Vote is split on proposed hydroelectric power plant

Thursday, May 17, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.

The Clark County Commission evenly split Wednesday over the fate of a proposed hydroelectric power station in the hills above the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Commission members said they need more information before they decide the fate of the controversial 400-megawatt plant, which could provide enough power for about 200,000 homes during summer months.

Blue Diamond Power Partners officials said they have most of the necessary federal and state approvals, but can't go forward without the county's OK.

The plant, more than a decade in the making, would act like a giant, watery battery. It would use power during low-use periods to pump water into a higher reservoir, then run the water back down through generators during peak use periods.

The partners, which include a St. George, Utah, engineering company and Japan's industrial giant Mitsubishi Corp., already received support from the Red Rock Citizens Advisory Council, the Clark County planning staff and the county Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission approval could have been the last step for permits on the local level, but the Southern Nevada arm of the Sierra Club appealed the board's OK. That automatically sent it to the full Clark County Commission for a decision.

After a motion to deny the application by Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates failed by a 3-3 vote, the commissioners voted to hold it until June 6.

Commissioners Chip Maxfield and Bruce Woodbury voted with Gates to deny the land-use application. Commissioners Myrna Williams, Mary Kincaid and Chairman Dario Herrera voted to support the application. Commissioner Erin Kenny left the meeting shortly before the issue came up.

Gates said she is concerned with the impact on the Red Rock Canyon area, one of the area's most scenic, closest and most visited natural attractions.

"We owe it to the future of our children and our community as a whole to preserve and protect Red Rock," she said.

Support among the commissioners came because of escalating concerns about the reliability of power in Nevada, especially during Las Vegas' sweaty summer months.

Williams said she has concerns about whether the power produced at the plant would stay in Nevada. Environmentalists charge that the plant would sacrifice Red Rock Canyon to satisfy Californian's hunger for electricity and the partners' search for profits.

"It is not going to benefit the community," Gates said, echoing concerns expressed by environmentalists.

Bohdan "Bo" Buchynsky, project director, said after the meeting that while it would be technically feasible to sell the plant's power outside Southern Nevada, the first and foremost consumers would be in the Las Vegas Valley for technical reasons.

At least one other issue remains to be resolved. Language in a 1994 federal law on Red Rock Canyon says the companies had until 1999 to get all needed government clearances, or the land becomes part of the Red Rock conservation area.

"The window of opportunity on this project has long since passed," Katherine Peck, a local land-use attorney representing the Sierra Club and other plant opponents, said.

But Ed Garcia, attorney for Blue Diamond Power Partners, said the federal law only applies to approval by federal agencies, which the partners have.