COBB – Tension ran high at a second meeting between county officials, Bottle Rock Power Corporation representatives and neighbors of the power plant on Thursday night at the Cobb Community Center.
Neighbors expressed strong doubts that the plant was following the requirements in its use permit, issued by the county in 1985. Attendees accused the plant of dumping mud from sumps used to catch toxic chemicals related to the geothermal drilling the plant does in a nearby meadow, of allowing the sludge to run into a nearby watercourse and of bending other regulations concerning dust, noise and traffic.
“I would like to see them (Bottle Rock) get a violation for putting sump mud on the meadow,” High Valley Road resident Kelly Fletcher said.
Ron Yoder, a planner with the Lake County Community Development Department, said, “I don”t have a violation now.”
“The heck you don”t,” High Valley Road resident Ron Fidge said in response.
District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said no evidence was found that the chemicals from the toxic mud remained in the meadow. Yoder said he issues citations for the purpose of removing a violation.
High Valley Road resident Gerri Finn said she disagreed, and said violations are also for the record. Fletcher said a $700 test on his drinking water came back clean, but he wanted the alleged violation on the record so the plant could be held responsible if the chemicals, including chromium, showed up in his water in the future.
“We don”t issue violations after the fact,” Brown said.
Fletcher continued to ask questions of county officials and power plant representatives for more than half of the two-hour meeting concerning the plant”s operations. He asked at one point why the plant delayed the cleanup of a fuel spill by three to four months.
Karon Thomas, the plant”s compliance manager, said the spill was cleaned up as well as it could be when it occurred and a barrier was placed around the area to prevent migration. She said the final cleanup happened before the rainy season, as required.
“I made the decision that it was OK to delay the final cleanup rather than move a multimillion dollar drilling project. With diesel fuel and hard packed soil and gravel, it”s going to move downward a certain distance, but it”s not going to outpaced by our ability to come by and clean it up later,” Bottle Rock Power Corporation Asset Manager Reid Morgan said.
Other concerns included the type and weight of vehicles allowed to travel through the residential area during specific hours and noise caused by drilling.
“A lot of people rely on this industry for jobs. California has the highest unemployment rate, and we don”t want to make that worse by discontinuing the operations any further. But we don”t want to compromise our environmental integrity, either,” Brown said at the top of the meeting.
Brown, who coordinated both meetings, assured residents the Lake County Board of Supervisors would consider hiring Planning Consultant Services planner Melissa Floyd to be a geothermal coordinator. Her job would be to ensure adequate, third party testing is done to monitor chemical seepage and water quality and to be a contact for concerned citizens.
Lake County Community Development Director Rick Coel said he plans to bring a contract before the board Dec. 3 for consideration. Brown said he would arrange another community meeting in January.
The power plant began operating in 1985, shut down five years later and was dormant until it changed ownership and an application to repower the plant was filed by the U.S. Renewables Group in 2006, according to the California Energy Commission Web site, www.energy.ca.gov.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com or call her direct at 263-5636 ext. 37.
