KINGMAN – Proposed development of a hydroelectric power generation facility over the Hualapai Valley Ground Water Basin at Red Lake north of Kingman was again addressed at the Aug. 1 meeting of the Mohave County Public Lands and Recreation Advisory Commission.
Development Services Director Scott Holtry told members that county staff has gathered some additional information regarding the Gravity Storage, LLC project since the topic was addressed at the Commission’s first meeting last month.
“We did learn that the water source they are proposing would come out of the Hualapai Basin. That being said, this is a project that Mohave County would not be able to support,” Holtry said. “It’s going to be taking from an already at-risk aquifer. We also have concerns about wildlife and the footprint of the development.”
Public Works Director Steve Latoski said it appears Gravity Storage would first suck more than 40,000-acre feet of water out of the basin just to fill two large reservoirs, one elevated above the other. The concept allows power generation through the release of water from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir, subsequently pumping the water back to recharge the upper reservoir to repeat the cycle.
Latoski said the company plans to line both reservoirs, though seepage may occur. The greater concern, he said, involves naturally occurring water loss from both bodies of water.
“The potential evaporation that would come from those two reservoirs could be upwards of 15,000 acre-feet a year,” Latoski said. “That 15,000-acre figure is almost double what the City of Kingman uses on an annual basis.”
Commission member David Diaz offered additional community consumption perspective, juxtaposed against the unofficial county estimate of annual evaporative loss. He noted Lake Havasu City purchases 14,000 acre-feet per year to serve a population of 61,000.
Diaz and Holtry both noted concern that the company would likely sell its power to California or elsewhere, resulting in the harvesting of local groundwater to generate power while exporting the resource. It was noted that the proposed project would generate an estimated 3,000 megawatts of electricity, as compared with the 2,000 megawatts of hydroelectric energy produced at Hoover Dam.
Gravity Storage, LLC Projects Director Dave Drips did not respond to email and telephone media invitation to provide information and clarity. Holtry, however, said Drips has accommodated county inquiry.
Holtry and Latoski said there are indications that project representatives might meet with county officials sometime this month. Commissioner Caroline Strecker said that should be an open session.
“The public would want to be involved and to hear who they are and what they are and what their goal is for the project, and how it would be beneficial to Mohave County,” Strecker said.
Holtry said staff has drafted a letter formally opposing the project that the Board of Supervisors will consider next week. That document is subject to discussion, modification and possible action during the board meeting that begins at 9:30 a.m. Monday, at the Administration Building at 700 W. Beale St. in Kingman.
The letter would clarify the official Mohave County position as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considers the company request to conduct a project feasibility study.
Dave Hawkins
