PORT TOWNSEND – The City Council has deadlocked on a proposed partnership to seek a $100,000 grant to design a tidal turbine power generation project at Point Wilson.
The council on Monday night voted 3-3 on the project, and the measure failed for lack of a majority.
The seventh council seat has been vacant since Scott Walker resigned on March 15.
An appointed member must take office by May 7.
A tidal turbine project would generate electricity by capturing the energy contained in the moving water mass of the tides.
Point Wilson, which is two miles north of Port Townsend in Fort Worden State Park, marks the entrance into Admiralty Inlet – and then into Puget Sound – from the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Council members Geoff Masci, Frank Benskin and Laurie Medlicott opposed seeking the grant for a tidal turbine project there.
They said they first wanted a formal presentation from the company that would design the turbine, Puget Sound Tidal Power LLC.
The deadline for the application for the grant from the Washington Technical Center is April 26.
Puget Sound Tidal Energy proposed applying for the grant for the city of Port Townsend.
Deputy Mayor Michelle Sandoval, Council member Catherine Robinson and Mayor Mark Welch supported the proposal.
“I did extensive research on this,” Welch said.
He said he wanted the city to be in a position to step up on a Point Wilson tidal project should Snohomish Public Utility District – which now holds the federal right to develop it – decide not to develop a project there.
City Attorney John Watts also told the council that the grant would put the city – possibly along with Fort Worden State Park – in a good position to develop a tidal energy system off Point Wilson.
He said the benefit of the project would be a tidal energy site and design specific to Point Wilson.
Watts said it was the city staff’s mistake to fail to schedule a formal Puget Sound Tidal Power proposal.
The company was founded in 2006 in Seattle to help develop a new renewable energy industry to support Pacific Northwest coastal communities and remote sites, according to its Web site at pugetsoundtidalenergy.com.
City of Tacoma Power in January awarded a contract to the company – along with a consortium of regional marine firms and consultants – to study tidal power generation feasibility in the Tacoma Narrows.
