FirstLight refills power canal after extended drawdown for maintenance

TURNERS FALLS — Several weeks after the power canal was drawn down, FirstLight Hydro Generating Co. has refilled the canal.

The power canal was initially scheduled to start refilling with water on Sept. 28 following FirstLight’s annual maintenance. The drawdown typically lasts one week. However, the canal’s left dike required a seepage management system update to meet federal safety standards for the dam, thus prompting FirstLight to delay refilling it.

FirstLight Communications Manager Claire Belanger wrote in an email that the company started refilling the canal on Monday, Nov. 4.

“The rewatering will happen slowly and under close monitoring,” she wrote. “We expect the canal to reach normal levels toward the middle to end” of the week.

Although the canal has been refilled, the bike path that has been closed since August for FirstLight maintenance will remain closed for another two weeks as trucks access the bike path for the remaining maintenance work. This work includes “adding embankment fill, installing dam safety instrumentation and reseeding the dike,” Belanger wrote.

An exact date for the bike path’s reopening has not been established yet.