El Dorado power project moves forward

Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 10:37 a.m.

The building of a $185 million natural gas-fired power plant near Boulder City is scheduled to get underway in March, says project manager David Greeson of Houston.

Plans are moving forward in spite of attempts by opponents of the El Dorado Energy project to get it stopped before ground is broken for the non-public utility company. The plant will be the first in the nation to sell power wholesale without long-term utility contracts, according to Boulder City City Manager John Sullard.

Kiewit Industrial Co. of Omaha, Neb., has the engineering contract for the project, which officials say should be completed in late 1999.

A failed lawsuit, that last year attempted to get an injunction against the project and to put it to a vote of the people, was appealed and is now with the Nevada Supreme Court.

A settlement hearing, ordered by the court, has been scheduled for Jan. 13, according to attorney Hamilton D. Moore.

Moore represents a group of residents that he said collected about 1,500 signatures on a petition opposing the building of the 475-megawatt plant about 15 miles southwest of Boulder City in El Dorado Valley.

Boulder City has about 12,000 residents.

"We do not want a power plant in our town," Moore said.

Moore said Tuesday's settlement hearing will decide the issue of "whether the voters should be disenfranchised or whether they should be given the right to vote" on a power plant in their area.

Moore is demanding that Boulder City city attorney Bill Andrews correct false statements he made May 14 in a written response opposing the petition to stop the power project and in verbal statements made before a state Ethics Commission hearing in November.

At that hearing, the commission ruled that former City Councilwoman Iris Bletsch committed a breech of ethics last April when she voted with other council members to approve the power project but without revealing she owned 100 shares of Enova Corp., which at the time was partners with Houston Industries Inc. in the project.

Bletsch did tell the council she owned shares, but at the time she wasn't sure how many.

Andrews said Bletsch never actually bought shares of Enova. She owned shares of a Southern Californian electric company which merged with Enova, which resulted in her receiving the stock.

The ethics panel refused to fine Bletsch, who did not run for re-election last year.

The same panel ruled that there was no conflict of interest for Councilman Robert Ferraro to vote for the project when his son, Greg, is employed as a public relations person for R & R Advertising, which has the El Dorado account.

Greg Ferraro works in the company's Reno office and does not work with El Dorado.

Andrews said he is somewhat confused by many of Moore's statements and demands.

He said the ethics panel refused to fine Bletsch, a former mayor and longtime member of the City Council, because her violation was a technical one and not intended to deceive anyone.

According to Andrews, the Ethics Commission said there was no reason for Bletsch to abstain from voting on the power plant.

Moore used the Ethics Commission finding in the Bletsch case as an example of a "campaign of misinformation and lies" by those pushing for the power plant.

He said if the truth were spoken in court "we would get a reasonable ruling."

Andrews noted that Moore has lost every court action since he began fighting the power plant.

When Moore filed a writ seeking a vote of the people, according to Andrews, the city had already signed contracts and was committed to the project.

Andrews said the writ asked that the referendum be placed on a June ballot, but by the time the writ was filed, absentee voters already had begun sending in their ballots.

He said Moore claimed opponents had not been given enough time to bring the issue to a vote of the people.

Andrews said that was not true.

"The city had had public meetings, several meetings," Andrews said.

He said Moore could have gotten an injunction stopping the project if he had asked for one before the agreement had been signed between the city and the El Dorado property owners.

Andrews called Moore's suits frivolous and has asked that the city's attorney's fees be paid by those filing the so-called legal actions.

He said the judge declined to grant attorney's fees.

The Boulder City city manager declined to comment on the status of the lawsuit.

"From the city's stand point the project is a definite go," Sullard said.

The city will make money from leasing land to El Dorado and, Sullard said, if the company does well then the city will share in some of the profits.