Delta Tunnels Boondoggle
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Rss
Rage Against The Tunnels
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • Videos
  • Latest News
  • Reports
  • Letters
  • Editorials
  • About
  • Contact

Westside Toxic Soils to Be Used for Solar Farms

Posted on June 7, 2013 by SCWA in Recent News

LINK TO: Hanford Sentinel – May 31, 2013

Westside Toxic Soils to Be Used for Solar Farms instead of Polluting Water Supplies on Westside of the San Joaquin Valley

Giant solar facility proposed for Kings County

ARRAY WOULD GENERATE 2,400 MEGAWATTS OF ELECTRICITY IF FULLY BUILT

Proposed Solar Park

May 31, 2013 4:00 pm  •  By Seth Nidever

HANFORD — It’s a vast swath of flat ground in western Kings County, and if Westlands Water District and Visalia-based developer Westside Holdings LLC have their way, it will become the largest solar power plant in California.

Westlands Solar Park — 24,000 acres proposed at full buildout — would dwarf any other solar project proposed for Kings County. The next biggest is a 1,428-acre project west of Lemoore.

“It would be among the largest in the world,” said Bert Verrips, the environmental consultant preparing the environmental impact report on behalf of Westlands.

With the EIR still months away from completion, the concept is drawing support from an unlikely array of environmental groups and farming interests, according to Verrips.

The reason? It’s all about the soil.

The 24,000 acres in question is plagued by salty buildup and poor drainage, meaning it’s extremely difficult to farm. So difficult, in fact, that Westlands bought about 12,500 acres of it just to get it out of production and divert the irrigation water to higher-value soil.

“This is not prime agricultural land,” said Westlands spokeswoman Gayle Holman. “We want to see prime agricultural land used for the production of food and fiber for our nation.”

The remaining acreage in the proposed project area is being irrigated, but virtually every grower has already indicated their intention to sell because it’s so hard to farm there, Verrips said.

“Part of the purpose of the project is to retire more of that land,” he said.

It appears that the project is gaining support in the San Joaquin Valley agricultural community.

One of the benefits, according to Verrips, is that it concentrates solar development on land that is the least useful for growing crops, thereby taking away pressure to locate several smaller projects on good crop-growing ground.

The issue came to a head last year when Kings County changed its zoning ordinance to better protect high-quality farmland from the encroachment of solar projects.

“They have clearly shown that it isn’t productive farmland, that it’s not probable that it will ever be productive farmland,” said Diane Friend, Kings County Farm Bureau executive director. “We aren’t opposed to clean energy. That’s essentially what it can do for the area.”

The project would likely be built in several phases, adding about 200 megawatts of capacity per year. Each 200-megawatt unit generates about 350 jobs, Verrips said, giving the project the potential to create 4,200 jobs when fully completed.

PG&E would buy the power to meet the 33 percent renewable energy requirement by 2020. The electricity would go onto the grid just as it would for any power plant.

The panels would tilt throughout the day to face the sun, according to Verrips.

It’s likely that Westlands would sell its portion of the land to Westside Holdings LLC for solar development, though Holman cautioned that no contracts have been signed yet.

For now, though, the proposal is garnering a lot of support.

“Solar is a good use for land that is no longer prime land,” Holman said.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432 or snidever@hanfordsentinel.com.

http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/giant-solar-facility-proposed-for-kings-county/article_6fb2c050-ca0a-11e2-b4d5-001a4bcf887a.html

Search

In The News

  • Congressional Democrats demand resignation of Brown appointee

        Congressional Democrats demand resignation of Brown appointee April 25, 2013|By Anthony York SACRAMENTO — Five Congressional Democrats have...

    January 30, 2017
  • Farmers Try Political Force to Twist Open California’s Taps

    Few in agriculture have shaped the debate over water more than the several hundred owners of an arid finger of...

    January 28, 2017
  • Delta tunnels plan’s true price tag: As much as $67 billion

      By Paul Rogers  progers@mercurynews.com POSTED: 12/26/2013 05:16:14 AM PST | UPDATED: 20 DAYS AGO http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_24795356/delta-tunnels-plans-true-price-tag-much-67 For more than a...

    January 15, 2014
  • Delta water tunnel project needs $1.2 billion more for planning

        http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/07/5978184/delta-water-tunnel-project-needs.html By Matt Weiser mweiser@sacbee.com Published: Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013 – 12:00 am Last Modified: Saturday, Dec. 7,...

    January 15, 2014
  • California Presses On With Water Project

    Environmental and Cost Concerns Persist as Draft Analysis Lays Out $25 Billion Plan to Bypass and Restore Delta By JIM CARLTON...

