LAKEPORT, Calif. – Following several hours of testimony and public comment, the Board of Supervisors decided to continue deliberations until next week on whether or not it would uphold the Lake County Planning Commission's certification of the final environmental impact report for Bottle Rock Power's steamfield expansion project.
The hearing ran a total of about five and a half hours, dominating the board's business for the day. Supervisor Anthony Farrington was absent for the discussion.
Friends of Cobb Mountain appealed the EIR certification – granted in December – citing myriad issues affecting the quality of life for area residents.
Bottle Rock Power is proposing, as part of its expansion, to build two new 3.5-acre geothermal well pads, an access road and 1.3 miles of new pipeline to connect to the existing pipeline.
The plant reopened in 2007, 17 years after the California Department of Water Resources closed it because steam reserves were diminishing.
Main themes in residents' testimony revolved around the 1,100-page EIR document, which many said was not adequate and didn't properly address concerns.
That contrasted with the opinion of county Community Development Director Rick Coel, who said he found it to be “the most detailed environmental impact report that I've seen prepared” in his 20 years with the county.
Hamilton Hess of the Friends of Cobb Mountain told the board that he felt the EIR didn't adhere to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), raised issues of increased seismicity – a concern echoed by many other residents feeling more earthquakes now – and the need for rare plant surveys.
Many Cobb residents whose lives are affected by the plant also described unpleasant sulfur smells coming from the plant and fears for decreasing air quality.
County Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said monitoring of the air in the location hasn't found significant changes, although some rapid changes have been noted from time to time.
Gearhart said Bottle Rock has improved its monitoring, so it's hard to know if what is being observed is because of the plant's current operations or if monitoring is better. He added that there are other operations going on up on Cobb, so it's hard to separate them out.
Cobb resident Linda Fung told the board, “I feel like we're being sacrificed.”
She said she was going to protest if Lake County won any more awards for clean air, adding that the plant “is the dirty spot.”
Another resident, Richard Schnabel, reported being diagnosed with cancer, and Elaine Robinson said both of her parents – who lived in the Cobb area – died of atypical cancers.
Referring to the plant's operators, Robinson said they were turning Cobb into “Mordor.”
Coel explained during the meeting that the California Energy Commission had, at one point, tried to take over jurisdiction of the project, and refused to relinquish control to local authority.
Coel said the county fought with the state over the issue, and eventually the state agreed that it was up to the county to be the lead agency.
Supervisor Rob Brown said Coel had been adamant about the county keeping control of the project, as that would make it easier for the public to comment at local hearings, rather than having to go to Sacramento.
Coel said the state commission had a different environmental review process. “It's nothing as thorough as the process we've gone through with this project,” he said, noting an EIR also wouldn't have been required and that the hearing process would have been more limited.
That process, he said, is designed to get projects approved with “minimal public scrutiny.”
By consensus the board agreed to continue discussion at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1.
Bottle Rock Power's expansion also includes a rezone of 60 acres. A separate request involving that rezone was before the board, but because it's contingent on the appeal matter being settled, the rezone also was continued to the March 1 hearing, when it is scheduled to be heard starting at 2:30 p.m.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
