether that involves reconfiguring access to a popular fishing area or providing ongoing training for employees.

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.

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Canada Geese make their way across the road in front of the cooling towers at the GRDA Coal Fired Complex site. The geese have always had a home at the site, which is also popular destination for many other species of fowl.

Since construction was completed in the early 1980s, the Grand River Dam Authority’s Coal Fired Complex has seen a lot of people pass through its doors. After all, it takes a large team to operate this facility, which generates low-cost, reliable GRDA electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. On any given day at the facility you will find mechanics, plant operators, instrument technicians, laboratory personnel, heavy equipment operators, office staff and dozens of other employees. And, many times, you will also find visitors touring the plant, vendors making deliveries or even outside contractors helping on plant projects.
Outside of the facility doors though, there are plenty of other visitors who have very little interest in how a coal fired plant works, yet they still spend a lot of time on the plant site. In fact, for 30 years now, feathered friends have flown in from all over the region to take advantage of the Coal Fired Complex’s ponds and waterfowl-friendly acreage.
Canada Geese would be considered the most frequent visitors, with some even living and nesting on site. However, plenty of others are around from time to time to keep the geese company.
GRDA Environmental Superintendent Perry Friedrich, whose office was located at the Coal Fired Complex for several years, has compiled a long list of those who have flown in for a visit. Some are well known; like bald eagles and Great Blue Herons, while others, like the Common Gallinule or Great Egret, are lesser-known but also present. Snowy Egrets and Green Herons have also been spotted along with a long list of ducks, geese and duck-like birds including Mallards, Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Coots, Buffleheads, Red Heads, Blue-winged Teals, Green-winged Teals, Lesser Scaups, Gadwalls and Widgeons. The list also includes Ring Necks, Canvasbacks, Shovelers, Golden-eyes, Snow Geese and Pintails. Meanwhile, the wooded areas of the Coal Fired Complex property also attract deer and other wildlife.
This all takes place practically in the shadow round-the-clock electricity production. With no hunting allowed on the GRDA property, the site has truly been a sanctuary for wildlife over the last three decades.
Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Directly or indirectly, GRDA’s low-cost, reliable; electricity serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma and stretches into 75 of 77 counties in the state. At no cost to Oklahoma taxpayers, GRDA also manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir. Today, GRDA’s 500 employees continue to produce the same “power for progress” that has benefited the state for 75 years.
- Justin Alberty
GRDA Corporate Communications Director

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