Pioneer Press: Crown Hydro
Posted on Mon, Apr. 05, 2004 Plan for historic Minneapolis site controversial BY DAVID HAWLEY Pioneer Press
For the past 11 years, Tom Griffin has been trying to build a hydroelectric generating plant in the heart of one of the most historical areas of the Twin Cities - the Falls of St. Anthony in downtown Minneapolis.
His dream faces its latest hurdle this week and no one wants to venture a guess about how it will turn out. Many, in fact, aren't quite sure if they're for it or against it.
Griffin's company, Crown Hydro LLC, wants to build an underground generating facility at the demolished Cataract Mill site near the west bank landing of the Stone Arch Bridge. It's where an intake gate was installed on the Mississippi more than a century ago to take waterpower for mills that lined what is now the downtown side of the river.
That water gate is still there, though it's buried under a small, blacktopped parking lot that also covers a former channel, or "headrace." Restoring the headrace and unearthing the underwater gate have been part of a restoration plan for years. Now, Griffin says his company will pay to do it - if he can build his power plant.