Crescent Valley residents get update on geothermal project and county services

The Crescent Valley Town Advisory Board’s August 20 meeting addressed a range of community issues, from public works projects and library visitor numbers to a major update on the new geothermal power plant being built outside of town.

Assistant Public Works Director Raymond Hodson reported the work is underway on Airport and 8^th Street and that the dump off of McDaniel is being closed and a space has been built in the Laydown Yard. That whole section is leased by Eureka County from the Bureau of Land Management and will be closed and burned during the winter. The Laydown Yard can be accessed during normal working hours and on Friday afternoons. 

Laura Shivers announced that since the library switched to four days a week in June, there were 52 adult and 37 child patrons, and in July, 78 adult visitors and 43 children, “which is up considerably from the three days a week.” 

Christopher Jim of Ormat provided an update on the Ormat geothermal power plant that is being built outside Crescent Valley. He has been with Ormat for a few years and prior to that worked for Kinross at Round Mountain. He was accompanied by two drilling engineers.  

Ormat has been in existence for 60 years and operates 1.5 gigawatts of geothermal power around the world, much of which comes from Western U.S. states. Its main office is in Reno. Most of its revenue comes from electricity sales and selling the technology and energy storage. Jim explained Ormat’s geothermal system uses a binary system that pulls hot water through a heat exchanger, and once the heat is pulled out, the water is put back in the ground. It uses a hydrocarbon fluid that runs through the heat exchanger and grabs the heat, and the heat vaporizes the hydrocarbon and makes pressure that turns the turbines and makes power. The fluid is then recycled and “makes an everlasting cycle.” Jim said, “The geothermal brine never touches the atmosphere” and isn’t used up. Therefore, it is an improvement over geothermal steam. 

Jim showed the footprint of the CV plant and where the current wells are being drilled through October, at which point they’ll be permitting for long-term testing to “measure how the resource responds” and “whether we have enough for a power plant.” Jim said that testing will be done in the spring, “and if it’s successful, we’ll move on.” Jim said the power plant was approved in July, but “if the results are unfavorable,” there may need to be more drilling. On the finance side, they’ll need to find a buyer for the power to finance the plant during the 10-year permitting/building process. 

The power plant will run for 20 to 40 years. The plant is expected to put out 30 megawatts and will run 24/7/365 except during maintenance with a parasitic solar field that will run all the pumps, fans and motors.  

Ormat has increased watering on the road, and traffic has died down as all the rig equipment has arrived and all the crews stay on site.  

Ormat also owns the Beowawe power plant, which was recently retrofitted from steam to binary. It does not store the power for these plants. Ormat is permitted for 25 wells, but depending on resource geology, it expects to drill less than half. The solar field will be roughly 15 megawatts over approximately 40 acres. While the company is permitted for 200 acres, it expects the impact to actually be closer to 60 acres. Once construction is completed, there will be a small maintenance crew, but the plant will largely be run from Reno. 

Vicki Etchinek asked if an environmental impact statement had been done about impact to wildlife, and Jim explained they have to adhere to timelines to address impacts to sage grouse, eagles, mule deer and antelope. The EA can be found at: https://eplanning.blm.gov/public_projects/2038091/200651600/20133740/251033720/Crescent%20Valley%20Development%20EA%20-%2020250509_508.pdf. 

The plant is designed to minimize visual impact.  

Ross Everett asked, “What’s it going to do to the power grid that constantly breaks down now?” and asked if Ormat will be upgrading the grid. 

Jim said, “Unfortunately, we’re not upgrading the grid, but we will be adding a new substation.”  

Ormat has hired local company Truck ‘N Water to help with dust suppression on the impacted road, and all road issues have been addressed. Ormat will return to give an updated presentation in the spring after testing. They hope they have enough heat to make it feasible. “Kind of like looking for gold,” Shivers said.  

“A lot like that, yes,” Jim said. 

Brent Jones, EMT, relayed that they are assisting the Sheriff’s Department with blood draws. 

In other business, Commissioner Mike Schoenwald advised the Board in his County Commission review that the Request for Proposals for the Crescent Valley EMS contract services has been approved, meaning the process of securing ancillary service is underway. The community was also advised that an improvement to the EMS reporting software by integrating RIMS with the existing image trend CAD and Health Information Hub (HIH) will likely happen soon. “This will bring us up to the 21^st century,” Schoenwald said. 

Brent Jones said, “Information will automatically be put into the report” from the scene of the accident to the patient destination and will allow charts to go directly to the hospital, dramatically reducing post-run charting time. 

Undersheriff Charles Cobb explained, “They’re buying a system that piggybacks off of what we already have at the Sheriff’s office” and “will ease the burden on these guys.” 

