First Street Stinker station torn down; new store scheduled to open after Labor Day

Crews from Bateman-Hall Construction began tearing down the Stinker Station at First Street and Holmes Avenue around 7 this morning. As you can see, the gas pumps and canopies will be left where they are, but the parking lot will be repaved. The Boise-based chain is planning to open the new store shortly after Labor Day, said Charley Jones, who bought the Boise-based chain more than ten years ago and has since expanded it.

Gathering moss: Topiary elk goes green near Memorial Drive roundabout

Diane Albertson, a horticulturist in the city of Idaho Falls' Parks and Recreation Department, adds moss to an elk sculpture near the roundabout on Memorial Drive. The bronze topiary sculpture is by Jason Brown, and is the first of a series funded by a $4,000 grant from the Maxine Elliott Foundation. Albertson said the project was begun in June, and that they eventually hope to do three or four.

INL named winner of 2013 R&D 100 award

The Idaho National Laboratory has been named a 2013 winner of the R&D 100 award, hosted each year by R&D Magazine.

The award comes for Switchable Polarity Solvent Forward Osmosis, which purifies industrial wastewater, offering significant benefit to the environment in water-intensive industrial processes such as fracking for oil and gas.

Awards will be presented in Nov. 7 at a banquet in Orlando, Fla.

The technology cleanses industrial wastewater by using the switching qualities of selected specialized thermolytic salts (a class of catalysts) purifying water from extremely concentrated solutions. These can contain salts, organics, inorganics, biologics and many other materials. 




Once the water is drawn through a specialized semi-permeable membrane, the diluted solute is exposed to low-grade heat, which causes the thermolytic salts to release carbon dioxide and switch to an oily insoluble material. This oily material is physically separated from the water, permitting its reuse.

In addition to INL, several national labs were recognized this year for their work. Follow this link for a full list: http://www.rdmag.com/award-winners/2013/07/2013-r-d-100-award-winners.

Here is a link to the YouTube video explaining the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrXqKAlQC-Q#at=97.

Congratulations to Britni Storer of Idaho Falls for winning a Travelocity grant

Congratulations to Britni Storer of Idaho Falls, who will be traveling to Capetown, South Africa next month to teach English under Travelocity's Travel for Good program. The grant she has received will fund up to $5,000 for her trip. Above is the video she made that won her the grant.

One grant is awarded each quarter. For more information about the program, here's a link to Travelocity's Web page laying out the rule: http://www.travelocity.com/TravelForGood/travel-grants.html

Idaho Falls Power removes turbines from Old Lower Plant for testing

The city of Idaho Falls' Old Lower Power Plant, with its south wall removed. The venerable turbines are being tested for possible rewinding and refurbishment.

This past week, crews from Idaho Falls Power have torn out the south wall of the city's Lower Power Plant and removed the generators to have them tested. If they can be rewound or refurbished, the city-owned utility would like to keep the site for supplemental power generation.

The plant dates back to 1900, and was Idaho Falls' first big public power generation project. The first water-powered generation came from a canal that produced only enough juice to energize the city's street lights. Between 1900 and 1928, three power plants were constructed in Idaho Falls: the Old Lower Plant in 1900, City Plant in 1912 and the Upper Plant in 1928. The Lower Plant was aggressively updated in 1937.

The plants at the original Upper and City sites were almost completely destroyed by the Teton Dam collapse and flood in 1976. The Old Lower Plant facility received little to no damage. A new bulb turbine facility was constructed adjacent to the Old Lower Plant facility in 1978, and commercial production began at that plant in April 1982. Bulb turbines were also installed at the City and Upper Plants and went commercial in July and September 1982, respectively.

Since then, the Old Lower Plant units have typically been run four to eight weeks a year, to augment power production during peak runoff, when flows exceed the capacity of the city's bulb turbines.

Here is a breakdown of the Idaho Falls Power's generation capacity:

Two Old  Lower Plants     1.5 megawatts each
Three Bulb Turbines          8.3 megawatts each
Gem State Dam                  23.5 megawatts
TOTAL                              51.5 megawatts