August – 2009 – Crestone Eagle

Saguache County to consider first industrial solar plant permit - August, 2009

by Ceal Smith
Tessera Solar released its plans to construct a 200 Megawatt (MW) solar power plant on approximately 1,525-acres of private land southeast of the Town of Saguache. This proposal marks the first industrial solar development permit application to be considered at the county level in the San Luis Valley. As such, how Saguache County handles this project will set an important precedent.
Regulation of industrial solar development has been the topic of rigorous debate among the Saguache County Planning Commissions, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and concerned citizens for the past year. This spring the BOCC voted to apply the existing 1041 Land Use Regulations. The Commissioners did agree to use the draft Solar Facility Regulations as guidelines for permitting solar developments.
The Tessera project will be the topic of Tessera Permitting Director Richard Knox’s presentation at the SLV Energy Fair in Crestone on Sunday, Aug. 30th and a public open house in Saguache on Aug. 31st.
Although it’s the first to come before the BOCC for approval, the Tessera Project is not the only industrial-scale solar development proposal in Saguache County. Last year the Bureau of Land Management conducted an extensive review of a 150 MW OptiSolar plant proposal on 2,100-acres of public lands northeast of the Town of Saguache. The BLM approved the OptiSolar application but because it’s on public land, it must now go through an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) as required under the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA). An EIS normally takes 1-2 years to complete; however, Interior Department Secretary Salazar has made expediting renewable energy development on public lands a priority.   The OptiSolar site is one of four solar energy zones, comprising a total of 22,380-acres of public land being considered for withdrawal for industrial solar development in the San Luis Valley. The BLM is taking public comment on the Solar Study Areas through September 14, 2009 (see: www.solareis.anl.gov)
Renewable Energy Systems Americas (RES) also announced plans earlier this year for a 200 MW Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) project on more than 2,500-acres on the Meadow Ranch near the Town of Center in southern Saguache County.   While RES presented its preliminary application to the County Land Use Department in March, a formal permit application has yet to be filed.
While opinions about the desirability, impacts, costs and benefits of industrial solar vary widely among stakeholders in the San Luis Valley, nearly everyone agrees that conserving water in our high-elevation desert is critical. Tessera exclusively deploys the SunCatcher Solar Dish Stirling System, a CSP technology that it estimates will use only 10 acre-feet of water per year. OptiSolar is proposing to use the more familiar photovoltaic (PV) technology that uses no water. RES has proposed using Parabolic Troughs to generate heat to drive steam turbines. According to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), troughs use between 760-920 gal/MWhe, and are the highest water using CSP technology.
Tessera’s Dish Stirling technology is cutting edge but as yet unproven at the commercial scale. However, several large projects are in the works including Solar Two, a 750 MW project on public lands in the Imperial Valley, CA. Solar Two is currently undergoing an EIS (see: www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/elcentro/nepa/stirling.html).   As in the SLV, industrial solar development is being hotly debated in southern California (see: www.eastcountymagazine.org/?q=node/780)
Collectively, these solar developments will give the SLV the capacity to produce 575 MW of electricity on about 4,000-acres. This dwarfs the Valley’s current showcase solar facility, the 8.2 MW, 80-acre SunEdison PV plant in Mosca that is itself undergoing growth. SunPower recently teamed up with Xcel Energy to expand the site by 17 MW on 200-acres. This exceeds the SLV’s current energy use by three fold. Whether these projects will employ natural gas or molten salt storage systems to maintain 24-hour operations is still in question.
To transmit the solar energy Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), an Xcel Energy Company, have partnered to build a new $200 million, 95-mile double-circuit 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission line from the existing San Luis Valley Substation in Mosca to a new Calumet Substation near Walsenburg. According to the June 2009 Alternative Evaluation (www.socotransmission.com/Studies/siting_planning.cfm), the new transmission line would allow up to 1 Gigiwatt (1,000 MW) of electricity to be “injected” from the SLV. Citizens can comment on the transmission proposal through September 21, 2009 (see: www.socotransmission.com/index.cfm).
Tessera representative Richard Knox will give a talk at the SLV Energy Fair on Sunday Aug. 30th at noon. On Monday, Aug 31st he will host a public open house from 4-7 pm at the Saguache Community Building in the Town of Saguache. Call (602) 957-1818 or email Richard.knox@tesserasolar.com.
Lexam holding off on drilling in Baca National Wildlife refuge until federal Judge rules - August, 2009

