Community Corner

LEAPS Project Dismissed By Feds

The LEAPS project called for pumping water from Lake Elsinore to a new dam on the crest of the Cleveland National Forest at night, then releasing that water during the day to power turbines to generate electricity.

The Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage Project, otherwise known as LEAPS, has been dismissed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today, and environmentalists are applauding the decision.

“This dam project was an ecological and economic catastrophe waiting to happen,” said Jonathan Evans of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Hopefully today’s decision dismissing the application will be the final nail in its coffin.”

The LEAPS project, proposed by the Nevada Hydro Company and the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, called for pumping water from Lake Elsinore to a new dam on the crest of the Cleveland National Forest at night, then releasing that water during the day to power turbines to generate electricity. It also proposed power lines that would cut across wildlands and rural communities in the Santa Ana Mountains.

Find out what's happening in Lake Elsinore-Wildomarwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We can't relax yet, but after 15 years of fighting we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, signaling relief from the threat of this monstrosity," said Gene Frick of the Sierra Club’s Santa Ana Mountains Task Force.

The project has been roundly condemned by conservation groups and the local community for its wide-ranging impacts on wildlife, water quality, rural character and wildfire.

Find out what's happening in Lake Elsinore-Wildomarwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The State Water Resources Control Board denied the project’s water-quality certificate, which has now embroiled the project in a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court (Case No. 37-2011-88797).

The LEAPS project was also the subject of a grand jury investigation in 2009, which concluded that the project was “not economically viable."

It is estimated that the failed LEAPS permit process has cost the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and local ratepayers more than $4 million, according to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity.

“On behalf of water quality issues, Inland Empire Waterkeeper is thrilled to hear that the environmentally and economically sound decision has been made to abandon this poorly-planned project” said Rachael Hamilton, Inland Empire Waterkeeper.

Applicants have 30 days to request a rehearing of today’s FERC decision.

An application before the California Public Utilities Commission to approve the power-line portion of the LEAPS project (the Talega-Escondido/Valley-Serrano 500 kV Interconnect Project) is still pending and faces strong opposition by environmental groups and local residents.

In April, to condemn the Talega-Escondido/Valley-Serrano 500 kV Interconnect Project. Their comments were heard by officials from the California Public Utilities Commission.

If constructed, the project would see nearly 32 miles of overhead power lines and 138 steel lattice towers stretching from the proposed Lake Elsinore Advanced Pump Storage Project (LEAPS) facility, southward to SDG&E's existing 230 kV Talega-Escondido transmission line in San Diego County, and northward to SCE's 500 kV Valley-Serrano transmission line in Riverside County. The electrical transmission line and towers would wind through the Cleveland National Forest, just west of Lake Elsinore and other Southwest Riverside cities.


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