MIDDLETOWN >> A former geothermal landfill just two and a half miles southeast of downtown Middletown, whose base is at the foothills of Long Valley in the Collayomi Valley Basin of the Sacramento River hydrologic region, remains a facility that formerly accepted liquid and solid waste of geothermal exploration.
For two decades the owner, PG&E has been directed to correct hazardous conditions by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region and to clean up the site in accordance with Order R5-2019-0076 for post-closure maintenance corrective action. In the course of the Middletown Area Town Hall meeting, at their monthly meeting Nov. 9, 2023, at the Middletown Library meeting room, Monica Rosenthal, chair of MATH asked Linda Diehl-Darms, a regular attendee and conservation advocate, for an update on the progress of an ongoing initiative to clean up the site
From the beginning and throughout her presentation, Diehl-Darms made it clear, “PG&E has done many things to clean up the site,” she said. She also clarified that she was merely informing the south Lake residents, “To the best of my knowledge, I want to inform the community on the progress PG&E has commenced to mitigate the challenges that remain.”
However, in a memo dated February 2023, Kenny Croyle, water resources control engineer from the water board, emailed that a transmittal of a Corrective Action initiative had been drawn up and noted a Phase 1 Groundwater Extraction Work plan would be submitted no later than May 31, 2023. But at the MATH meeting, Diehl-Darms informed attendees there was waste in the groundwater, and PG&E have never been able to get a complete separation from the groundwater.
“The most they (have) ever done was one month, and that was during the drought years but we’re expecting lots of water this winter, so I have concerns about that,” she said. “And they said they cannot do what they set out to do. They put in Eucalyptus trees, thinking they would suck up the water and that would make a difference that the wastewater wouldn’t be in the groundwater anymore, but that didn’t work.”
She noted the water board provided PG&E with guidelines of what they have to do but they have not been able to rise to sufficient guideline levels. They submitted subsequent water samples that proved to be worse than prior samples. Over a course of two years PG&E implemented a number of systems and promised to meet standards. “PG&E still hasn’t met the standards they were going to do,” she said. In the beginning, Diehl-Darms hoped PG&E would remove the waste completely, yet PG&E maintained it was not cost effective. Then the water board required PG&E line their holding ponds with at least a 5-foot barrier to keep it away from groundwater levels, but they have been unable to meet that standard either, according to Diehl-Darms.
Tanya Striedieck, a Middletown retailer asked for an update, on the Maha project, because she heard it was pumping thousands of gallons of water from underneath the middle of the town and confided she found it incredulous the Board of Supervisors would approve building the project.
In a Jan. 14, 2022 edition of the Record-Bee, author John Berry eagerly wrote about the Maha Napa Resort plan to have renowned golf course designer Tom Doak craft a quality, champion coarse along with a development package that included, “29,000 acres of rugged terrain, ranch land, and vineyards just north of the Napa County line. The ultimate scope of the project includes golf, residential, a world class equestrian and polo facility, and three boutique hotels,” Berry said. Despite criticism that such a project would fail because Lake County was too remote a location, it was not the isolated locale that dampened enthusiasm, but instead it was geography.
The Maha Napa Resort was about eight miles northeast of Middletown. “Three organizations feared that the past history of wildfire of the Guenoc Valley would make Maha Napa an unsafe environment,” Berry said. “Lake County was enjoined by the Center for Biological Diversity, the California Native Plant Society and Anthony Becerra, the Attorney General of California. Superior Court Judge J. David Markham ruled against Lake County in January of 2022. He found the resort project was not in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act,” Berry said. He added he wasn’t sure if it was the death knell for the proposal or just a pause.
Chair Monica Rosenthal recalled the case and suggested it would need to be resubmitted to the planning department.
Shifting gears back to the waste contaminating groundwater, John Hess, who is a candidate for the District 1 Supervisor seat and currently serves as Planning Commission representative for the district, phoning in over Zoom said he had talked about the situation on several occasions since he had become a planning commissioner. “There really hasn’t been any progress made,” he said. “The plan will have to be resubmitted to the planning commission, started up from the beginning. It’s not an impossible task, but that will be the way it would have to go.”
The PG&E site was acquired from the former, Geothermal Inc. facility. The facility is on a 460-acre property located at 19020 Butts Canyon Road, Middletown, and is surrounded by oak trees and grasslands. In 2007, a Covenant and Environmntal Restriction on Property was put in place for the site as a method of control that bans groundwater use and directs the area not to be used for growing crops, while no wells may be drilled without the written approval of the Central Valley Water Board.
