WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - The city of Watertown has just finished installing new safety equipment at its money-making hydro plant off Eastern Boulevard.

It’s a case of spending a little, to protect something that makes millions.

The hydro plant brought in $6.6 million during the last fiscal year. The Black River turns the plant’s turbines, which make electricity, which gets sold to National Grid.

This week, the racks which keep the plant’s turbines safe - and which were 20 years old - were replaced, and a wall was fixed. The total tab? $89,000.

It’s not glamorous work, but it is necessary.

“The racks started to fail a few years ago,” said City Engineer Jeff Hammond. “We’ve been patching them, doing a little bit of welding and everything. We had them tied off with cables, just in case.”

The racks keep debris from the Black River, like tree limbs, from damaging the turbines. Think of them as a big filter.

The work was done in the dead of summer, because water levels are low, so the plant isn’t generating much electricity anyway.

“This project was actually from last year but we didn’t want to shut the plant down because the water flows were so good last year,” said Watertown City Manager Ken Mix.

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