At the end of a special district board meeting held early Tuesday afternoon in the Board of Supervisors chamber at the county courthouse in Lakeport, the election officially closed.

County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley – accompanied by her deputy, Maria Valadez – came into the board chambers at the meeting's end, took possession of a large silver ballot box, counted the five ballots inside and took it back to her second-floor office.

She later issued a count of ballots returned so far to her office. The results will now be tabulated.

Those ballots, which included the five Fridley collected at the meeting, total approximately 14,295 out of 42,784 mailed out in May, for a 33-percent return rate.

About two-thirds of the ballots were returned in May, in the weeks after the district's consultant send the ballots out by mail.

John Bliss, vice president of the Bay Area-based SCI Consulting Group – hired by Vector Control to handle the assessment – said Lake County's is one of the highest ballot return rates for a county of its size that the firm has seen in its 26-year history.

Similar assessments conducted in Glenn and Colusa counties had return rates in the low 20-percent range, Bliss said.

The firm reported issuing 100 replacement or corrected ballots, and taking several hundred phone calls about ballots.

District officials are asking for the assessment, which will add an estimated $500,000 to their $1.3 million budget.

The district has spent $126,000 on the assessment effort, including hiring SCI Consulting Group – which has worked on similar assessments for other vector control districts around the state – and mailing and publishing the ballots, District Manager Dr. Jamie Scott told Lake County News on Tuesday.

Most single-family dwellings can expect to pay an additional $13.96 on their yearly property tax if the assessment is approved.

The results of the ballot tabulation will be announced at a special Vector Control Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, at the district's offices at 410 Esplanade in Lakeport.

About 15 people – of which only about half a dozen were citizens and not district members or consulting staff – attended Tuesday's hour-and-a-half-long meeting, which included a required public hearing under Proposition 218 since an assessment is proposed.

A few county residents in particular strenuously questioned the reasons for the assessment and criticized what they felt was a flawed process, complete with ballots which – in one man's case – showed his assessment would be close to nine times its actual amount.

Scott said they've been working on the assessment process since March of 2008, when “it became apparent that we had a funding problem at this district.”

She said the district loses 20 percent of their funding to local redevelopment and the Education Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF).

“Since this agency's primary goal is protecting public health, we were getting to a point where we would no longer be able to do that effectively or efficiently” with the staff they have, said Scott.

She assured community members that the assessment has strong protections and can only be used for local mosquito and vector control operations.

Lake County's health officer, Dr. Karen Tait MD, expressed her appreciation to both Scott and the district for partnering with the county to protect public health against disease.

She said the agency has been a “vital source” for dealing with vector-borne illness.

“We have enjoyed very low rates of disease,” said Tait, who reported that in 2008 the county had no human cases of West Nile Virus, one case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and three Lyme disease diagnoses.

Witter Springs resident Dan Berdechowski grilled district officials about their budget and spending, and how district trustees are appointed.

He questioned why the first assessment estimate for his 10-acre parcel was $57, when it should have been $6 plus 12 cents per acre. He received a reassessment of $29 before he finally received a ballot with the right amount.

Bliss and fellow SCI Consulting staffer Maria Garcia-Adarve explained that the incorrect assessments on Berdechowski's ballots had resulted from incorrect data they received from the county.

Berdechowski also questioned why the hearing was held so late in the process, and said his reading of the state finance law Proposition 218 doesn't say the hearing has to be held at the end of balloting period.

The state Legislative Analyst's Office analysis of Proposition 218, passed by voters in 1996, requires that the government agency asking for the assessment hold a public hearing after mailing the notices. At the conclusion of that hearing, the ballots must be tabulated.

Upper Lake resident Betsy Cawn said she wanted to see more public education about the district, and complained about the assessment being allowed to increase by as much as 3 percent annually, an adjustment tied to the San Francisco Bay Area Consumer Price Index.

Bliss, in helping respond to questions, explained that “no one likes to stick their hand out,” noting that the board debated the issue for more than a year, and spoke about the issue to local publications, government boards, homeowners associations and community groups.

He suggested to the board that the responsible thing is not to assess the full 3-percent increase, and only implement it when needed.

Cobb resident Ron Fidge was concerned about numerous things, from the reasons for the assessment to concerns for bats, which eat mosquitoes.

