President's visit more than a fish tale

Francis Dietz
ASME Government Relations

When he began work at the Safe Harbor Water Power Corp. in 1987, Marshall Kaiser never guessed that he would be guiding the president of the United States around the Safe Harbor hydroelectric power plant in 2001.

But that's just what happened in May, as Kaiser, a longtime ASME member who is now Safe Harbor's president and chief executive officer, played host to President George W. Bush; Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham; Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman; Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge; Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.; Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and three local members of Congress.

Bush had come to call because Safe Harbor, as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly power generating facilities, was a good place to showcase the president's belief that "economic growth and good environmental policy do not have to be zero-sum. It doesn't have to be either/or."

Safe Harbor has state-of-the-art equipment designed to provide safe passage for spawning fish, swimming upstream.

President Bush met with Marshall Kaiser (center) and others at the Safe Harbor plant in May.

The day before his visit, Bush had unveiled a comprehensive national energy policy that lauded the environmental benefits of hydropower, which he said will continue to be an important source of energy for the future. The energy policy also confirmed what many had already believed: that the Bush administration considers hydropower to be a renewable resource.

The process of getting spawning fish upstream, past a 75-foot dam, takes civil and mechanical engineering know-how. It's done through a fish lift, which functions much like an elevator. While the fish don't have to push any buttons, they do have to be attracted to the lift.

That is accomplished by strategic releases of water through several entrance gates, which attracts the fish to "swim upstream." Once through the entrance gate, the fish swim along a passageway to the fish lift hopper, where they are lifted to an exit channel. In the exit channel, they pass by a viewing window and are counted as they continue their journey upstream to their spawning grounds.

Safe Harbor is one of four hydroelectric dams on the Susquehanna River, which runs 483 miles, from Lake Otsego, N.Y., to the Chesapeake Bay.

So, what was it like having the president of the United States, with his huge entourage and security apparatus, visit his facility?

Kaiser claims that he slept well the night before and that only minor touchups were needed to beautify the facility prior to the arrival of its high-level visitors.

"These were all things that were on the list to do anyway," Kaiser said. "Things like putting down the mulch, touching up some paint, mowing the grass — all those were scheduled to be done anyway, just not all at once."

Once the president arrived, Kaiser said, "He put everyone at ease. He's just a normal person, albeit quite an important one, but he wasn't pompous or overbearing. He asked questions, told some jokes, and seemed genuinely interested in our plant."

In a classic "the last shall be first" scenario, Kaiser explained how the plant employee who had to monitor the plant from the control room while everyone else went out to listen to the president's remarks was compensated.

Kaiser arranged for the employee, Dwight Brenner, to be with the president in the holding room before the event. "I told the president that he needed to spend some time with Dwight because he had drawn the short straw," Kaiser said. "Bush readily agreed, engaging in a fairly lengthy conversation before taking Dwight by the shoulder and wheeling him around toward the photographer for some photos. I guess after that, Dwight was not at all upset that he had to stay behind during the speech."

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