KINGMAN – It’s been happening for decades and continues. Like gophers over the prairie, economic development project proposals keep popping up over the Hualapai Valley Groundwater Basin, an aquifer that many consider to be endangered, and one that most of the Kingman area population relies upon.
While the Mohave County Board of Supervisors voted Aug. 5 to officially oppose a hydroelectric generating facility proposed at Red Lake north of Kingman, a hydrogen project of some kind is also bubbling over the basin.
Word reaching newsrooms that a proposed hydrogen project involving some 50 sections of land over the Hualapai Valley Groundwater Basin had been lodged with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) prompted an inquiry response from the agency.
“The Bureau of Land Management received a right-of-way application from Hy Stor Energy LP on March 21, 2024 for proposed development of a clean energy production and green hydrogen storage project on BLM land within the jurisdiction of the Kingman Field Office,” BLM Public Affairs Specialist Jason VanBuskirk said on July 31.
“The BLM is reviewing the application for completeness and adequacy. If the application is accepted, the BLM will then begin its analysis of the project, initiate the public involvement process and determine the level of NEPA required,” VanBuskirk said.
Public Relations executive Nathalia Cruz Ortiz quickly processed a request for more information about the project, but was unable to provide any details after she forwarded the matter to company officials. Her response answered no questions.
“Thank you for your patience and your interest in Hy Stor Energy,” Ortiz said, in an Aug. 8 email. “After sharing your request with the client, we were informed that there are no updates at this time.”
Kingman City Manager Tim Walsh is among others interested in project details, and worried about potential water consumption.
“For our aquifer that is already strained we do not want to introduce any more high intensity water usages within the Hualapai aquifer, so definitely we want to know more about it,” Walsh said. “It just shows how vigilant we have to be to keep an eye on all of these things.”
Local State Representative John Gillette expressed his concern about Hualapai Basin raids during the Aug. 5 Board of Supervisors meeting.
“We see all these entities moving towards the basin with all of these (multi) million-dollar projects. They have attorneys too. They’ve done their research and they’ve found there is a way into the basin,” Gillette said.
He noted that various legislative remedy attempts have failed and said that the agriculture checking Irrigation Non-expansion Area (INA) designation tool does not sufficiently protect the aquifer from depletion.
“The INA does have some good points, but it is not the tool we need,” Gillette said. “We must close the basin, especially to foreign entities.”
Dave Hawkins