Scott explained that while bats do eat mosquitoes, that's not the preferred source for the nocturnal critters, which like a broad array of foods, including gnats – which tend to cluster in large groups – and larger insects like moths.

Fidge was concerned that more attention should be placed on Lyme disease, and Scott agreed that the tick-borne disease is a big issue for the county.

Scott said between 2 and 5 percent of the ticks Vector Control tests are positive for Lyme disease. There also are other tick-borne diseases of concern, but the district's testing abilities are limited, and the assessment would help expand lab capabilities.

“That's a very important part of this,” she said.

Anna Ravenwoode of Kelseyville told the board that the best and most successful route for vector control is community education. She asked what the education component would be under the new assessment, and how the district would monitor the reduction in new disease and infections.

Scott said education and outreach for personal protection will be part of a comprehensive program.

Outreach, she said, already has been stepped up above its historical levels and going forward it will include taking part in more public events like fairs and visits to school classrooms.

She didn't offer a monetary amount that would go specifically toward education.

As for monitoring reduction in new disease, Scott said, “Our best longterm indicator will be how we protect the human population here.”

At the end of the meeting, Phil Murphy, the district's newest trustee, said he wanted the public record corrected as it relates to statements about how rigorously the board debated the assessment. He said he only saw it agendized once in the district's minutes over the last year.

Murphy and the rest of the board have had disagreements over the proposed assessment, which were elaborated on in letters they exchanged in Lake County News and other local publications over the last week.

Murphy questioned the need for the additional funds and asked if the district had attempted to look at any option other than the assessment.

In response, fellow board members said he had failed to outline his concerns to them during district board meetings and incorrectly stated information about the district. He, in turn, shot back with a letter earlier this week accusing the district of losing sight of its primary function and becoming an example of bigger and more entrenched government.

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Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported Tuesday that no one was injured when the helicopter landed in an open meadow on Cow Mountain – about seven miles northwest of Lakeport – at about 3 p.m. June 25.

The Robinson R-44, owned by Cutting Edge Helicopters out of Sacramento, is used in ongoing aerial surveillance of illegal marijuana grows. Bauman said the helicopter was “substantially damaged” in the landing.

The helicopter crew – including Lt. Dave Garzoli of the sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit, who was undergoing flight instruction, and a company pilot who also is a certified flight instructor – had spent the morning conducting aerial surveillance over Lake County and were returning to Lakeport on a training flight after refueling in Ukiah, Bauman said.

During the training flight, the crew was simulating an emergency 180-degree autorotation and power recovery procedure at an altitude of about 500 feet over Cow Mountain when Bauman said they experienced an engine failure.

When attempts to recover engine power failed, the crew committed to a forced landing and, due to the lack of RPMs, the main rotor blades impacted the helicopter’s tail boom as the craft touched the ground, which Bauman said caused the damage.

Bauman said there was no property damage other than to the helicopter. The cause of the engine failure is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and Cutting Edge Helicopters.

In April the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an agreement with Cutting Edge Helicopters to rent its equipment for marijuana surveillance activities.

In the agreement, Cutting Edge receives $490 an hour, according to minutes from the April 14 Board of Supervisors meeting.

At that time the board also approved helicopter lease agreements with PJ Helicopters and A&P Helicopters for rates of $700 and $750, respectively, as Lake County News has reported.

AltaRock Energy's drill rig on its pad, located above Middletown on land leased from the Bureau of Land Management by the Northern California Power Agency. The rig already has begun drilling in a 20-year-old well, and will begin fracturing bedrock in August 2009 in an effort to harness heat from deep within the earth. Photo courtesy of AltaRock.

This is the second installment of a two-part article on a new geothermal project in The Geysers.

THE GEYSERS – A new geothermal technology is being rolled out in The Geysers, an area that for decades has been a center of clean energy production.

The Geysers is the largest geothermal production area in the United States. For that reason, it attracted the venture capital company AltaRock Energy, with offices in Sausalito and Seattle, which is beginning a two-year demonstration project to prove the effectiveness of engineered geothermal system (EGS) technology.

The technology requires drilling down thousands of feet deep into the earth's bedrock, fracturing it and injecting water into the fractures in order to harness the resulting steam for geothermal energy production.

