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Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Environmentalists try to block Yucca water rights request (4-13-2009)
- Amargosa toad protection sought in lawsuit (3-11-2009)
- Protection sought for Amargosa Toad (2-26-2008)
Beyond the Sun
First came the fish, now it’s the toads.
The obstacles thrown at solar developers in Nevada these days are practically biblical.
As solar companies’ applications for leases on federal lands finally move into the environmental review stages, developers are seeing a new potential snag: federally protected species.
But it’s not the obvious ones — not desert tortoises, not the Las Vegas Buckwheat. Solar developers hoping to build plants in the Amargosa Valley are facing potential troubles from the likes of the Devil’s Hole pupfish and the Amargosa toad.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it is examining whether a rare toad that lives only in the springs near Beatty should be listed as a threatened or endangered species.
The Amargosa amphibian in question lives only in a 10-mile stretch of river and wetlands in the Oasis Valley between Beatty and Springdale. It has been classified as a protected species by Nevada since 1998 and has been closely watched by federal authorities since the late 1970s.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility were concerned that not enough was being done to formally protect the toad and in February 2008 filed a petition with Fish and Wildlife seeking federal protection for the species.
These groups claim the toad’s habitat is threatened by planned development, increased ground water pumping and other activity by new residents as well as new stresses on the water table from several utility-scale solar developments planned in nearby Amargosa Valley.
The toad needs stable wetlands that support both mating and insect hunting. The solar developers need water to clean, and in some cases cool, their electric plants.
The state engineer in 1998 declared that more water rights had been allocated in the Oasis Valley than actually existed. Conservationists and locals contend the aquifer under the Oasis Valley is connected to those in other valleys along the western part of the state, so any major water extraction in one valley would affect springs in the other.
The impact of thousands of acres of solar arrays could be huge, said Rob Mrowka, an ecologist and conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the organizations that petitions Fish and Wildlife to analyze the threat to the toad.
The level of trouble these endangered or sensitive species could cause for solar developers depends largely on the amount of water the solar plants want to take from the area. A solar photovoltaic plant needs only enough water to wash the panels a few times a year and run water in the plant’s lavatory, the solar industry says. But a single water-cooled solarthermal plant could consume up to 2,000 acre-feet of water a year — enough to support more than 4,000 average Las Vegas homes.
Numerous solar plants of all types are planned for the Amargosa Valley area, but so far the only one that has begun the environmental review process with the Bureau of Land Management is Solar Millennium’s. The plant was proposed with water cooling technology in mind, but the company is also open to using air cooling technology if water resources are a problem, said Jason Higgins, project director for the plant.
“The biological surveys are being analyzed now,” he said. “There are several species of concern up there and those impacts are being analyzed. Any findings will come out in the draft environmental impact statement sometime around January.”
Because of the state protection, the potential impact on the toad by this plant or the cumulative impact of several plants must be considered in the projects’ environmental review. The BLM will ensure any potential impacts on the toad or other sensitive species that depend on the ground water, such as the pupfish, will be analyzed in the environmental review.
This is why nothing will EVER get done to make us energy independent.
If not the Toad, the Fish. If not the Flower, the insect. If not the Birds, the view.
We have untapped resources in plentiful and accessible areas that we will never be able to touch because of politics and special interests.
NIMBY rules! Terrible policies only satisfy fringe elements and hurt the remainder of the electorate.
Buh..Bye solar power plants..... LOL
The enviro terrorist attack from within. They are opposed to any development of any kind. They either get something blocked or get bought off with funds to protect something else. With all the funds flowing through their group.
It's time to take this country back. It's time to dump these idiots and their stooges from power. Start with harry Reid.
If you still believe we are cooking the earth, take a minute and read this from our own NAOO about this year.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009...
Great news! Get rid of those poorly planned solar plants!
The Las Vegas Sun seems to be kind of dissapointed that people are concerned about the environment over a poorly planned green economy. You guys are like the Fox News of envirnomental reporting. Try not to hate nature so much, Sun!
"But a single water-cooled solarthermal plant could consume up to 2,000 acre-feet of water a year ..."
The reporting these days is amazingly bad. When I last read the plan of development for Solar Millenium's solar thermal plant in Amargosa Valley, it read they need 4,000 acre-feet of water per year for wet-cooling.
Are we going to ignore our valuable desert waters?
If the Sun was actually following the story on the toad it would know that solar is not even the biggest threat facing it. There was a proposal to plough up 5,000 acres of valley wetland and adjacent habitat near Beatty for housing in a BLM land transfer (something that has broken Vegas-Summerlin, I note, in foreclosures from too many houses and not enough buyers with actual money).
What a shame this issue has been dummied down for politics.
How many empty rooftops are there here in town? I sure would be willing to lease mine to NV energy for a reduced rate. No new transmission lines needed, no power loss to cover the distance to the population. Instead of thinking inside the box, how about a little uncommon sense?
Note to readers: The story states that a "single" solar thermal power plant could use 2,000 acre feet of water.
Solar Millennium has two solar thermal plants planned in a single project in Amargosa, hence the 4,000 acre feet estimate in the previous story for that specific project.
Should we sacrafice the toad, a million or so years in development, for our short term needs? Well, we are bigger, and smarter, and have control, so I guess we get to decide.
Smarter? I dunno. Until we get serious about catching the sun on our roofs instead of sacraficing ancient but helpless creatures, well... I don't see a lot of cleverness in scraping the desert clean and using up its water. It may be quicker, but is it smarter? I want to think about this for a while.
I have a company coming out to my house to do a price survey for a hoped for solar roof installation. I wonder if I will be denied because the pigeons that crap on my roof might be endangered if they can't use it. Pitiful...
A few more years of global warming and your "tiny toad" will die a dreadful death and dry out ... btw. the same will a little later then happen to us if we do not start to turn this ship around and go into the right direction !
WITH SOLAR POWER PLANTS !
Unleash the Solar Millennium, be part of it and help ...
Pull up your sleves and build a sea water pipeline and those power plants will in the next generation even do sea water desalination and your desert will become a green paredise ...
Your grand children will thank you for that !!!
in reply to "EnergyRevolution" post 9/14: making the argument not to bulldoze the entire desert because global warming will destroy it anyway is either 1) suggests you are invested financially in corporate develop of public lands, or 2), that you're sadly naive. Assuming the later, let me make a few points that might bring some light to your confusion. First, it makes no sense to destroy the SW deserts, one of the last intact ecosystems remaining on the planet, while at the same time claiming you're saving the planet in doing so. Second, if we are to destroy what is left of our natural systems on the planet, let it be as a last option, not a first option. Rooftops, vacant lots, degraded ag lands, highway medium, mall parking lots, even more degraded private lands, are all viable options supported even by many in the solar industry. We can have green energy technology, and actually apply it in a green way, so that it's green. The solar land rush is nothing more than decentralized control of sun and public lands that belong to all of us by the largest corporations greed. There's no "d" in green. The Obama administration should be embarrassed for needlessly launching the greatest public lands rape in U.S. history.