Renewable energy seen as key to city’s revitalization

Fall River has unveiled an ambitious plan to transform the city’s historic mill district by tapping several sources of alternative energy, including hydropower.

The centerpiece of the plan, known as the Fall River Energy Enterprise, involves “daylighting” the long-submerged Quequechan River, which once powered the city’s textile mills. The city’s geography also puts it in good position to tap wind and solar power, and even geothermal and tidal energy, according to Mayor Robert Correia.

“We believe we’ve got the key ingredients, and we’ve been standing, literally, on one of them,” he said of the submerged river.

Water, of course, was crucial to Fall River’s status as the nation’s leading textiles manufacturer a century ago, and Correia said easy access to the resource would boost the city’s efforts to attract and retain new forms of manufacturing. Bioprocessing plants, for example, require large amounts of water.

Uncovering the Quequechan River is also seen as a means of beautifying the city. An artist’s rendering created by Newport Collaborative Architects, the Rhode Island firm working with Fall River on the project, depicts a crescent-shaped dam near a revamped mill complex tucked against a highway overpass. On the backside of the dam is a reservoir surrounded by ample greenery and walking paths.

Just as in nearby Providence, R.I., uncovering the river “will enliven an entire section of the city,” Correia said.

Congressmen Barney Frank and James McGovern, who attended an April 7 ceremony in the city announcing the project, are seeking to obtain $750,000 in federal funding to study the feasibility of uncovering the river. The city already has received an $861,000 energy efficiency grant from the state, and the Greater Fall River Development Corp. has pledged $100,000 to begin gathering data on the potential alternative energy sources.