Economic Impact
There’s a surge of excitement in Great Falls, Mont., these days about the benefits of redeveloping PPL Montana’s Rainbow hydroelectric plant.
The $230 million project not only will provide more renewable energy and improve passage for fish, but also will create hundreds of local construction jobs over the next 30 months and boost the local economy.
“The timing couldn’t be better,” said Brett Doney, president and chief executive officer of the Great Falls Development Authority. “Many construction workers in the area are wrapping up work on a number of jobs, and the Rainbow project, which involves three Montana subcontractors, will provide many of them with continued employment.”
Doney said the work at Rainbow is the largest private sector project, in terms of dollars, in the history of Cascade County. A new powerhouse, with a single 62-megawatt unit, will increase by 70 percent the amount of clean, renewable power generated at the facility.
Local officials also welcome the anticipated boost to the local tax base.
“Many companies right now are afraid to make an investment such as this,” said Joe Briggs, chairman of the Cascade County Board of Commissioners. “We’re grateful to PPL Montana for undertaking this project.
“For many years the citizens of Cascade County will enjoy the boon from this project,” Briggs said. “Not only from the standpoint of the electricity it produces, but for the enhanced tax base that will help keep taxes down for all of us.”
Great Falls City Commissioner Bill Bronson said Lewis and Clark, who were awed by the power of falling water along the Missouri River in 1805, would be amazed by what transpired over the next two centuries and the positive impact Rainbow’s expansion will have on the area.
“Without this type of private development, we can’t do the job that the taxpayers and the citizens expect us to do,” Bronson said. “PPL Montana deserves our thanks and gratitude.”
Doney said his organization plans to do a formal study of the project’s economic impact. But for now, he doesn’t need a spreadsheet to know PPL Montana is already making a difference.
“There are many local workers and other people from across the state who will be living here for the next two-and-a-half years, meaning they will be using an array of services available in the Great Falls area,” he said. “The nature of construction jobs such as this is that a lot of work gets done on site, and that requires supplies from local vendors and businesses. The ripple effect is just starting.”
PPL Montana held a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 15, 2009 to mark the official start of the Rainbow project. Work is expected to be finished in 2012. PPL Montana also operates the Black Eagle, Cochrane, Ryan and Morony dams on the Missouri River near Great Falls.