Nevada Hydro To Appeal LEAPS Decision

The Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage Project -- otherwise known as LEAPS -- was , but Nevada Hydro Company, the lead agency on the project, isn’t backing down.

“We will appeal it,” confirmed David Kates, Nevada Hydro Company project manager.

Kates declined further comment. Nevada Hydro has 30 days to appeal the commission's decision.

The controversial project proposed by Nevada Hydro and the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District calls for pumping water from Lake Elsinore to a yet-to-be-constructed 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 proposes power lines that would cut across wildlands and rural communities in the Santa Ana Mountains.

Greg Morrison, director of legislative and community affairs for Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, said via email today that the district board is reviewing the issue in closed session tomorrow night and no further comment is available until Friday.

It is estimated that the failed LEAPS permit process has cost the water district and local ratepayers more than $4 million, according to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group opposing the project.

In addition to yesterday’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision, the State Water Resources Control Board previously denied the project’s water-quality certificate, but Nevada Hydro has been fighting that decision via the courts. A decision could come as early as this week in that case.

But even if Nevada Hydro loses its ability to move ahead on LEAPS, the second part of the project could still go forward. An application by Nevada Hydro 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. If constructed, the project would see nearly 32 miles of overhead power lines and 138 steel lattice towers stretching from the proposed 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.

“The projects can move forward independent of each other,” said Jonathan Evans, a staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

In April, to condemn the power line project. Their comments were heard by officials from the California Public Utilities Commission.

While opponents of the LEAPS project are hailing yesterday’s decision, they are treading cautiously.

“The fight to end this disastrous project isn’t over,” Evans said. “We can celebrate this small victory, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the big picture.”

Gene Frick of the Sierra Club’s Santa Ana Mountains Task Force said the project is a complicated tangle that isn’t going away, and he noted that the upcoming battles may be tougher than any encountered so far.

“This may be the hardest fight we’ve ever had to do,” he said.