LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. (KNX) — A controversial $2 billion hydroelectric plant near Lake Elsinore in Riverside County has been shelved after the developer failed to provide environmental impact studies and a construction plan to federal regulators.
Nevada Hydro Co. of San Diego County proposed erecting a 200-foot dam above the lake along with a 500-megawatt subterranean power plant and turbines on 845 acres of federally-administered woodland. The dam would have pumped water from the plant to a man-made reservoir when demand for power was low, with water recycled back into the lake when demand was high. Combined, the project would be known as the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pump Storage Projects, or LEAPS.
The city of Lake Elsinore, Riverside County officials, environmentalists, and local residents (including the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) expressed vocal opposition to LEAPS.
Anti-LEAPS advocates got their wish when the director of hydropower licensing for the U.S. Federal Regulatory Committee sent a issued a Dec. 9 letter discontinuing Nevada Hydro’s project application for failure to provide the U.S. Forest with environmental studies and a construction plan.
“The Forest Service states that while it has held multiple meetings with Nevada Hydro to seek resolution and completion of the required studies, Nevada Hydro has informed the Forest Service that it does not intend to perform the studies and provide the remaining information prior to the Commission’s issuance of any license for the project,” FERC said in the Dec. 9 letter.
Four days later, FERC rejected a subsequent request by Nevada Hydro for a preliminary permit that would give it up to four years to conduct a “project feasibility study,” according to The Riverside Press-Enterprise. The company has 30 days to request a rehearing on the matter, the Press-Enterprise reported.
“We are pleased with this (project application) dismissal,” Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro said in a statement Friday, Dec. 17. “There’s a reason Nevada Hydro has continuously failed to provide the necessary information for a thorough review: this is a hazardous, incompatible and infeasible project for the wrong location. It’s time they move on.”
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