Dear Editor,
I attended the Sterling Energy Partners (A Denver Corp. owned in Part by Morgan Stanley energy Division) groundbreaking event at the Topock 66 Marina Wednesday, Oct. 7 and Golden Shores / Topock wasn’t invited (on purpose in my opinion because it’s five miles out of town). Supervisors Ron Gould and Don Martin, Assessor Jeanne Kentch, Leo Biasiucci Dist 30 and Jeremiah Dean from the Governor’s office were present.
Sterling has contracted the developer, Contour Energy, an Italian company from Milan, Italy. These folks will be getting the lion’s share of the profit. KKB & Company are the funding entities based out of New York.
This project was approved 16 years ago and everyone believed it was dead, but like a zombie it has crawled back to life. But nobody on the county or state level bothered to give our community the heads up. They totally ghosted our town. They’ve be dusting up the upper track where I live for months. My home faces this project, so I’ve been taking the brunt of it. On windy days, which we have many, the dust particulates in the air have caused many in our community to suffer from respiratory issues that did not exist before, and are convinced it is a result of the operations they have going on out in front of my home.
When completed it will be 6,600 feet from my front door. At the event they told everyone how 90 to 95% of the power has been contracted to Tesla and the small remaining goes to the grid (kind of like the Saudi Arabia alfalfa / La Paz county water where it’s all shipped out of the state). We will be dealing with 3.5 square miles of a silver parking lot on phase one that produces noise and light pollution. Within five to six years the toxic lithium batteries will fail and need to be replaced (where is that going?). We told Arizona Game & Fish and they were not aware of the project, which should be of concern since it is so close to Topock Marsh where the migratory birds pass through and might mistake the panels for water. Additionally, other desert species and wildlife will be impacted, not least of all the destruction of tortoise habitat, so they weren’t happy.
The regular media never asked what Golden Shores / Topock residents thought of this project – that is going to rape, pillage and plunder our county and town. They never put anything in our local newsletter Topock Topics, or came to our community center. We believe that nobody is looking out for us on the county or state level, or cares how this project will negatively affect our health, and basically our way of life, the beauty of the desert which they intend to destroy, and the lifestyle that we have come to love and moved here for.
John Lastelic
