Hydroelectric Power

The Farmington River is presently regulated by many upstream reservoirs. These include the multi-purpose Colebrook and Otis Reservoirs of the Corps of Engineers, the West Branch Reservoir, Mad River Detention Reservoir, Sucker Brook Detention Reservoir, Highland Lake, Barkhamsted, East Branch and Nepaug Reservoirs. The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) presently has the rights to regulate the flow of several tributaries to the Farmington River upstream of the site, subject to certain constraints. The Metropolitan District has plans fo future diversion of additional flows from the West Branch of the Farmington River, into the Barkhamsted Reservoir.
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PRESENT DAY:
The Collinsville Company, headed up by Tom Perry, and later by his wife, Barbara Perry, purchased the factory-owned buildings from The Collins Company in 1967 and rented spaces to incubator companies. In June of 2002, @COLLINSville LLC owner, James "Rusty" Tilney, purchased the property with plans to rehabilitate and redevelop the property. Although that project has not got off the ground, the former Collins Company factory buildings are home to over 50 tenants, including a multi-dealer antiques shop, artists, office tenants, light industrial and storage. The few remaining turbines in the factory are not operational and the current owner has no rights to generate power. Water continues to be diverted from the Farmington River into the Forebay, which provides water to the canal and raceways located on the 19+ acre factory property. Water from the canal is pumped up to a 250,000 cistern near the Cemetery to provide a gravity-fed fire protection system to about 2/3rds of the factory buildings, as well as the 10 Front St. office building and the Canton Historical Museum. This source of water also feeds three steam boilers used to heat approximately 100,000 sq. ft. of tenant spaces and the Canton Historical Museum. The State of Connecticut, DEP controls the upper and lower dams. Until just recently, Summit Hydropower, Inc., a Connecticut corporation, held the FERC license for the upper and lower powerhouses and related structures. The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) continues to operate the Colebrook reservoir as well as other water resources to control river flows on the Farmington River. The Town of Canton is now considering how they could obtain the necessary licenses to restore the facilities and begin generating electrical power to sell to the power grid.