AltaRock has a $6 million federal Department of Energy grant along with $30 million in private investment capital to back it.

Its chief executive officer, Don O'Shei, and senior vice president, Jim Turner, say EGS technology offers the opportunity to expand geothermal production to areas around the western United States that haven't previously been geothermal producing areas.

But it's a technology that has resulted in earthquakes in some parts of the world where it's been tested, most notably Basel, Switzerland, where thousands of quakes were triggered, as Lake County News has reported.

In Anderson Springs, the closest community in the county to geothermal production, AltaRock's plans have raised concerns because residents there already deal with earthquakes due to the operations of Calpine and the Northern California Power Agency.

Anderson Springs Community Alliance President Jeff Gospe also said the public process had little noticing for the community and the project's environmental assessment initially didn't include years of seismic data.

The assessment has since been amended to include some of that data, but the document also stated that the information didn't lead to a conclusion other than to let the project move forward, because increased earthquakes aren't expected.

Understanding seismicity and The Geysers

David Oppenheimer, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey, explained that The Geysers is ringed by two faults, the Callayomi to the northeast and the Big Sulfur Creek fault.

Oppenheimer said geologists can see faults expressed at the earth's surface based on the different kinds of rock present, like granite and sandstone.

Neither of those faults, Oppenheimer explained, are mapped as active faults, but that's not to say they couldn't produce earthquakes.

But he said that, to get a big earthquake, you need a big fault.

He estimated the Callayomi could produce a quake as big as 6.0 in magnitude, while the Big Sulfur Creek's maximum quake potential likely is about 5.0. That's compared to a major fault like the San Andreas, which could produce up to an 8.0-magnitude quake.

There's also no danger of The Geysers faults triggering the San Andreas fault, said Oppenheimer.

Faults, he added, are unpredictable. The Loma Prieta fault that caused a devastating earthquake in the Bay Area in 1989 may not produce another earthquake for 1,000 years.

Oppenheimer explained that, over the last 35 years, the largest quakes recorded in The Geysers measured 4.5 in magnitude. This past January, a 4.2-magnitude quake was reported in The Geysers, as Lake County News has reported.

Basel, which had a 3.4-magnitude quake resulting from its drilling project, suffered from a public relations problem in that they didn't properly prepare the public, said Oppenheimer.

While the project's documents haven't stated a specific magnitude when it comes to resulting earthquakes that could shut down the project, Oppenheimer said AltaRock will have to back off of its project if they begin getting quakes over 2.0 in magnitude.

Explaining how the steamfield works, Oppenheimer noted, “All of the (earthquake) activity that you see up there is induced,” which occurs when you start drilling and injecting water into the many small fractures in the underlying rock.

The fact that industry is responsible for the activity also has been acknowledged by Calpine.

“If everything goes according to plan, there is no big fracture they're going to intersect in their target area,” said Oppenheimer.

The dirt on the surface of the earth extends only a few feet. Drillers hit rock very quickly, said Oppenheimer.

Most of the existing geothermal production takes place in sandstone – also called graywacke – which has shale in it, said Oppenheimer.

Underneath that, there's a layer of felsite, an intrusion of molten hot magma from about one million years ago, he said.

That rock – still cooling after a million years – is the heat source for the water in the graywacke. Stresses from the shifting tectonic plates create fractures in the felsite, allowing the steam to escape.

AltaRock officials said they plan to drill in an area of The Geysers where major fault lines aren't located. O'Shei said they will be drilling and fracturing undifferentiated rock that won't rise to the pressure built up in the Basel project. They'll also have real-time monitoring systems that Basel didn't have.

“Obviously, we thought about this a lot,” said O'Shei.

Turner said construction for the drilling will be completed this year, and monitoring and testing will take place during 2010. “We want to demonstrate this is a viable technology.”

But expanding geothermal production in the already volatile Geysers area “really raises concerns,” said Gospe.

Around 2001, when Gospe became actively involved in tracking the area's earthquakes, seismic activity began to rise dramatically, at about the time Santa Rosa joined the Geysers injection pipeline, he said. Geothermal injection in Lake County started in 1997.

“We're seeing larger earthquakes,” said Gospe, with a growth in quakes measuring 4.0 and above, with each year averaging about two such quakes. A 4.0 quake has 30 times the energy of a 3.0 quake, he added.

