November 6, 2025 Seward Folly Staff

After nearly four decades of silence, the Marathon hydropower system above Seward might soon hum back to life. The city’s Electrical Department has spent the past several weeks widening and upgrading the rugged Jeep Trail, the only route to the long-shuttered Marathon Creek Dam, in hopes of restoring a piece of the town’s energy history. According to local supervisor Taylor Crocker, clearing and improving the path is a necessary step to reach the dam at the trail’s summit and begin essential repairs.

The immediate goal is digging out the dam to insure a steady flow of water down penstock – the pipe that channels water straight to the turbine at the base of Race Trail. It starts at a diameter of 36 inches and narrows down to a fraction of that when it hits the turbine facility. Built in 1981, the turbine was supposed to provide electricity for the local hospital. But by the mid-1980s, easy money from Cook Inlet gas and increasing oil revenue statewide meant maintenance fell by the wayside, and the small hydro plant slipped into disuse.

Seward’s hydropower roots run deeper than many realize. Museum director Allison Stacey, after scouring city archives, found that from 1910 to 1939, all of Seward’s electricity came from a turbine, fed by water diverted from Lowell Canyon Creek. The remnants of those early hydropower days, beat up tin penstock and cement footings, still linger up the canyon.

Now, Crocker and his team are determined to bring the smaller Marathon Creek system back online. Plans are underway to remove the old manifold and clean out the reduction box, while repairing other damaged parts. Crocker, who believes the core mechanics remain sound, estimates the existing quarter-megawatt turbine alone could offset $277,000 in electricity costs each year — potentially as much as $800,000 with a newer, larger turbine.

“This is based on full capacity running 60% of the year,” Crocker notes, acknowledging the reduced flow in the winter months.

With the price of natural gas rising and Hilcorp, the region’s main gas supplier, projecting supply shortfalls for the Railbelt, the push toward local renewables is gaining urgency.

The state is actively seeking investors to build a $44 billion gas line from the North Slope. The first phase of that would be supplying gas to the state, providing fuel for utilities to create electricity within 5-10 years. The second phase involves finding markets that can commit to purchasing liquified gas. Whether this pipeline comes to fruition is a big question that is due to be answered in the next couple of months. In the meantime, the plan is to ship fuel into the state to supplement the lack of gas from Cook Inlet. Chugach Electric, where Seward purchases its electricity, is projecting price increases in the future.

Seward pays some of the highest electricity rates in Southcentral Alaska, and the pressure to find alternatives is mounting. Crocker sees this revival as a possible proof of concept: if the Marathon plant can deliver, additional small hydro installations at places like Scheffler Creek, Godwin Creek, or Fourth of July Creek could further relieve Seward’s dependence on Chugach Electric. All these projects are designed as low-impact, run-of-the-river systems which don’t require large, expensive dams, and have minimal damage to ecosystems.

Interest in reclaiming the old hydropower site isn’t new. In 2019, City Manager Scott Meszaros and electric utility manager John Foutz requested a multi-year flow study from the USGS to see what the larger Lowell Canyon Creek could offer. That work, part of a larger Army Corps of Engineers tunnel diversion project, continues today. The USGS has a stream survey in place on the creek and can be accessed here: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-15238500/#dataTypeId=continuous-00065-0&showFieldMeasurements=true&startDT=2024-12-01&endDT=2024-12-15

Historic records, unearthed by Stacey, show ice buildup plagued the tin pipes in the 1910s; modern engineering and buried steel pipes could eliminate those problems. The larger question is whether the year-round flow of Lowell Creek can justify the major expense of a full-scale rebuild.

Meanwhile, restoration of the Jeep Trail is nearing completion. The trail is open to foot traffic. Crocker gave a shout-out to Metco and Catalyst for their essential help with the project in the last few weeks. The supervisor also sourced a specialized seed from the Mat-Su Valley to restore the ground cover and plans to spread it by hand. The old pipes running down the lower Jeep Trail, once thought to be hydropower infrastructure, Crocker noted, were actually part of Seward’s municipal water system.

Even now, reminders of Seward’s past crop up along the trail and in the archives. But if the turbines do spin again, they’ll send electricity not just to the hospital, but across the whole town, offering a second act for an old powerhouse, and maybe a way forward for Seward’s future energy needs.