The powerhouse contains three turbines producing a total of 208 Megawatts. With a storage capacity of 1.2 million acre-feet, the facility is considered a storage generation hydro plant. The dam was originally named after
, president and general manager of the Montana Power Company at the time of the dam's completion in 1938.
From 1985 the dam was jointly operated, first by Pennsylvania Power & Light Montana (PPL) and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In the latter part of 2014 the dam was purchased by NorthWestern Energy, still operated jointly with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In 2015 the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes bought the dam outright, operating it through a tribal corporation,
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When the purchase of the dam was impending, The Missoulian published an exhaustive article on the dam and its history, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the transfer of ownership. Excerpts from the article are reproduced below.
Clock ticking down to Kerr Dam's historic takeover by Indian tribes
VINCE DEVLIN - Apr 25, 2015
POLSON – Tens of thousands of days – a lifetime’s worth – will stretch between two historic moments on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
It was 31,019 days ago today that the construction of Kerr Dam started on the Flathead River below Polson.
In one key way, it was an odd time for Rocky Mountain Power – a subsidiary of the Montana Power Company – to embark on such an ambitious project. The stock market crash of 1929 had occurred less than seven months earlier, and the Great Depression was just revving up...
...Brian Lipscomb has had a mental countdown to Sept. 5 – the day CSKT [Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes] takes over ownership and operation of the dam from NorthWestern Energy – going in his head for a long time now.
Lipscomb is the CEO of Energy Keepers, the tribally owned corporation tasked with overseeing acquisition of the dam and which – come Sept. 5 – will be responsible for running it, and selling the electricity it produces on the open market...
...The tribal corporation will employ 21 to 22 people, several times the number NorthWestern Energy and its predecessor, PPL Montana, employed locally to run the dams. NorthWestern bought 11 hydroelectric facilities from PPL just five months ago, knowing that the federal license to operate Kerr Dam would be transferring to CSKT in September.
Many of the positions have already been filled, and at least half of them will be held by tribal members...
...Lipscomb says the damming of the Flathead River, along with allotment and the ongoing Flathead Indian Irrigation Project, were all contributing factors to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes becoming the first in the nation to adopt their own constitution and form their own government in 1935.
Now they’re on the verge of owning the very dam that played a role in the establishment of their tribal government. They will be the first Indian tribes in the nation to own a major hydroelectric facility.
The countdown to the historic day has been on for decades for some tribal members. On Sunday, it clicks down to just 132 days.
From The Missoulian