 At the podium, Gary Arnold, attorney and part owner of Little Lake Ranch, tells the Planning Commission what he sees as flaws in the Coso Operating Company’s request to pump water from near Little Lake to COC’s geothermal plant. Seated behind Arnold are (l-r) Ted Schade of Great Basin Air Pollution Control District, Colleen Brock, COC’s environmental coordinator, Jim Pagano, CEO of TerraGen, COC’s parent company, and Chris Ellis, COC’s site manager. Photo by Mike Bodine By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
3-14-2009 After a marathon, nine-and-a-half-hour hearing Wednesday, the Inyo County Planning Commission voted unanimously to grant the Coso Operating Company permission to pump water and pipe it nine miles for use at its geothermal power plant to replenish a depleting geothermal reservoir.
There were some changes to the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) after the commission listened to extensive testimony and public comments, but these changes were minor.
Among the alterations was to lower the first year of pumping to 3,000 acre-feet per year with mitigation and monitoring, from the originally requested 4,800 acre-feet annually. If, after the initial year, the models show that there are no significant impacts, Coso will be able to increase the pumping up to the 4,800 acre-feet limit.
So, the hydrology of the area will be stressed by pumping, but at a lower rate.
To understand what is happening to the Rose Valley aquifer hundreds of feet below the surface, a model is crafted based on predictions. But, according to the scientists and consultants present at the meeting, the only way to truly understand what happens below the surface is to pump the water and monitor the aquifer under that pumping stress. The monitoring data can then be used to re-shape and re-calibrate the model so a more accurate picture of what the aquifer looks like can be ascertained.
“We’re glad it was approved,” said Joe Greco, senior vice-president of Terra-Gen, one of Coso’s parent companies, immediately following the commission’s decision. “And after the pumping and monitoring proves what’s going on, we’ll be able to plan accordingly.”
In reaction to public and Water Commission requests that some points of the request and Environmental Impact Report (EIR) needed clarification, Coso came prepared with nearly 20 individuals, including specialty attorneys and hydrological and geological experts and consultants.
One skeptical opponent of the project, Gary Arnold, representing Little Lake Ranch and hunting club as legal counsel and as a member and part owner of the club, said he questioned the legitimacy of bringing forth so much evidence and expert testimony at this late stage of the process.
This evidence and testimony was not available for review before Wednesday’s meeting, but was legal under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, according to Charity Schiller, environmental attorney of Best, Best and Krieger, representing Coso.
Other changes to the CUP were to include Davis Ranch at Portuguese Bench, west of the project site, with the same monitoring measures given to the 20 other monitoring wells for the project.
Another change to the CUP was that any land owner or water user who thinks they are being adversely affected by the pumping shall notify the county, and not Coso, with concerns, as originally written.
These changes reflect only a fraction of public comments and concerns.
Arnold had several concerns, including what he called the project’s “fatal flaw” in that there is no way to determine causation when monitoring shows the aqui-fer is being impacted.
Arnold added that it was his assumption, after reading through the reports and details, that Coso poorly designed the plant to begin with. According to Arnold, Coso knew it would have problems with evaporation from the onset of the project and should have made preparations then for long-term growth.
“Garbage in, garbage out,” is how Arnold described the plant’s state.
He also asked what Coso will do after the water is no longer available. There was no answer to that question.
Rex Allen, chair of the Water Commission, but speaking as a private citizen, told the Planning Commission of other geothermal plants that have had success with upgraded evaporation control measures and thought Coso could and should do the same.
Allen referred to Coso statements that it plans on investing more than $100 million in improvements to the plant over the next two years and that those improvements would still keep the plant’s property value high and, by extension, tax revenue to the county high.
Coso replied that the $100 million is for capital investment and maintenance of the facility, above and beyond the Hay Ranch project.
Coso also replied that to upgrade the existing plant with a dry-cooling system would be inefficient, as the plant’s original design did not intend on these types of upgrades that would cost between $110 million and $250 million to install now.
“We’ve been told by engineers that it would be easier and, probably less expensive, to start from scratch than to try and retrofit the existing plant,” said Chris Ellis, Coso Operating Plant’s site manager.
Steve McLaughlin, president of the Bristlecone Chapter of the Native Plant Society, said he had issues with both the EIR, and the hydrological model and monitoring.
McLaughlin said that he sees no analysis of how plants will respond to the pumping. He also thought that doing a plant inventory in December, as was the case for the EIR, was a poor decision. McLaughlin also questioned the hydrological model and its apparent lack of details, such as no starting baseline for the water in the aquifer.
He said he had also detected a loophole in the models for Coso, in that, “There will never be a way to prove that the pumping from Hay Ranch is the cause of impacts.”
EIR consultant Galen Kanouer said that no matter what the cause, be it drought or otherwise, if the monitoring triggers are set off, pumping will cease or be reduced and models re-calibrated.
Wilfred Nabahe, Lone Pine resident, argued that under CEQA guidelines, Coso has lived out its productive life and the plant needs to be redefined as exactly what it is now and what it is going to be. He said that under CEQA, the plant is ready to be dismantled.
Nabahe cited numerous documents as to why Coso had waited so long to request pumping and questioned why some studies detailing the adverse effects on Coso Hot Springs, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, were not included in the EIR.
Nabahe and others said they could sense the outcome before the public comment period even started.
Arnold said before the hearing was over that no matter who won, the other side would surely appeal to the Inyo County Board Supervisors.
Surprisingly, it was reported that Coso would need no permit to pump the water from its Hay Ranch property to grow alfalfa, or to just pump it on the ground, but a permit is needed to transport the water.
|