by Christine Canaly
San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC) and Citizens for San Luis Valley Water Protection Coalition (CSLV/WPC) had filed a Preliminary Injunction (PI) to ensure that no ground-disturbing activity occur until the NEPA lawsuit against Lexam is resolved.
Although a ruling on the PI by Judge Walker has not yet occurred, Lexam recently made the following statement in a recent Denver Post article:
August 2, 2009—“ALAMOSA ¬ Toronto-based Lexam Explorations is holding off for now on its plans to explore for natural gas on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, even though an agreement that prohibited ground- disturbing activity on the land has expired.
Lexam agreed in February not to drill until August, but company vice president Ian Ball said Friday that Lexam will wait until a federal judge rules on environmental groups’ request for a preliminary injunction on drilling.
Ball said Lexam would not start drilling because of the risk that a ruling for an injunction could stop the company’s work.”
The PI request was filed last December to prevent oil and gas exploration from moving forward until a final ruling could be reached on litigation that is pending from May 2007, regarding implementation and scope of the NEPA (public) process. District Court granted permission earlier this year to continue moving forward with that litigation.
Judge Miller declared from the bench in May that he hoped to make a decision on the PI before August 1. Without a PI decision in place that would clearly deny Lexam access to the refuge, as of August 1, Lexam does have the legal right to proceed with oil and gas exploration, even though other litigation is still pending. Lexam has chosen not to proceed at this time, waiting for Judge Walker’s PI decision.
The public involvement in the question of how the USFWS will manage the Baca Wildlife Refuge is far from over. Ultimately, the purchase and permanent retirement of the Mineral Rights under this unique public lands complex (Great Sand Dunes NP, Baca Wildlife Refuge and Baca Mountain Tract) is the most sensible long term solution.
Chris Canaly is Director of San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC) and Co-Chair of the Citizens for SLV Water Protection Coalition (WPC).
Floating the Grand Canyon - August, 2009

by Thomas Cleary
Living beneath a narrow slice of sky for 16 days and nights is a magical experience not to be missed and never to be forgotten.
Floating

Hands bridging a gap in the rock record of nearly 1.2 billion years. photo by Thomas ClearyOur group of 14 pushed off from Lee’s Ferry, AZ in 4 rubber rafts and one cataraft, plus 2 inflatable kayaks, heading 225 river miles to Diamond Creek. We knew that the Grand Canyon is 90% flat water (with current) and, at most, 10% rapids, but it was that 10% that occupied our minds. The 90% occupied our days which we spent floating or rowing downstream, fishing off the boats, chatting, reading, and having waterfights to cool us off during the 100 degree days.

We would stop somewhere for a riverside lunch and side hikes whenever the time felt right. When the river map showed a big rapid ahead we would stop and scout it before running the rapid. Swimming was a bold undertaking as the river water comes out from deep under Glen Canyon Dam at 50 degrees; too cold to hang out in even during the heat of the day. We were not alone on the river: we saw 1-3 other boating groups a day and half a dozen big horn sheep groups throughout the trip.
The side hikes were a huge part of what made this journey magical. We would often float around a corner and see a spring pouring water out of a cliff face, or a non-descript crevice forming a break in the cliff wall. These always merited explorations, revealing a narrow, shady, cool canyon, sometimes with clear water flowing in it, full of tadpoles and other aquatic creatures, other times with evidence of Anasazi Indians, such as granaries, or pictographs. Regularly we would see driftwood perched 20 to 30 feet high up on the walls of these canyons, a testament to the flash floods that rage through the defiles when it rains hard enough upstream. WOW.

Floating in the depth of the Grand Canyon. photo by Thomas Cleary

Rapids
Excerpt from the journal of John Wesley Powell, August 19, 1869: “In running a rapid the pioneer [lead] boat is upset [flipped] by a wave. The river is rough and swift and we are unable to land, but cling to the boat and are carried down over another rapid.”
The rapids on the Grand are rated on a scale of 1-10, and each rapid’s difficulty varies based on water flows. Other American rivers are rated on a scale of technical difficulty from I to VI, but due to the high volume of water on the Grand, even a 10 such as Lava Falls or Crystal Rapid, may only be a III on the standard scale.
Several of the rapids required maneuvering around rocks or avoiding hydraulic recirculating holes. Other rapids had giant waves that dwarfed our 16 foot boats and left us wondering whether the current would carry us up and out of the wave’s trough and to the next peak, or if gravity would pull us back down for the wave to flip us over! We did have one boat flip in lower Crystal. The swimmers were able to push the overturned boat to shore, and with the aid of ropes and pulleys we were able to right the 1500 pound boat.
Camping
Each afternoon we chose a camp alongside the river. The camps are established from years of use but cannot be reserved in any way, so when we found one we liked we would take it. There would follow a rush of unloading the boats of kitchen and personal gear, then cooks would come around with their shopping list for the dinner: “Who has the pasta?” “I need 3 heads of lettuce.” “Where’s the French bread?” We had a kitchen crew rotation, otherwise we were free to lounge in camp, go for a hike, play music, or set up sleeping areas.
About half the group slept on their boats, rigging some sort of a platform large enough to lay out a sleeping bag; this was much cooler than camping on the hot sand because it was over the cool water and in the breezes. The morning meant breakfast, then packing everything up again, loading the boat and tying everything down —rigged to flip—we prepared for the worst every day. The boat that did flip in Crystal didn’t lose anything.

