by Matie Belle Lakish

Citizens are trying hard to keep up with developments on Concentrated Solar, and Commissioners are grappling with it as well. Tessera Solar North America has submitted a final application, and although there were areas that were still vague, according to Nancy Lauro of Summit Engineering, the consulting firm hired by Saguache County to help the Commissioners evaluate the application, the requests for further information have been met. Therefore, the Commissioners voted to accept the application and set a deadline of November 19 for Public Comments, and December 6 for a Public Hearing.

SolarReserve submitted a Preliminary Application to build a Power Tower facility on 1700 acres about 5 miles from Center. Nancy Lauro compiled the public’s un-official comments made at a September 14 meeting in Center, and presented them to Commissioners at their October 5 meeting. After some discussion, the Board instructed Lauro to submit a request for more information on several topics, and that information should be available when SolarReserve submits their final application.

In the meantime, after an initial show of potential support for the project, a new contingent of local citizens—this time from the eastern side of the proposed project—have come to meetings to protest the development. They contend, as others have, that the 656 foot high tower will be a major eyesore and that the 17,000 reflective mirrors will create enough heat to injure or kill migratory birds. John and Erika Keyes have set up a website, www.FriedCranes.org.

However, everyone—proponents and critics alike—are hampered in their efforts to predict just what will happen when these massive projects are built, because nothing like them has ever been done before, and especially in as environmentally sensitive an area as the San Luis Valley. The sheer scale of these proposed projects is unprecedented. Other countries, such as Spain, who have permitted and built similar technologies, have nothing even close to this scale, as Spain has set a maximum limit (I believe it is 40 MW) on generating capacity. So far, the largest capacity plant of this type in Spain generates 20 MW.

Some of the areas of the Pre-Application that citizens and Lauro recognized as needing more work include: visual impact of the towers; light pollution and glare; wildlife impacts, especially to birds; safety and emergency response plans; flight patterns and FFA compliance; tower design regarding weather conditions; water use and rights; hazardous wastes; groundwater impacts; economic benefits and training and hiring of locals; wetlands; noise study; road impact study; storm water and drainage; construction and maintenance impacts; reclamation plan; bonding; and air quality and dust pollution; climate change from heat generated on site; neighborhood, and buffering of homes; wildlife and monitoring; and dust and steam pollution.  In addition, more information is needed on the explosive potential of the molten sodium and potassium nitrate salts. The economic impact on property values in the area was also discussed, as was the necessity for a Power Purchase Agreement before construction begins. In their favor, the owners have decided on an air-cooled, rather than a water-cooled system, which would still use about 300 acre/feet/year/tower of groundwater.

When asked if there was a plant of this type in existence, Adam Green, of the engineering staff of SolarReserve, said that there is not. The only facility ever built was a demonstration plant which was decommissioned, and the diagram seen on the website is not real.  Mike Spearman asked how many gallons of the molten salts would be used. No precise figure was available, but the estimate by Green is “10’s of millions of gallons”.

SolarReserve has requested time to discuss the County’s concerns with the Commissioners. This opportunity will come on Monday, November 15, at 3pm following a work session on the budget.

Tessera deadlines and Public Hearing

As mentioned above, Tessera’s application was received and accepted as complete, and now the final analysis has begun. The public can now access the application online at www.saguachecounty.net. Go to the Land Use Department to download the application and updates. If you have particular concerns or areas of expertise, please use your knowledge to comment on the application. Written comments are due, either by email or hard copy, in the Land Use Office, by November 19.

If you wish to attend the Public Hearing on December 6, the new time is from 2pm to 7pm, to allow residents who work to attend. Actual Public Comments will be taken between 5pm and 7pm, with comments from Russell Engineering being received earlier in the day. After comments are heard, the Commissioners may either approve the application that day, delay the decision until a later date in order to consider more information, or deny the application. It is unlikely that they will be prepared to act that day, and if there are still many citizens who wish to speak, they may schedule another day of comment. However, come prepared to deliver your message in a three-minute timeframe or send your comments in writing to the address on the website by November 19.

Thanks to the work of Vince and Mary Palermo, whose article on sound can be found on the Eagle’s website, www.crestoneeagle.com, the Commissioners decided to order a review of Tessera’s sound study. Nancy Lauro submitted the names of three qualified engineering firms, and the Board chose Mestre-Greve to review Tessera’s studies. They specifically requested that the studies not be re-done, but only reviewed. Since the anticipated sound levels were based on computer modeling, and the figures Tessera submitted for sound from their Maricopa site did not match those taken by the Palermo’s at the same site, I wonder how accurate the reviewed studies will be. This is only one issue with this project, so hopefully, other knowledgeable citizens will provide meaningful comments on other aspects of the application, and the Commissioners will proceed with caution.