In 2008, Anderson Springs experienced 85 quakes measuring 2.0 or above within three miles of the community, up from about 49 the previous year. Through May 28, they've recorded 67 such quakes.

And while those quakes don't appear large, Gospe said they're seeing that 86 percent of the smaller quakes – measuring in the magnitude range of 1 and 2 – actually are causing more damage and being more widely felt. That flies in the face of traditional assumptions about earthquake monitoring, which tends to ignore quakes if they don't have a magnitude of 3.0 or above, he said.

Rather than looking at the quakes solely based on the Richter scale, Gospe said it's important to consider the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, tracked by the US Geological Survey, which looks at quake intensity.

“The concern is you're taking a very seismically active area and introducing something new,” he said. “You hope they know what they're doing.”

Company becomes involved in the community

Joan Clay, a member of the Anderson Springs Geothermal Impact Mitigation Committee, confirmed that AltaRock officials have been sitting in on the group's meetings.

She said NCPA gives $30,000 to the community annually for seismic mitigation. AltaRock, she said, has tacked on another $10,000 and committed another $10,000 to the community's planned sewer project.

Clay credited AltaRock with doing more about mitigation than Calpine for the Anderson Springs community – the nearest community to The Geysers operations – which she said doesn't receive any money or royalties from local geothermal production.

Mark Dellinger, administrator for Lake County Special Districts, said AltaRock is showing corporate responsibility and leadership in dealing with the mitigation issues, pointing to their willingness to make monetary contributions.

The company has asked to be formally added as a member of the Anderson Springs Geothermal Impact Mitigation Committee, which will go before the Board of Supervisors for approval on July 7.

“I don't think that they'd want to be on that committee to say no to mitigation,” said Dellinger.

Later this summer, the board also will consider AltaRock's request to be added to the Seismic Monitoring Advisory Committee, Dellinger said.

“I think they're doing anything that we would have asked any other developer to do,” Dellinger said.

District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock said he first heard of the project in December and began attending some of the community meetings, including the April Middletown information meeting.

“Who knows if this is going to work or not,” said Comstock, adding that he doesn't know if the county will take a position on the EGS project or not.

Growing interest in renewables

O'Shei said the drilling technology could assist with creating more renewable electricity. That doesn't do much to cut into foreign oil usage, he said. “What it does help you do is not burn coal.”

Given the current state of the US energy market, true carbon sequestration in coal is many years out, O'Shei said. However, the demand for power is rising significantly, and wind and solar can help meet some of that need.

A utility needs to be able to produce power around the clock, and geothermal and EGS would offer baseload power and complement wind and solar, O'Shei said.

O'Shei and Turner explained that they raised equity investments in two rounds – the first took in $4 million, the second $26 million, plus they received a $6 million grant from the Department of Energy.

AltaRock's plans drew investors such as Google, Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a company actively searching out green technology investment opportunities. Its partners include former Vice President Al Gore, with former Secretary of State Colin Powell listed among its strategic limited partners, according to the company's Web site.

AltaRock also has gained the ear of officials in Congress.

In September 2008, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Washington) mentioned AltaRock Energy in comments on the House floor about a comprehensive energy bill.

Discussing the company's EGS techniques, Inslee said, “AltaRock Energy is going to be ready to commercialize this technology, we hope, in the next several years that could produce potentially half of our electrical needs in the United States if we can surmount a couple of technological challenges involving pumps. Here is a company that could be a total game changer, and it needs policies from Congress to move forward. Our proposal, the Democratic leadership will propose, will support that technology.”

Last September, the company also finalized a deal with Weyerhaeuser Co. and Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation to use explore the use of EGS on 667,000 acres in California, Oregon and Washington – of which 25,400 acres are in Northern California.

AltaRock reported that Weyerhauser granted it an exclusive option by Weyerhaeuser to assess the geothermal potential and convert up to 40 percent of the acreage rights to geothermal development leases within two years.

Anderson Springs resident Meriel Medrano said she and her neighbors will be watching what happens in the coming months, and are awaiting the installation of a promised new strong ground motion monitor in Anderson Springs, which will augment another one already located there.