The author hitting the BIG wave in Hermit Rapid. photo by ChrisKemperPhotography.com

We camped in some amazing places and reveled in watching the sunlight fade up the canyon walls tier by tier, hearing the roar of a nearby rapid, fishing in the bankside eddies, and discovering stars, constellations, and Milky Way as they appeared and swirled above.
Geology
The Grand Canyon as we see it now was formed when the Colorado River began cutting into the sediments of a flat plain, the Colorado Plateau, about 1 million years ago following a period of uplift from near sea level to its current height over 8000’. The river first incised into flat-lying sediments laid down between 245 million years ago (mya) and 570 mya. These sandstones, limestones, and shales were deposited under, and in the nearshore environment of, a vast inland sea long pre-dating the age of the dinosaurs (ending 65 mya).
As the Colorado continued to downcut, it encountered rocks laid down from 900 mya to 1200 mya. The gap in the rock record (between 570 and 900 mya) represents a period of non-deposition or erosion. These older sedimentary rocks are similar in composition and depositional environment to the younger sedimentary rocks above, but additionally are faulted, tilted, and injected with basalt (lava) dikes. The first two sedimentary groups form the cliff and slope‚ profile of the upper canyon.
Below yet another unconformity, or gap in the rock record, are rocks from 1,800 mya and older that had been metamorphosed, banded, twisted, and folded by heat and pressure, and also intruded by pegmatite veins and granite. These metamorphic rocks form the narrow inner gorge of the canyon.
I was inspired as a young man to get a Bachelors of Science in geology because of boating trips throughout the southwest where rocks are laid bare and history unfolds before a boater. But only in the Grand Canyon are the Precambrian basement rocks exposed for viewing; black Vishnu schist and gneiss with eye-popping red Zoroaster granite and pegmatite, metamorphosed when the planet was one third younger and laid down as sediment sometime before that! Awesome!
Logistics

Deer Creek Falls spring from the cliff wall. photo by Thomas Cleary

The narrows of Matkatamiba Creek photo by Thomas Cleary

I was able to go on this trip as a member on my sister’s private permit. She had been on the waiting list for over 13 years before her permit was granted! The Park Service has recently changed the private permit system to a straight lottery, but permits will continue to be extremely competitive. Most people without boating experience and equipment can still go down the Grand with a commercial outfitter listed on the park service website, www.nps.gov/grca/. For our trip we paid a company to plan, buy, and pack our meals, supply our boats and all group gear, and shuttle our vehicles from put in to take out for a total cost, including park service and tribal fees, of $1100 per person for the 16 days. Commercial trips will charge between $150 to $300 per day depending on length of trip and amenities. Either way this trip of a lifetime is well worth it; GO!
Crestone Music Festival - August, 2009
4th of July Soap Box Derby - August, 2009
Crestone Charter School awarded $5.7 million grant for new school - August, 2009

by Jo delAmor
The Crestone Charter School has been awarded $5.7 million by the BEST (Build Excellent Schools Today) grant board to build a new facility. School Director Kathryn Brady received the call on Thursday July 23 with the good news.

