The Bureau of Reclamation announced it will conduct additional investigations through October at Clark Canyon Dam to determine the viability of hydropower development at the dam on the Beaverhead River in Montana.

Clark Canyon Dam is a zoned earthfill structure that is part of the East Bench Unit of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, which provides water for irrigation and recreation in southwestern Montana.

Reclamation said Aug. 24 it is carrying out the work with Symbiotics LLC, whose Clark Canyon Hydro LLC unit received a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2009 to develop a hydro project at the federal dam.

The 4.7-MW Clark Canyon project is to include a 30- by 50-foot powerhouse containing two Francis turbine-generators, to be built at the foot of the existing dam.

Completed in 1964, Clark Canyon Dam is owned by Reclamation and operated and maintained by East Bench Irrigation District.