While the local geothermal operators have worked to move their injection operations away from residents, she said the geothermal industry, from the very beginning, hasn't known what would happen in the area, where impacts usually were underestimated.

Gospe said there should be some effort made to offer economic incentives for people living close to the operations, as is done in other places, such as Iceland.

But a greater concern is what will happen if something goes wrong and 4- and 5-magnitude quakes result, said Gospe.

Private companies, he said, tend to declare bankruptcy and walk away when things don't go right. “We want to make sure they'll make the community whole” in the event something goes wrong, said Gospe.

The bottom line, he said, is that the community wants the company to take responsibility, operate properly, and mitigate or compensate when things don't go right.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Read the first part of this report here:

New geothermal project raises questions, concerns

Intent to Adopt a Negative Declaration/Initial Study

For the City of Lakeport

Housing Element Update Project

LEAD AGENCY:

City of Lakeport

Community Development Department

225 Park St., Lakeport, CA 95453

PROJECT TITLE:

City of Lakeport Housing Element Update

PROJECT LOCATION: The City of Lakeport is located in Lake County in the State of California. Lake County is bordered by portions of Colusa and Glenn counties to the east, portions of Napa and Sonoma counties to the south, portions of Sonoma and Mendocino counties to the west, and portions of Glenn and Mendocino counties to the north. The City is located along State Route 29 (SR 29) on the western shore of Clear Lake.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The City of Lakeport’s Housing Element update would revise the City’s Housing Element consistent with the requirements of state law.

FINDINGS / DETERMINATION: The City has reviewed and considered the proposed project and has determined that the project will not have a significant effect on the environment, with substantial supporting evidence provided in the Initial Study. The City hereby prepares and proposes to adopt a Negative Declaration for this project.

PUBLIC REVIEW PERIOD: A 30 day public review period for the Negative Declaration/ Initial Study will commence on June 29, 2009 and will end on July 30, 2009 for interested individuals and public agencies to submit written comments on the document. Any written comments on the Initial Study/ Negative Declaration should be sent to the attention of Andrew Britton, Planning Services Manager and must be received at 225 Park Street, Lakeport, CA 95453 by 5:00 PM on July 30, 2009. Copies of the Negative Declaration/Initial Study are available for review at the Lakeport City Hall offices at 225 Park Street, Lakeport, CA 95453

Dated this 29th day of June 2009

_______________________________

ANDREW BRITTON

Planning Services Manager

The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St. The agenda is posted online at www.cityoflakeport.com/departments/docs.aspx?deptID=88&catID=124.

Council members will begin the meeting by approving the June 30 warrant register before holding a workshop with city staff to discuss the 2009-10 fiscal year budget.

They also will receive status reports on the South Main Street annexation and Green Ranch, and discuss the Lakeport Police Department's Vehicle Take-Home Program.

Also on the agenda is the council's discussion of an agreement with the Lake County Channel Cats for the use of the Westshore Pool.

During closed session, the council hold a conference with city labor negotiators – in this case, acting City Manager Kevin Burke and City Attorney Steve Brookes – regarding talks with the Lakeport Employees Association.

The council also is due to discuss appointing the city manager's position, which Burke currently is holding on an interim basis while City Manager Jerry Gillham is on military leave. Officials have been discussing another possible interim candidates whose name they will not release.

Also to be covered in closed session is existing litigation in Lake County Superior Court, City of Lakeport v. Browning.

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The Lake County Vector Control Board of Trustees will hold the hearing at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 30, in the Board of Supervisors Chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

Ballots went out in May for the assessment, which Vector Control officials said they're requesting to help them update facilities such as the district's laboratory and maintain current service levels.

At an average of $13.96 per single family residence, the assessment is projected to bring $500,000 a year into the district, which currently has a $1.3 million annual budget, as Lake County News has reported.

County residents will have the opportunity to ask questions, cast their votes or even submit new ballots if they've changed their mind since they voted.

The district must receive all ballots by the end of the Tuesday meeting.

After the meeting ends, the ballot count will begin, and will be handled by Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley.

The tabulation of ballots will be announced at a July 15 meeting, also scheduled for 1:30 p.m., to be held at the district's headquarters, 410 Esplanade, Lakeport.

For more information call Lake County Vector Control, 707-263-4770.

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