Less than a year after backers of a proposed wind turbine farm near Searchlight threw in the towel after failing to convince a federal judge their Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was accurate, an even bigger project just 10 miles to the west has started the environmental review process.
A week ago a notice was published in the Federal Register by the Bureau of Land Management initiating a 90-day public comment period for the proposed Crescent Peak Renewables wind farm that would occupy more than 32,000 acres of public land on the California-Nevada border adjacent to the Mojave National Preserve and the Castle Mountain National Monument in California and the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness in Nevada. All of the wind farm land is in Nevada.
According to a 2012 filing with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, the wind farm would have 220 wind turbine towers standing more than 400 feet high and generating 500 megawatts of power. By comparison, the rejected Searchlight wind farm would have had only 87 turbines on 9,000 acres of federal land, generating 200 megawatts of power.
A federal judge ordered the Searchlight wind farm developers to start all over again on an environmental assessment, noting that the Interior Department’s approval of the project failed to adequately address concerns about impacts on bald eagles, golden eagles, desert tortoises and migrating bats. The judge pointed out the initial data used by the BLM found there were only three golden eagle nests within 10 miles of the proposed turbines. Subsequent surveys actually found 19 probable or confirmed golden eagle nests within five miles of the site, the judge wrote.
Instead, the developers shut down the project.
“Due to the size and potential impacts of the Crescent Peak wind project, the BLM is preparing an EIS,” the Federal Register notice states. “The purpose of the public scoping process is to identify relevant issues that will influence the scope of the environmental analysis, including alternatives, and to guide the process for developing the potential Plan Amendment. The BLM has identified the following preliminary issues: biological resources, visual resources, cultural resources, tribal interests, recreation, and cumulative impacts.”
Wind farms create a number of problems, besides being ugly and noisy and undependable.
A 2009 study by Fish and Wildlife estimated wind turbines kill 440,000 birds annually, including scores of bald and golden eagles. Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in California alone kills about 75 eagles a year.
Studies have found that because intermittent wind power must be backed up by idling fossil fuel power plants, more greenhouse gases are emitted, not less. When the Spring Valley wind farm near Ely first opened, it produced power less than 19 percent of the time.
Also, the increased cost of power kills more jobs than are created.
But the one aspect we find most egregious is the fact the federal public land is practically given away to wind farm developers. No price tag has yet been put on the Crescent Peak project land, but the abandoned Searchlight land was slated to be handed over for a pathetically paltry sum of $118 per acre. And they have the nerve to call those who graze livestock on federal public land welfare ranchers. If the public owns the land it should get a fair market price for it, but without that and the ample subsidies, wind farms don’t pencil out.
Since the project is located on the California border and next to a major transmission line, the power generated there, if ever, is likely to flow into California to slake its legislatively mandated renewable energy portfolio of 50 percent renewables by 2030. All Nevada will get is the bird chopping eyesore.
The deadline for commenting on the proposed Crescent Peak wind farm is June 13.
Comments may be submitted via email to blm_nv_sndo_crescentpeak@blm.gov; via fax to (702) 515-5155, attention Gayle Marrs-Smith; or via mail to BLM, Las Vegas Field Office, Attention: Gayle Marrs-Smith, 4701 North Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89130-2301.
Let your voices be heard. — TM
Dr. Donald Allen Deever says
Looming Asbestos-related Health Disaster in Las Vegas May Occur as a Result of the Extremely Misguided Crescent Peak Wind Project
Hello Sparks Tribune,
The following very newsworthy item concerns a major public health disaster that everyone seems to have completely ignored. The clip below comes from my official public comments that I submitted to the Las Vegas BLM office after the contentious Searchlight scoping meeting dealing with the Crescent Peak Wind Project. If you have any questions, please feel fee to contact me.
All the very best,
Dr. Donald Allen Deever
DR. DEEVER’S PUBLIC COMMENT #49 of 50 TO THE BLM:
Concerning the Soon-coming Disaster Known as the Crescent Peak Wind Project
June 13, 2018
If one were to ask the average citizen of this country, “What was the greatest environmental human health disaster ever to occur in the United States?” Most people would immediately answer either, “Three Mile Island” or “Love Canal.” The reality is that the most harmful environmental disaster to ever effect a sizable amount of human lives was the asbestosis poisoning of Libby, Montana (specifically, the largest incident of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history). That manmade vermiculite mining event, resulted in rates of fatal asbestosis that were 40 to 80 times greater than the national average and killed 10% of the town’s population. If this industrial wind turbine project is allowed to take place anywhere near the proposed construction areas, as supported by the BLM, Southern Clark County may be soon destined to surpass the health disaster of Libby, Montana. While in Libby, the mine owners were eventually acquitted of complicity and cover-up charges, this won’t be the case with Eolus Vind AB or the BLM, since they will have knowingly produced a very preventable health disaster by purposely disturbing asbestos laden soils for the Crescent Peak Wind project despite the dire geologic reports of the health cost of doing so.
