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RANDLEMAN — Federal authorities are threatening to pull the license from one of the hydroelectric plants that sued the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority amid claims that the Randleman Regional Reservoir is costing them thousands of dollars a year in lost power generation.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filed papers last week to terminate the license of the Worthville Dam Project, just south of Randleman, because it has not operated since May 1995 — more than a decade before the new lake was filled.

In addition, the commission said, the project’s two participants, Bruce Cox of Ramseur and Ernest W. Miller of Greensboro and Naples, Fla., did not answer letters seeking a detailed plan and timetable for reactivating the plant.

“These requests have been made by letters dated Sept. 29, 1999; Sept. 28, 2001; Aug. 29, 2003; Nov. 20, 2003; Jan. 26, 2006; Sept. 18, 2008; and most recently, Dec. 16, 2009,” the agency said in its Feb. 17 notice of termination. “No plan and schedule have been filed.”

The Worthville plant is one of seven small units on the Deep River that sued the authority, submitting a consultant’s report last year estimating the upstream reservoir would cost them more than $5 million over the next 50 years by diverting water from their operations.

The authority built the reservoir to supply drinking water to Greensboro, High Point, Jamestown, Archdale, the city of Randleman and other parts of Randolph County. It is a public agency formed by the six local governments.

Worthville and another plant in the lawsuit, the Ramseur Project near the town of Ramseur, have not operated for years. They were dropped from the lawsuit in October, but the ruling suggests the claims could be renewed if the plants are reactivated.

The consultant’s report prepared for the plants last year said the reservoir costs the Worthville plant $13,000 yearly or about $650,000 over the 50-year term for which the suit seeks damages. It said the Ramseur Project loses $18,223 yearly, or $911,150 total.

Cox also is a partner in the Ramseur plant, and he operates one working plant that is part of the lawsuit: the Cox Lake Hydroelectric Plant between Randleman and Franklinville. Damage claims by Cox Lake and the other four working plants are still pending in court.

In addition to Cox Lake, the working plants include two owned by Randolph County resident Bill Lee at Franklinville and Coleridge; another run by Dean Brooks of Chatham County near Moncure; and a fourth at High Falls in Moore County operated by a partnership that includes Greensboro resident George S. Cook, Greensboro lawyer Charles T. “Chip” Hagan III and two of Hagan’s brothers.

Efforts to contact Worthville licensee Miller for comment have been unsuccessful. Cox referred questions about Worthville to the attorney representing him with the commission, Mark Seifert of Cary.

Seifert said in a recent e-mail that the Worthville plant is in pretty good shape: “The project needs very little work. The dam has no outstanding problems that need to be addressed.”

The requested plan was never provided because Cox lacked the money to do it, Seifert said.

“Without adequate financing, it was impossible to prepare the detailed plan FERC requested,” Seifert said, adding that Cox is not responsible for the lapse because it was the responsibility of Miller’s company to provide the necessary financing.

Cox plans seek new financing and ask FERC to re-license it so the project can be started anew, Seifert said.

Headquartered in Washington, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission oversees environmental and safety issues linked to hydropower and other energy issues. The agency will gather public comment about its planned Worthville termination through March 19 , spokeswoman Celeste Miller said. 

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com