    December 10, 2013
  • Legislative analyst says cost of delta tunnels could outweigh benefits

    The Legislative Analyst’s Office told a Senate panel Tuesday that the projected economic benefits of a $16 billion plan to...

    August 15, 2013
  • Calls for new storage ignore need for reforms of how we use water

    Without significant movement toward sensible and overdue reforms, taxpayers would be foolish to pour more money into the same kinds...

    June 20, 2013
  • Fracking fuels water fights in nation’s dry spots

    Fracking fuels water fights in nation’s dry spots By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The latest domestic...

    June 17, 2013
  • Westside Toxic Soils to Be Used for Solar Farms

    LINK TO: Hanford Sentinel – May 31, 2013 Westside Toxic Soils to Be Used for Solar Farms instead of Polluting...

    June 7, 2013
  • Congressional Democrats demand resignation of Brown appointee

    “The controversy surrounds Jerry Meral, deputy director of the state Natural Resources Agency, who allegedly told officials that Brown’s water...

    April 25, 2013
  • Agency obscures facts for twin tunnels project

    The California fishing community agrees with Bee Executive Editor Joyce Terhaar’s assessment that the Department of Water Resources has made...

    March 3, 2013
  • Delta pipes pitch less than perfect

    SF Chronicle “On California Water” opined, The governor needs to forget the flannel shirt and embrace a plan that keeps...

    February 19, 2013
  • Deaths of endangered fish curtail water exports-So Cal Activists Launch Campaign Against Tunnel Tax & Higher Water Rates

    LA Times reported State and federal water managers have reduced exports to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California after...

    February 13, 2013
  • MWD staff lives high on public’s dime

    This was MWD management seeking to reward itself and the agency’s rank-and-file employees while sending the bill to 19 million...

    February 11, 2013
  • MWD water agency debt for lifetime medical climbs to $545 million–Ratepayers Bilked

    Southern California’s largest water agency has accumulated an estimated $545 million in debt because of an uncommon retirement benefit it...

    February 1, 2013
  • A Better Idea, and Billions Cheaper

    A Better Idea, and Billions Cheaper But the concept of importing less and developing more local supplies is compelling..And more...

    January 20, 2013
  • Groundwater Basins – Our Earthquake Emergency Reservoirs Not Risky Tunnels

    We live with earthquakes. Relying on imported water does not make us more secure. Common sense and science tells us...

    January 20, 2013
  • Spending $14 billion to squeeze more water from a shrinking system is a gamble.

    Spending $14 billion to squeeze more water from a shrinking system is a gamble. Most importantly, this strategy is enormously...

    January 15, 2013
  • Governor’s delta plan is a big mistake: The State Needs to Reduce Water Exports from the Delta, Not Replumb it for More

    A combative Gov. Jerry Brown has announced his plan to dig two huge tunnels underneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta...

    January 9, 2013
  • A cautionary outlook for the water supply picture for the next half-century

    “The Study is noteworthy for its candid assessment of the possible impacts on water supply brought about by climate change...

    December 18, 2012

SCWA Letters

• The Environmental Assessment for Westlands Water District

• Community Groups Ask Senators 7 Questions—Policy Before Plumbing

• 37 Concerned Organizations Urge 2nd Look At Expensive Damaging Tunnels Project

• 39 Community Groups ask the Secretary of Interior for blueprints and operations plan before approval of the $20 to $50 billion giant water tunnels diversion project.

• Inflated promises of water

• Water Solutions Creating 1 MAF of Water Now—Congresswoman Napolitano

• Groups Seek SEC Investigation of Debt Issued

Broadcast News

• Highlights from PBS News Hour Broadcast –Plumbing Before Policy

• Metropolitan Water District spending questioned as water bills double

• Over Troubled Waters

• SoCal pays 75% of the cost might get 25% of benefits

• “Last Call at the Oasis”

• LADWP to increase rates 11 percent over 2 years as report reveals high employee salaries

• Listen to our Videos

Report Archives

• Westlands Avoid Paying Taxpayers Back for more than 50 years

• BigDumpConcretePipes Draft

• BigDumpConcretePipes U.S. Scientist Criticism

• Fiscal Games & Financial Shenanigans Can’t Hide True Ratepayer Costs of the Twin Tunnels Boondoggle

• Benefit – Cost Analysis of Delta Water Conveyance Tunnels Needed

• City of Los Angeles Sources of Water Supply

Join Us
Get More Info
Southern California Watershed Alliance © 2013