“It will help us provide the best patient care we can provide,” Vice Chair Jeremy Rice said. 

Schoenwald said that the job description for the casual employee for the North End of the County was approved, meaning someone will be in the Crescent Valley Town Center 19 hours a week. Presently, the Town Center office is only open one day a week. 

Cobb explained, “It’s going to be under us. It will be for the distribution of legal paperwork” and “will help us in having somebody here to actually have these guys get the papers from, get the papers, to; and at the same time, they are going to be a notary,” so “you’ll have notary services here.” The position is a “civil process position” that will complement the Public Works assistant.  

Schoenwald said, “I’d like to see more information available here” and “somebody here to answer questions — a face rather than a phone number on a wall.” 

Cobb said, “There’s a lot of things you guys can only get by driving down to Eureka.” 

Cobb said, “I’m putting in more than 19 hours in two days” and “If I have somebody here for two to three hours a day for four to five days a week,” it will help him and the officers. “There’s time frames for paperwork that has to be submitted” and “if these guys are busy,” he has to “pay them overtime to make sure the paperwork makes it down to Eureka on time.”  

Jeb Rowley pointed out that presently, when the posted number is called, Public Works responds quickly. 

Shivers said, “Having somebody in this building more days a week helps our people,” who “are considering moving to a community that’s small.” 

Schoenwald noted that Catharine Cortez Masto visited, and “we’re looking at some possible federal funding for emergency operations,” which “would be nice.” Schoenwald said, “She has some good ideas.”  

Schoenwald reviewed changes to the Personnel Policy. 

In discussing the $766,300 contract awarded to Resource Development Company for the Eureka Townsite Water Tank Repainting Project, Rowley was asked why the project is so expensive.  

Rowley said, “These are heavily regulated systems” that “require a lot of permitting” and “sand-blasting of the inside and out.” He added, “They have to cut a hole in the tank so they can bring a sky jack into it because this is like a three-story building in overall height. It’s a big job.”  

“Coming from a guy that’s done those tank paintings, that’s cheap,” Dale Kersey commented. “The sand-blasting alone is done under air pressure, air mask. It’s an epoxy stuff, so it’s a hazard to your health. There’s all kinds of stuff that the general public doesn’t know what goes into that.” 

“It has to have a complete wash,” Rowley said. “It has to go through several tests that come back for any number of contaminants before it can be turned back online.”  

Turning to Natural Resources, Rowley noted, “There’s a lot of mining activity. There’s a lot of new growth in the south just like we see up here” and “are expecting a lot of projects.” A discussion ensued related to the housing issue, which is going to become increasingly significant in the south as well as the north.  

Schoenwald noted, “The Nevada Health District is coming in, and they’re breathing down our necks on some of the systems that are in like the septic systems that aren’t properly installed. There’s things that we’re going to have to start looking at. We are fortunate that we don’t have to permit a lot of things here, but there are some things we do have to permit.” 

Etchinek noted, “You have people moving in and living there 10 or 15 years with no septic tank and just running their stuff out on the ground, as small as these lots here.” 

“If some of that stuff continues on” and studies show “the nitrates are continuing to rise a little bit, and that’s part of the reason we introduced chlorine and some other radioactive stuff that we feed you guys—” Everyone laughed. “I’m the horriblest politician ever. Part of the problem with that is eventually if we have to put in a sewage treatment plant, hold on, your taxes are going to go up.” 

Schoenwald said, “Before that happens, before a sewage treatment plant happens, we’re going to look at ordinances like getting some of the animals out of town.”  

“You can’t even keep the dog orders in line, so how are you going to start kicking people’s horses out?” Etchinek commented. 

“You can come in and talk to the civil processor,” Schoenwald said to laughter. 

“It doesn’t matter if you’re in Crescent Valley or if you’re in Eureka, if you have an interest in community to live life without the overburden of government looking over your shoulder or ordinances or code, that’s going to be harder to manage and deal with when issues like raw sewage that gets vented out onto the ground” or “solid waste that collects in pickup beds or in backyards. I’m just going to tell you that it’s only going to become more difficult when it is not supported locally within the community to address some of these problems, or somebody else is going to come in and address them for you.” 

Rowley said nuisance properties are “going to become an issue that has to be addressed” and “is a conversation for another day, but I’m going to give everybody the same statement I would for Eureka or Crescent Valley: If you don’t care enough to manage it for yourself, somebody else will.” 

The library is hiring a backup librarian. 

Nick Hirschi, APRN of the Crescent Valley Clinic, relayed, “If people don’t show up in the clinic, it makes it very hard to treat them.” The Health Department contacted Hirschi for a grant for lead testing since the State has made lead testing mandatory for children 1 to 5 years old as well as for arsenic and mercury.