Chaffee County GeothermalTHIS is Colorado!

Hello, fellow Internet explorers! Welcome to the world of the politics of water, property rights and the value of your piece of the Valley, the beauty of our County and peregrine falcons. In all seriousness these items will all make timely appearances, but the intent of this web site is quite simple: Give the people of Chaffee County a straightforward way to understand how the proposed geothermal energy development can both help and hurt us all.

Why YOU need to look at this site

To be perfectly clear, we believe geothermal energy, done correctly, is a truly superior form of renewable energy. But as we see the situation today, Geothermal development at the base of the Chalk Cliffs carries much higher costs to us than you may think.

Please note that the website address is not “Nathrop-geothermal.com”. Those looking to exploit the possible geothermal resource in the Nathrop area have repeatedly stated their interest in Poncha Springs and Cottonwood Springs as well. This is a county-wide issue.

Why YOU need to act

This site is for education and action. After listening to so much “he said/she said” it’s time for anyone who truly cares about renewable energy, owns property, values the beauty of this valley or thinks that water is truly our most precious natural resource to become more knowledgeable.

Without knowledge, real knowledge, you may have a right to your opinion; it just won’t be worth taking the time to listen to it. But this is as good a point as any to make our position absolutely clear. We believe that the BLM (Bureau of Land Management, under the Department of the Interior) should have never included this lease in the class of leases designated as “open for mineral leasing.”

The process of determining whether a lease should be open or closed to mining operations is based on a study called a PEIS (Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement). Given a proper evaluation (with further research on our part still left to do) and other important considerations, this ground should remain used as it is now; carefully, for recreation and with its unique beauty preserved. If you agree after getting more familiar with the damaging effects this development would cause, PLEASE WRITE OR EMAIL THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR, YOUR SENATOR, YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND CERTAINLY THE BLM TO STOP ALL ATTEMPTS TO AUCTION THIS LEASE. We believe a thorough review of the PEIS as it now stands will accomplish just that.

You can download the final PEIS here.

TIME IS RAPIDLY RUNNING OUT FOR THIS AREA TO PROTECT ITSELF.

The results of the efforts of the residents of this county may very well help prevent a similar problem from sneaking up on other communities.

How to Use this Site

With all that being said, this site is divided into five main sections (and the last for some relief). Each section has active links you can click on to get you where you need to go.  This site provides easy access to critical information that otherwise would be lost in the digital wilderness (saving you a lot of timely downloading). An attempt has been made to order things inside each section in a sensible fashion that will be easy for you to navigate in any way you see fit.

SPLIT-ESTATE LAW

This section will address an issue that affects perhaps a third of all County residents in ways they may have never dreamed possible. It’s not as tough a topic as it sounds, but it IS of huge importance. Just remember that there are two land “estates” in a real-estate parcel – the surface estate and the mineral estate – and that they may be owned by different people. Also, it’s imperative to remember that the mineral estate is far superior to the surface estate in ways that are hard to believe. Split-estate issues were “blamed” by the BLM for the delay of the Nov. 12th geothermal auction. It’s that important.

COLORADO WATER LAW

This section attempts to introduce you to State water law. This is truly a tough subject to handle but it’s so important that we decided to make a stab at it. With any luck you’ll at least get a sense of what’s at issue with water, especially as it applies to the proposed geothermal project. Experts like Kevin Rein in the Division of Water Resources have excellent online work that is most helpful.

GENERATING GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

There are perhaps three main ways to generate geothermal electric power. You don’t need to become a geothermal engineer to get some useful information here, but you do need to have some idea of the process being proposed for Chaffee County – low temperature binary production. That will enable you to ask important questions of our public officials and the developer, whoever that may end up being – at this point the obvious contendor would be Mt. Princeton Geothermal, LLC.

ENERGY AND POLITICS

A very important look at the BLM, the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO), Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC and other players in this process. Trying to understand what has happened since some time in 2007 and the interwoven relationship between these entities must be given a hard look – it’s your money, your County and its your future at risk. Some of our editorial comment may seem harsh, but we will provide supporting, verifiable data to back it up. We invite you to provide any additional useful insights that can be verified. YOU MUST READ THIS AS WELL AS THE SPLIT-ESTATE CATEGORY TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL TROUBLE WE’RE HEADING FOR AND HOW IT SEEMS WE GOT HERE.

TAKE ACTION!

We’ve collected useful contact information so that you can act on your educated understanding of what’s happening. IT’S HAPPENING QUICKLY!! We have attempted to indicate what comments or questions or requests for action are appropriate for the various contacts. Without action, knowledge is of little or no value. Just talking with your neighbors and leading them to this site is helpful; large email forwarding lists that grow are powerful tools in getting information out. In this context, a well-known monster had this to say:

“How fortunate for governments that the people they govern don’t think.”
– Adolph Hitler

USEFUL FILES

Here you will find a map of the actual BLM lease, pictures of what this facility would REALLY look like and a comic strip for a bit of levity. We will also provide you with clickable links to other documents you will want to examine, such as the lease sale document, as well as larger document files that you can access without needing to spend time downloading large documents. You’ll certainly want to print one or two items for making sense of some of the other topics mentioned elsewhere in this web site. Be sure to drop in to this area!

THE FALCON

A beautiful picture of a peregrine falcon. Why, you might ask? It, unfortunately, fits in with the delayed but soon to-be-rescheduled geothermal lease sale of Nov. 12th. The only thing in the lease that truly was offered was real protection of falcon’s nest in the cliffs. If only the home and land owners, not to mention the water and the aesthetics, of this valley had been given the same level of protection!