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Supes steer solar talk toward land issues |
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Thursday, 14 January 2010 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
1-14-2010 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Manager David Freeman attended Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to discuss solar power, but got roped into a talk about the economy, local land and the department’s failed promises.
Freeman began with a discussion about the idea of placing a solar farm on Owens Dry Lake to cut back on dust and generate energy. Freeman said that the department wanted the county “on board during the takeoff, so that everyone is on board at the landing.”
The board and several audience members vocally backed Freeman’s plan to move forward with a test solar project on the lake before recruiting private companies, such as Southern California Edison, to build solar facilities that would cut back on dust blowing off the lake.
Freeman said the LADWP looked at all its land holdings in the Owens Valley, and determined that only about 8 percent could be used for solar development. That 8 percent is the Owens Dry Lake and an area between Lone Pine and Independence, east of the Owens River.
He said that no solid plans have been made for any solar project, and the first step is to build a small solar farm on Owens Lake.
First District Supervisor Linda Arcularius asked how Inyo could prepare for the major project.
“There are going to be jobs, but they’re not going to be local jobs unless local people are trained to do them,” Freeman said, saying that local residents should look into job training and professions in the field of solar power.
When Freeman mentioned the possibility of an economic boon in the Eastern Sierra, he opened a can of worms with the Board of Supervisors that included questions about land the department is mandated to release – but hasn’t – that could be used for housing or private business.
Freeman’s former attempts to turn LADWP’s local land holdings into a nature conservancy.
Second District Supervisor Susan Cash said that a major solar project on the Dry Lake would create a housing and infrastructure demand on Southern Inyo, and wanted to know how the department would handle that.
Freeman said that the LADWP would sub-let pieces of the lake bed to public entities, which would, in turn, pay taxes to support services.
More to the point, Cash said that there are several properties that the LADWP holds in downtown corridors throughout the valley that could be released to the public.
That includes 70 acres that were slated to be released last year, but the LADWP claims it did not receive any reasonable bids during the auction.
“Lone Pine, Independence and Big Pine have vacant DWP land on Main Street” that could be put into public hands, Fourth District Supervisor Marty Fortney added.
“I’m on your side on this particular issue,” Freeman said. “Let’s take every one of these pieces of land that are in a particular area and do something serious with them.”
Freeman said that he and his staff would meet with county staff sometime within the next two months to identify available DWP land and work on a way to release those to the public.
Supervisor Fortney also expressed concerns that Freeman would return to his stance in the 1990s that the LADWP’s land holdings should be put into a nature conservancy.
Freeman said the department was no longer considering the conservancy.
“We’ve dedicated 92 percent of the land up here as ‘leave it alone,’” Freeman said, noting that the department plans to keep its lands open for recreational access.
But Cash was not satisfied. Cash said that Hawaii Reservoir in Southern Inyo was closed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to protect Los Angeles’ water. That closure, she said, was supposed to be temporary, but the department has yet to give local citizens or the board any idea of when the reservoir will be open to the public again.
“I would appreciate it if you would revisit that,” Cash told Freeman, noting that the California Constitution requires public entities to keep waterways open to the public.
Cash said that she hopes to be able to meet with the department, but, she said in the past the department’s promises to meet with citizens and officials in the Sierra have been like bringing flowers, but not going on the rest of the date.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 February 2010 )
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