MCWD V. GBUAPCD heads to court
Eller to preside over April 1 hearing.
Mammoth Community Water District’s attempt to nullify a Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) governing a proposed geothermal expansion project reaches the Mono County Superior Court on Wednesday, April 1.
MCWD will argue that Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District (GBUAPCD), the entity which certified the FEIR, “committed a prejudicial abuse of discretion” in granting the certification.
As MCWD General Manager Patrick Hayes recalled this week, Schade promised his own Great Basin board that he wouldn’t weigh in and approve an FEIR until a monitoring and mitigation plan had been established. Then, he waited nine months and reversed himself, said Hayes.
Here’s the backdrop. Mammoth Community Water District filed this lawsuit last August against the Great Basin Air Pollution Control after Officer Ted Schade certified and approved the EIR for the Casa Diablo IV Geothermal Project.
The project is being developed by Ormat Technologies, Inc. out of Nevada.
The proposed project is a net 33-megawatt geothermal project, located near the existing geothermal facility off Highway 395, which would include a new geothermal power plant, pipeline, and up to 16 new production and injection wells, many near Shady Rest Park.
MCWD has repeatedly expressed concern that geothermal production, which the District says will grow from the current 19,000 acre-feet to about 29,000 acre-feet per year, could overheat or degrade the cold water above, potentially impacting the local groundwater supply. Cold water supplies roughly 75 percent of daily water use in Mammoth, or up to 90 percent during current drought conditions.
According to court documents, Great Basin maintains that the geothermal system the plant will use is “physically isolated” from the aquifers MCWD uses to supply water to Mammoth. However, MCWD argues that there “are still many uncertainties” to the effects the geothermal pumping will have on the groundwater and that Great Basin has not fulfilled its California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) obligations for monitoring and mitigation.
In short, Hayes said Great Basin pretty much took the word of experts hired by Ormat rather than going out and getting some independent voices.
Schade retired about four months after the certification.
MCWD will request the Court mandate Great Basin reverse its decision and prohibits any construction of the geothermal plant until an adequate EIR is adopted.
There will not be a litany of witnesses and testimony on Wednesday. Rather, both sides will present their case to Presiding Judge Stan Eller, who will then have 90 days to render a judgement.
The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m.
Hayes said that regardless of Eller’s ruling, he anticipates the losing side will appeal.
He noted that parallel negotiations have been ongoing outside the courtroom and “some progress has been made.”