Architect Harry Teague has designed and built alternative, multi-age school buildings for generations of Colorado students. Here he meets with LINK students during the master planning process. photo by Kathryn Brady

Mrs. Brady was staggered by this gift to the community and the hope it offers. “This means so much for the safety and well being of the kids and the prosperity of the community,” expressed Mrs. Brady. “We’re so excited to be able to bring this project and the jobs it will create to our community.”
The good news spread quickly via phone and email. Town of Crestone Mayor Ralph Abrams said, “Congratulations! That’s terrific! This is a great step forward to bring the community together. This project has my full support personally and as Mayor of Crestone. I’m very happy and excited about this.”
Just in the nick of time
The Crestone Charter School (CCS) has been seeking an appropriate school facility since 2006. During the review of the school’s charter in 2005, CCS and the Moffat School District Board agreed to a 30 year contract with the stipulation that a permanent location and a plan for building a new facility be in place by June 2010.
A New Facility Committee (NFC) was formed in 2006 with the aim to find a suitable piece of land and develop a building plan. The expense of land and building have been the greatest obstacles to this effort for many years.
In May of 2008 the Colorado Legislature passed HB 08-1335, Build Excellent Schools Today (BEST). This bill empowered the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to leverage income from The School Land Trust to fund over $500 million in capital construction. Suddenly, the dream of a new facility became possible.
Inadequate facilities
The CCS facilities consist of 4 separate dilapidated rental buildings on leased land along County Rd T. A cursory look at the CCS facilities reveals so may flaws it is hard to enumerate them. Everything from the size and location of the school to the physical state of the buildings contributes to a truly inadequate educational environment.
Exposed to the elements on their T Road campus, the CCS buildings, temporary in nature, show many signs of physical deterioration and are increasingly costly to maintain and heat. Dry rot and
mold infestation threaten the structure of every building. Outdated HVAC and plumbing systems, together with inoperable windows, compromise the air quality and health of the learning environment.
The current facilities also lack adequate space for the CCS program. The cramped classrooms are ill suited for multi-age classrooms and hands-on education. The school lacks an assembly/performance space, indoor exercise space, reception area, and private rooms for counseling, special education and faculty planning.

Warping, rot and water damage are visible on the used modular trailers CCS currently rents on the T Road location. photo by Kathryn Brady

Despite the shortcomings of the facilities, CCS has been providing an excellent alternative education for 15 years. The innovative experiential education that CCS provides earned the John Irwin Award for Academic Excellence and, in 2006, the CCS high school program was named one of the top three schools for academic achievement in the state by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE).
The staff and students of CCS have been working with these substandard facilities for long enough. In light of the increasingly declining facilities and the school’s contractual obligation to develop a new facility plan by 2010, the government funding that the BEST grant provides couldn’t have come at a better time!
The new school
After interviewing several architects, the NFC hired Harry Teague and Associates from Basalt, CO to help develop a masterplan for the new facility. Mr. Teague came to Crestone several times to interview staff, students, and local residents in order to design the best school for our unique community. The NFC worked with Harry’s team to create a thorough Masterplan for an innovative and environmentally responsible school design to enrich the CCS program and complement its alternative practices.
The new school design is a modest and environmentally responsible answer to the needs of the CCS community. It will have sufficient classroom and gathering space for 75 students, a multi use gym/ theatre/ social space, a proper science lab, adequate administration space and reception area, a conference room and counseling rooms.
Sufficient daylighting, passive solar, geothermal heating and natural convection ventilation will support a healthy, low impact learning environment. The design team is seeking a Gold certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™. They will employ many “green” solutions to conserve energy and minimize the carbon footprint.
The design team is also considering the needs of the community and the possible shared uses this building could support. Architect Harry Teague has experience creating beautiful multi-use facilities and performance spaces with proper lighting and sound boards.
The land slated for the new school facility is nestled in the pinon juniper forest between the Town of Crestone and the Baca, due east of the kiosk. The new school location will allow over 60% of the schools students and faculty to walk or ride their bikes to school, making a dramatic difference in the school’s carbon footprint and bringing the facility into the heart of the community.
The next step
The BEST grant has been awarded on the condition that the Moffat Consolidated School District #2 provides a match of up to $730,000. It is anticipated that the District will seek a voter approved property tax to fund this requirement on November 3, 2009.
If the tax increase is approved, it is estimated residential property taxes will increase $1.66 per month per $100,000 of market value. For example, a resident whose property is worth $200,000 would see a monthly increase of $3.32 or $39.84 on an annual basis. However, CCS plans to acquire additional grants and donations to decrease the voter’s tax burden as much as possible.

The current CCS campus is divided on County Road T between these modular trailers and a rental building east of the Challenger Golf course. BEST funding will create a united campus. photo by Kathryn Brady

In this challenging economy our community has been blessed with a huge boon of financial support. If the tax increase to provide the matching funds is approved, the District and CCS will be leveraging tax dollars over 8 times with government grant money, essentially receiving a $5.7 million facility for $730,000. This very well may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide a safe sustainable school for our children, a central gathering space for the community and great jobs for our local builders. In a declining national economy this is a truly precious opportunity and a great blessing!
Crestone hosts the 20th Annual San Luis Valley Energy Fair Aug. 28-30 - August, 2009

by Nicholas Chambers & Erin Lakai

Check out this house on Sunday during the Home Tour.

