LAKE COUNTY — Bottle Rock Power, LLC proposes to build one of two new geothermal well pads at this location on land north of the power plant as part of an expansion project. This well pad would be constructed about one-third of the way down the hillside shown above, 95 feet below the base of the highest trees, and a second well pad would be constructed about 0.5 miles away. About 1.3 miles of new pipeline would connect the proposed well pads to existing pipeline currently serving the power plant. The company entered into an agreement with the Binkley Family Trust in August to lease roughly 470 acres of surface land, on which the proposed expansion would sit, after obtaining the subsurface rights to the area from the Bureau of Land Management in 2007, according to power plant project manager Brian Harms. The Lake County Planning Commission will consider Thursday at 10:15 a.m. whether to approve amendments to the existing use permit and associated traffic control plan, whether to approve the new use permit for the proposed expansion project and whether to recommend the rezone proposal to the Board of Supervisors. The commission approved the expansion project”s final environmental impact report during a special meeting on Dec. 22.
