Portrait of Small Hydro, A

A sister film to “Water Power,” “A Portrait of Small Hydro” concentrates on three hydro entrepreneurs who bought up old dam sites in New England and rebuilt them for production of power. In 1978, the US Congress passed the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) which requires utilities to buy power at fair rates from private producers. With a guaranteed return, investors scurried all over the country looking for suitable sites. Charles MacArthur found his “bottomless oil well” in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine. In1977, his 600 kw output was worth $12,000 a year. In the early 1980s, it was worth $120,000. But, as the film makes clear, it’s not just technology, but the history and the simple elegance of this method of generating power. Besides contributing to our nation’s energy picture, these entrepreneurs delight in the fact that things have come full circle and that the water power which built these communities is once again responsible for their revitilization.