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Coso investing $12 million-plus on merits of pump proposal to draw groundwater from Little Lake for geothermal plant

Posted by: Maven on March 10, 2009 at 5:11 am

From the Inyo Register:

There is a company that owns land in Inyo County and wants to pump water from that land for profit, for itself and ultimately the county. The company is not going to bottle the water, or use it for lawns or fountains, or pump the water without limitations. The water is going to be used for renewable energy production, which helps reduce this country’s dependency on fossil fuels, foreign and domestic.

Coso Operating Company (COC), operators of the Coso Geothermal Plant, has requested a permit from the county to pump that water from its fallowed Hay Ranch property to replenish a depleting geothermal reservoir. COC is reporting that the depletion equals a 3.6 percent reduction in power generation, the equivalent of enough energy to power 10,000 homes.

The geothermal reservoir is the hot fluid, thousands of feet below the surface, that travels up wells at the power plant, then flashes into steam at the surface. The steam then pushes and drives turbines that, in turn, drives the electrical power generators. Through time, the reservoir becomes depleted due to evaporation and must be augmented to maintain reservoir pressure.

COC is asking for a 30-year Conditional Use Permit, or CUP, to pump the water, build necessary infrastructure and pipe the water nine miles from the ranch to the plant. If approved by the Planning Commission, the CUP will include mitigation and monitoring measures, enforceable by law, to ensure that the amount of water pumped will not “unreasonably affect the environment or overall economy of Inyo County.”

The plan involves drilling 20 wells between Haiwee Reservoir and Little Lake, and strict monitoring guidelines would require the Coso Operating Company to stop operations if trigger points are reached. Of course, not everyone is satisfied:

However, opposition to the project varies from allegations of an inadequate environmental review of the project, to assumptions that COC has so much invested in the plant already, it will proceed with or without the Hay Ranch water.

Rex Allen, chairman of the County Water Commission, opposes the project on these grounds. Allen explained his position in a letter he wrote to the county Planning Commission as a private citizen.
Allen’s argument is based on bond rating reports that he interprets as COC telling the bond raters, “We think we will get the Hay Ranch water and it will probably help cut our costs, but we will do just fine anyhow.”

Allen wrote that COC will make the geothermal plant work with or without the Hay Ranch water and that, “Inyo County is not going to lose significant tax monies no matter what we do, and if we play our cards right we may yet improve the tax take while saving our precious groundwater and protecting a very pretty desert valley.”

Read more on this story from the Inyo Register by clicking here.

March 10, 2009 · Filed Under Eastern Sierra, Energy & Water

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