Published research by Professor Brenda J. Buck of the UNLV Department of Geoscience revealed, “We found naturally occurring fibrous actinolite, a regulated amphibole asbestos mineral, in rock, soil, and dust that can be transported by wind, water, cars, or on clothing after outdoor recreational activities. Sources of these fibrous amphiboles are several plutons in southern Nevada and Arizona and alluvial fans emanating from asbestos-containing bedrock. The morphology of the amphibole fibers is similar to amphibole fibers found in the USEPA Superfund site at Libby, MT… Because large populations in Boulder City, Henderson, and Las Vegas are located only a few kilometers, sometimes even only a few tens of meters, downwind from the sources, and because most of the particles are transported in suspension after they are emitted, potentially large populations in Boulder City, Henderson, and perhaps Las Vegas could be exposed. This study demonstrates a potential public health risk to several large population areas… Electron microprobe analysis of fibrous amphiboles (111 analyses) in rocks from Boulder City and the McCullough Range identified these amphiboles primarily as actinolite (85%), one of the six regulated asbestos minerals… In addition, the wind regime in the area is bimodal (Fig. 11), with strong south and southwest winds in spring and summer and primarily northeast winds in autumn and winter… Southeast winds are less common but do occur. Therefore, especially in the spring, the populations of eastern Henderson and eastern Las Vegas are located within only a few hundred meters to a few kilometers downwind from the emission sources. Given the mineralogy and morphology of these fibers, it is imperative that this problem be further studied in southern Nevada. In Libby, MT, exposure to fibrous amphiboles has resulted in asbestos-related-disease mortality rates 40 to 80 times higher than other areas in Montana and the United States… our data indicate a potential public health threat in southern Nevada. Any potential future land-use projects should carefully determine the risks to both workers and the regional populations because disturbances to these natural desert surfaces cause increased dust emissions. There is a compelling need for epidemiology studies, additional geologic and mineral studies, and significantly more research on their location, emission, airborne concentration, and pathways of human exposure.”
According to a USGS publication, “…researchers estimated that fibrous amphibole minerals could be present in the soil or bedrock covering at least 214 square kilometers around the McCullough Range, Black Hill, and in and around the towns of Boulder City and Henderson, Nevada.”
The Crescent Peak Wind Project sits squarely in the region of those 214 square kilometers. The Soil Science Society of America Journal published a study that reported the results of asbestos in 43 soil samples taken in the aforementioned areas. According to that study, “All 43 samples, including rock, soil, dust, car tire, and clothing, contained fibrous amphiboles. The original sources of these fibrous amphiboles are the Miocene plutons in the McCullough Range, Black Hill, and Boulder City areas.” That is more than scary news!
One can only imagine the billions of dollars in successful lawsuits against the BLM and Crescent Peak Renewables LLC and their parent company Eolus Vind AB, as well as against other associates of their horrendous project. There is a very good chance that every potential human victim of their project in Las Vegas and Henderson could successfully file suit for damages and suit for potential damages in case there is any increase in asbestos related diseases such as mesothelioma in those areas. If such events should come to pass, there is no doubt that billions of dollars will be court mandated to be put in a trust for future victims of the asbestos-tainted soils that were disturbed by members of the misguided Crescent Peak Wind project. Considering that the combined populations of Las Vegas and Henderson are estimated to be approximately 926,000 (and that is not even counting the populations of Primm Valley, Jean, Goodsprings, Sloan, Searchlight, and Cal-Nev-Ari.) With nearly a million potential victims, the amount of monies in punitive judgments and criminal damages is likely to be astronomical. Atop the legal fees will also be massive fees for cleanup. For instance, in the case of Libby, Montana, the asbestos poisoning prompted the EPA to declare their first ever public health disaster, and the costs for government cleanup afterward totaled well over a half billion dollars. Considering the high cost of cleanup where the population was only 2,628 people, the cost for cleanup in the Las Vegas valley and surrounding areas, where the population is around a million people, could potentially be 500 times higher or close to 250 billion dollars! Moreover, according to a CDC report discussed on asbestos.com, Nevada already ranks #36 in malignant mesothelioma and asbestosis diseases when compared to the other 50 states, and a concentration of those life-threatening and debilitating diseases occur in Las Vegas, Henderson, and Reno. At that rate, it wouldn’t take much more exposure to asbestos to plunge southern Clark County into the record books of becoming the worst U.S. toxic substance exposure disaster of all time.
What the above information means is that while the BLM wishes to allow the Crescent Peak Wind project to proceed forward in order to generate income for their bureaucracy from leasing the land, any of the handful of millions of dollars they might earn through land leasing will be radically dwarfed by the billions of dollars it will cost them in lawsuits and cleanup fees. If that happens under the present economy-minded administration, a lot of bureaucratic heads that supported the Crescent Peak Wind Project will surely roll.
NOTE: The public comment made above, which was sent to the BLM, represents only comment #49 out of 50 topics of opposition, which were submitted in a 43-page document. If you wish to see the entire document (showing all the major arguments), simply let me know and I will email it to your office without delay.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
The Scholarly Journal Article that First Revealed the Extensive Danger:
https://go.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/50/Sciences-AsbestosResearch-SSAJ-77-6-2192.pdf
News Report about the CDC vs Clark County Over this Issue:
https://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/i-team-cdc-did-not-agree-with-states-position-on-asbestos/276085437
Scientific Evidence of Higher Mesothelioma Rates in S. Nevada:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1556086415323832
or
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4406807/
Journal of Thoracic Oncology Concerning the Issue:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4406807/pdf/nihms661257.pdf
Consumer Publication Reiterating Important Portions of the Original Scholarly Article
https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/asbestos-found-nevada-and-arizona-roadblock-and-potential-health-hazard
Dr. Donald Allen Deever
deeverd@unlv.nevada.edu
P.O. Box 8
Searchlight, NV 89046
(702) 375-6929