LAKEPORT — The Lake County Planning Commission voted Wednesday to certify the final environmental impact report (EIR) prepared for the Bottle Rock Power expansion project on High Valley Road in Cobb.
More than 30 Cobb residents, company representatives and other concerned citizens attended Wednesday”s day-long special meeting.
The power company proposed rezoning around 60 acres of land and modifying its existing use permit to allow two new geothermal well pads and 1.3 miles of new pipeline to be constructed. As many as 22 injection and production wells could be constructed during the life of the project.
Community Development director Richard Coel and representatives of AECOM, the company that drafted the final documents, presented the final EIR to the commission for certification.
The final EIR consists of more than 1,000 pages of environmental findings, public input, project summaries and alternatives, federal regulations and mitigation measures.
The majority of residents living near the plant who spoke Wednesday expressed concerns about what they thought could be the potential environmental impact on their property and families, discussing issues ranging from possible harmful emissions and bad smells to potential water contamination to soil disturbance.
Several other residents did say they approved of the proposed project provided the expansion is routinely monitored.
Some of the public discussion criticizing the expansion project also focused on issues pertaining to the proposed use permit and traffic plan modifications.
The proposed plan would require commission approval for the expansion project”s use permit, for modifications to the site”s existing use permit and associated traffic control and road maintenance plan and commission recommendation to the Board of Supervisors regarding the proposed rezone.
The commission had intended to make decisions on all of the issues during Tuesday”s regular meeting after first voting to certify the final EIR.
Public comment regarding the final EIR lasted until about 3:45 p.m., at which point the commission voted 4-0 in favor of certifying the final EIR. Commissioner Bob Malley was absent from the special meeting.
The entire final EIR, including all appendices, is available on the Community Development section of the county”s Web site. Several citizens who spoke Wednesday said they had difficulties downloading the documents because of the file sizes.
Coel began discussing staff recommendations on the use permit, rezone and modification issues at 4:10 p.m. and continued for about an hour. County staff has recommended approval of the proposed project use permit, modifications to the existing use permit and traffic plan as well as supporting commission recommendation of the rezone.
The meeting ended for the day just after 5 p.m. and the public hearing on the remaining issues was continued to the Jan. 13 regular commission meeting at 10:15 a.m., according to Coel.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
