MCWD to sue GBUAPCD over Casa Diablo IV
Water District says EIR approved by Great Basin is “inadequate”, violates CEQA.
Mammoth Community Water District (MCWD) has answered one decision with another: on August 1, the Water District disclosed a unanimous vote from the MCWD Board to pursue a lawsuit against Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District (Great Basin), after Great Basin approved the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for Ormat’s proposed Casa Diablo IV geothermal plant.
Great Basin Air Pollution Control Officer Ted Schade had suspended approval of the EIR for a year, pending an agreement between MCWD and Ormat over a monitoring and mitigation plan for the geothermal plant.
MCWD had expressed concern that water export from the geothermal region could overheat or degrade the cold water above, potentially destroying Mammoth’s groundwater supply.
According to MCWD General Manager Pat Hayes, cold water supplies about 70 percent of daily water use in Mammoth; closer to 90 percent during drought years.
The August 1 MCWD press release states that the lawsuit would assert that the EIR approved by Great Basin is “inadequate and violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in several respects.”
Pat Hayes called the EIR “blatantly inadequate in its consideration of the project’s potential negative impacts on our water supply, an error that we cannot overlook, particularly during a record statewide drought.”
The Water District contends that the EIR comes to the false conclusion that Casa Diablo IV will have no adverse impact on Mammoth’s groundwater, and that it fails “to disclose critical documents concerning the hydrological connection between Mammoth’s groundwater and the geothermal zones.”
The press release also notes that MCWD will retain Fiona-Hutton, a public relations firm, to handle communications regarding the Casa Diablo IV project. The cost to the Water District: $125,000.
“I am amazed the Mammoth Water District would spend $125,000 of its ratepayer’s hard-earned money on a public relations firm,” Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control Officer Ted Schade responded in a statement last week. “This will be a hearing before a judge on the adequacy of the environmental impacts analysis. Who are they attempting to influence with public relations, the judge?”
Schade also responded to the lawsuit itself. “Although the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District has been involved in many lawsuits, most of them against the City of Los Angeles, it has never lost in court,” he said. “We anticipate the same result in any suit brought by the Mammoth Water District.
“It is unfortunate that the ratepayers in Mammoth will be required to pay for attorneys when the money could be used to develop additional water supplies or for groundwater monitoring.”
Ormat Director of Business Development Charlene Wardlow said Ormat had no response to MCWD’s pursuit of a lawsuit against Great Basin.
She did note that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to require a monitoring plan from Ormat, prior to Casa Diablo IV commencing operations. The BLM, which approved the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)/EIR last year, will be overseeing the project.
“The extensive environmental analysis for the EIS/EIR did not identify any detrimental effects to groundwater, so no mitigation measure was identified,” Wardlow said. “[BLM Field Manager] Steve Nelson actually added the requirement for the monitoring plan to the Record of Decision [for the EIS/EIR] due to the MCWD’s concerns. It’s required prior to the power plant being operational, but we are trying to get it done now.”
According to Wardlow, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recommended Ormat drill two shallow monitoring wells, one on an existing well pad in the Basalt Canyon well field near Shady Rest Park, and the other at the U.S. Forest Service “junk yard” near the Visitors Center. The estimated cost to Ormat for the two new groundwater-monitoring wells will be about $300,000.
BLM Project Manager Collin Reinhardt said the monitoring plan will require the collection of data on fluid pressure, fluid temperature, and fluid chemistry from the cold, warm, and hot hydrologic systems within the Long Valley Caldera.
In addition, he said the BLM and USGS plan to collect thermography and diffuse soil gas data to determine any impact Casa Diablo IV has on land-surface temperature and soil carbon dioxide flux.
“All of these data will assist the BLM in managing use of the geothermal reservoir and taking corrective action, if needed, in order to protect the Mammoth Lakes municipal water supply as well as other resources in the Long Valley Caldera,” Reinhardt said.
MCWD intends to file its lawsuit against Great Basin in the weeks ahead.
