A solar energy facility may be coming to Oregon’s Langell Valley, but some of its potential neighbors are raising concerns about water usage and decreased property values
Bad energy? This field would be covered in rows of solar panels if the proposed Bonanza Energy Facility comes to fruition. Photo by Alex Schwatrz/Herald and News
By Alex Schwartz, (Klamath Falls) Herald and New. November 16, 2020. Hecate Energy LLC hopes to take advantage of the Klamath Basin’s 300-plus days of sun per year by constructing the Bonanza Energy Facility. Rows of photovoltaic panels spanning up to 1,851 acres would convert sunlight into electrical energy, which would be sent via transmission line to the Captain Jack Substation north of Malin, Oregon. From there it would enter the California-Oregon Intertie, an electricity superhighway that transports power between California and the Pacific Northwest.
Utilities like Pacific Power and Portland General Electric would have the ability to purchase the electricity through energy markets.
The facility would generate between 150 and 300 megawatts of carbon-free power. An accompanying battery system housed in 11 separate buildings could store up to 1,100 megawatts of energy to make up for Klamath County’s rare cloudy days.
Hecate submitted a Notice of Intent to Apply for a site certificate to the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council in August, the first step in a long state approval process for the facility. The notice isn’t a formal application and therefore doesn’t include many specifics about the project’s construction or operations, but some Bonanza residents aren’t enthused about what they’re seeing so far.
The proposed site is currently a ranch in the heart of Langell Valley, bordering the Lost River to the northeast and surrounding Dead Indian Hill. The 2,733-acre property is currently zoned for exclusive farm use. Farmers and ranchers have called the area home for more than 100 years, enjoying picturesque views, wildlife and a rural lifestyle.
Neighbors surround the sprawling ranch, which is also home to wetland areas and migrating deer habitat.
The site has changed owners several times over the past couple decades, but another company had successfully acquired a permit there to construct the California Oregon Border Energy Facility, a gas-fired power plant. That was in 2006 before California’s energy prices tanked the region’s gas market.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“The view is going to be atrocious. Instead of seeing cattle grazing they’re going to see an eight-foot chain-link fence and solar panels.”[/perfectpullquote]
The site’s potential new life as a solar farm is indicative of the West Coast’s economic and political shift from fossil fuels to renewables.
Paul Turner, senior vice president of business development for Hecate Energy LLC, said the fact that another energy project had been able to receive a permit for that site was the reason Hecate chose it for the Bonanza Energy Facility. He added that the company has not considered other sites in the area for the solar facility.
Hecate has not yet purchased the property from its current landowner but has negotiated an exclusive long-term option to do so later in the permitting process.
“It’s still a great location for access to wholesale electricity markets along the West Coast,” Turner said.
Views, wildlife affected
When Maureen Thomas looked out beyond the border of the property she’s lived on with her husband for 25 years, she imagined solar panels covering the fields to the west. She didn’t like the prospect.
“I don’t understand how they can take productive agricultural land and turn it into an industrial park,” Thomas said.
Thomas and her neighbors said being bordered by a vast field of solar panels could devalue their properties.
“The view is going to be atrocious,” said Liz Hubbard, who lives down the road. “Instead of seeing cattle grazing on pasture, wetlands and deer, they’re going to see an eight-foot chain-link fence and solar panels.”
Resident concern: The proposed site for the facility is near an important area for sandhill cranes. Photo by Mikul/Wikimedia Commons
Residents said the area surrounding Dead Indian Hill is also a popular spot for migrating and fawning deer in the fall and spring. Previous solar projects in Klamath County built in spots similarly significant to wildlife have reduced their numbers. Hubbard’s property includes some of the wetlands encompassed by the proposed site, which are important to sandhill cranes and western pond turtles.
It’s unclear at this point the impact the facility would have on them, but a biological assessment completed this summer and included with the NOI acknowledged those habitats and the wildlife that depend on them. However, Hubbard said it didn’t take into account the importance of those ecosystems during fall and spring migration because of the time of year it was completed.
“It looks to me, as far as I could tell, that they just came in for a week in June and a week in July, and that doesn’t give you the big picture,” Hubbard said.
Turner said it’s likely that the EFSC process will require further biological evaluation of the site.
Solar power requires water
Thomas said she’s concerned that, beyond impacting local wildlife, the facility could put the area at a greater risk of fire damage, depending on the type of batteries used for energy storage. With scarce firefighting resources in Bonanza, she said that could spell serious problems for its residents.
There’s also the question of water: the proposed site includes a well that’s connected to the Langell Valley aquifer—the same one Bonanza residents use for their own domestic wells. The solar facility would use up to 11.5 million gallons for dust control and concrete production during construction and up to 1.65 million gallons to wash the panels annually.
It’s unclear whether all or any of that will come from the onsite well, but residents said their water supply would be negatively affected if it does.
Residents also said there are better places to put a solar array than on productive farmland. Tonya Pinckney, who lives near Hubbard and Thomas, said there are public lands further to the west near the proposed transmission line that would be more suitable for the project.
“A facility of this size does not belong on ag land,” Hubbard said. “There’s so many other options besides taking it out of rural America’s agriculture.”
Lengthy approval process
Hecate representatives couldn’t provide more specifics to address resident concerns beyond what was stated in the NOI, but they said the permitting process would allow both the company and local stakeholders to evaluate them in the future.
“The process is very complicated, long and intensive for a reason. There are lots of opportunities along the way for community input,” Chris Edmonds, spokesman for the Bonanza Energy Facility. “We’re committed to minimizing any impacts with this project and incorporating that stakeholder feedback along the way.”
Currently, interested parties have until November 30 to submit public comments on the NOI. After that, the Oregon Department of Energy will issue a Project Order to list the laws and ordinances the project will have to comply with. Hecate will then submit an official Application for a Site Certificate, which will incorporate how it intends to comply with those rules.
ODOE will hold a public information meeting following that submission to explain it to the public. Then the agency will issue a Draft Proposed Order, in which it evaluates the application.
A public hearing on the draft order (likely to occur in 2021) will allow members of the public to voice their concerns or questions about the project and ODOE’s evaluation of it.
That’s the last chance local residents have to bring up anything new to regulators. After that, the agency will review the draft Proposed Order and issue the next version.
Commentors who raised relevant issues at the public hearing will then participate in a contested case hearing, which ODOE will incorporate into the Final Order either approving or denying the Site Certificate Application.
Multiple Bonanza residents have testified at the last few Klamath County Commissioner meetings, urging county leaders to voice opposition to the project during EFSC proceedings. At an October 27 meeting, Commissioner Donnie Boyd responded to those public comments in agreement.
“I’m adamantly opposed to removing agricultural ground across the Basin,” he said. “I’m getting sick and tired of the state dictating to Klamath County and making us their asshole. We have stopped solar projects in the past. I don’t know if we can, but I’m wholly committed to helping you.”
