$40,000, that's how much a river is saving the city of South Bend.
"It will offset the entire electricity bill for all Howard Park and East Race lighting," says Jonathan Burke, South Bend's Municipal Energy Director. He is talking about the small hydroelectric turbine.
"The hydroelectric turbine produces electricity from the river. It's green, renewable energy."
It was installed today, but the city has owned the turbine for 25 years.
"The turbine was basically put into storage and largely forgotten about."
Until Kathleen Petitjean heard about it when she was a college student.
"I was shocked. The city had put all this money into a study and purchasing a generator and it was languishing in a warehouse somewhere," says Petitjean.
At the time, the city couldn't afford the project.
"It was discouraging. It made you wonder what other projects were floating around and not being tapped into," says Petitjean.
That discouragement lead Petitjean to years of research and eventually applying for a federal grant.
"All the money used to install the project was used by a federal grant, except for about $26,000." Which Burke says is a small price to pay, compared to a $40,000 in electricity savings.
"If we don't take care of our resources today, responsibly, then what we pass on in the future to our children will not be a very sustainable future," says Petitjean.
"Our energy future is uncertain, so this is a great step forward," says Burke.
A step that took over 20 years later to take, but one that will save the city both money and energy.
Burke says South Bend is looking into a plan for another turbine, one that would produce ONE MILLION dollars worth of electricity.