The San Luis Valley is one of Colorado’s leading communities in renewable energy and local food production. We are home to commercial-scale solar farms, abundant off-grid residences and businesses, emerging biomass projects, vibrant local food systems, leading-edge solar design, and ubiquitous solar hot water installations. In fact, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado is fifth in the nation in its solar resource and the San Luis Valley is none other than number one in Colorado. The Valley is on the map and the conversation has begun! This August 28-30, Crestone will be hosting the 20th Annual San Luis Valley Energy Fair as we “Harvest the New Energy Economy.” Head to the Crestone Town Park for a fun and educational weekend! Friday kicks off the weekend with a Sustainability Flea Market where folks who know the technical aspects of off-grid living and homesteading will be swapping and selling devices, parts, and materials for your next project. Rare finds, unbelievable prices, and bits of advice will be there for the hobbyist and professional alike. For more information or to get a booth space for this market call Jason Anderson at 256-4040. Also on Friday, the straw bale stage will be erected and the fair will host a community potluck/BBQ at 6pm, sponsored by Curt’s Olde Country Store. Saturday and Sunday we are bringing top-notch presenters and demonstrators to stimulate dialogue and inspire visions of how the future of energy and sustainability is developing. This year, Scott Pittman from the Permaculture Institute near Santa Fe will be presenting techniques for “Surviving and Thriving in all Economies,” a presentation of proverbial stories, paramount principles, and one definitely not to miss. Alponz Viszolay, also from Santa Fe, will be coming with a biofuel-producing living algae machine and will be presenting with a crew of kids that are part of LG International. Alponz has a far-reaching and passionate perspective about working with youth to achieve a sustainable future. Agua Das will be coming again this year with a woodchip gasifier generator and will share the science and techniques for biomass-based carbon sequestration and energy production. See the full schedule elsewhere for all the other presentations and demonstrations. After presentations on Saturday, we are taking a break to promote a dinner at our local restaurants: Caddyshack Pizza and the Desert Sage. Then, back to the Town Park to DANCE! Judge Roughneck’s great reagge/ska beats are sure to please. Together with wholesome food, live music, kids activities, and vendors in renewable living trades as well as arts and crafts, this family weekend will be one not to miss. Sunday afternoon the Energy Fair hosts the nationally-acclaimed Home Tour of the Northern Valley/Crestone area where residents open their high-performance and/or alternatively built homes to tour registrants. One tour ends at the Valley View Hot Springs, in which after touring their hydro-electric plant, you can soak in their healing waters! Please call the Hot Springs (719-256-4315) for soaking/lodging reservations. The SLV Energy Fair delivers great entertainment, education and environment; please give $5 per person at the gate, kids (under 12) and seniors free $10 Advance Sales for Judge Roughneck (at Saturday Market, Crestone Music Festival or Friday and Saturday before the show) Tickets are $12 at the Gate the night of the Concert. Head to www.slvenergyfair.com for more information, and to buy Home Tour tickets!

Corwin Bell has been passionately working with bees for over 14 years. In his courses he reveals a connection between bees and humankind as symbolic of a broader interconnection between humans and the natural world.

Scott Pittman, one of the foremost teachers of permaculture in the US, has taught the subject extensively on four continents. He is the founder of the Permaculture Drylands Institute and co-founder of the Permaculture Credit Union. Scott helped to establish permaculture movement in the US Southwest. His experience includes working with indigenous and traditional people worldwide, design projects that range from backyards to thousand-acre farms and activism in promotion of sustainable living.

Alfonz Viszolay is a Hungarian-born engineer and inventor who has done many environmental remediation projects and emission controls for large corporations. He and his kids Leonardo & Alexandria will be presenting a biofuel-producing living algae machine at the fair. Mr. Viszolay has a far-reaching vision into the education in the next generation and in producing real solutions for them to face humanity’s challenges.

Tim White is a working engineer and scientist of traditional building materials. He has BAs in Biology and Anthropology which bring an Earth history and human history background to his work. He will present data on “The Dynamic Solar Reaction of Earthen Materials” and recent research on building envelope temperature control using breathable exterior lime stuccos and interior earthen plasters.