To comment on this article, or for updates, visit www.crestoneeagle.com

by Larry Calloway

In Cambodia, any photography of monks can arouse their suspicion.

Theravada Buddhism, not represented among the Crestone spiritual centers, is practiced in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Under the non-democratic regimes of Burma, Laos and Cambodia, the monks in saffron robes are constantly watched, but they are embraced under the constitutional monarchy of Thailand, where I lived as a novice monk for a month last spring.

I found that Theravada differs from the Mahayana tradition of China, Japan, Tibet and Vietnam not so much in practice as in its back-to-the-sources dharma, which is all about the Buddha and his teachings in an ancient Indian language called Pali. It does not rely upon latter-day sacred texts or venerate bodhisattvas like Avalokitesvara.

I was at a Wat Sri Bhun Ruang near Fang, north of Chiang Mai.  Wat translates as “temple,” but the word applies to any religious complex, from the rich royal temple grounds in Bangkok to humble village centers. I was impressed by the devotion of the local laypeople, who assembled on Sundays and full-moon holidays in the sala, a spacious pavilion dominated by a single white figure of the seated Buddha. Led by the young abbot, Apisit Pingchaiyawat, or his senior monks, whole families would sing the Pali sutras.

Refugees in Thailand on their way to a temple festival.

Fang is near the militarized Thai border with Burma (also called Myanmar). I discovered that “Joy,” the young monk who unceremoniously shaved my head and eyebrows at ordination, was from a village of people who had escaped Burma. They are Palaung, a million-member ethic minority that was virtually at war with the Burmese army. Most refugees, from Cambodia and Laos as well as from Burma, go officially unrecognized by Thailand, so they have no country, no actual rights. It seemed to me that this young man’s only protection was the universal Thai respect for his saffron robe. He had just received his high school diploma, was fluent in English and Thai and aspired to learn Chinese so he could teach in the region, which has communities of earlier refugees, nationalists from China.

Theravada monks walk with their begging bowls in Luang Prabang, Laos. This is a morning ritual throughout southeast Asia.

One evening we arrived by pickup at Joy’s village in the mountains on the border where army outposts of both Burma and Thailand face each other across a no-man’s land of barbed wire. The Burmese army could watch every move in the village and once shelled it after some sort of altercation, but the people were carrying on with their lives without fear. They sat in family circles eating the evening meal in porous bamboo houses.

A small NGO called the Blood Foundation, host of my month as a novice monk, operates day-care schools for children of Burmese refugees, many of whom work in the local orange groves. Ben Bowler, the Aussie head of the foundation, had an agreement with Dr. Apisit under which fees from the foreign novices helped support the foundation. The abbot in turn was hoping to build a retreat center. He had bought some adjacent land for this and other projects, including a hospital.

A monk named Joy shaves the writer in a Thai monastery.

Monk photographs Burmese mountain top outpost, a military outpost where soldiers keep constant watch on a refugee village in Thailand.

Dr. Apisit is a gentle and compassionate man who keeps two beloved monkeys as pets. His remarks to me at my ordination forewarned that the four weeks were not going to be a holiday. Besides accepting the universal Buddhist precepts and seeking refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha, I also pledged to take no food after noon, sleep on a hard bench, wear nothing decorative and avoid trivial conversation. Dressed in white and without hair or eyebrows, I had trouble recognizing myself in our digital photos. Which was the point. All this, the abbot counseled, was intended to aid the practice:  Vipassana meditation.

But mere monastic quietude and recognition of personal impermanence does not define the fullness of Theravada Buddhism, at least in Thailand. It incorporates the broader community. Charin Khayan, director of the wat school, one evening invited me and another novice to come with him in his small pickup to an event marking the completion of renovation work at a wat down the highway. As we approached it I was surprised that Charin had trouble finding a place to park.

Money tree

Inside the gates, the old wat was—excuse the cliché—rocking! There was a rock band playing. There was a stage where Thai “lady boys” sang like girls. There were dance groups in colorful ethnic costumes. There were lines of food vendors. (Ignoring them was a test of my vows). And then came the parade of “money trees.” Coughing up a donation is nothing compared with the work that goes into these ornate constructions by community groups, businesses and families. The focus of these gifts is the leaves: crisp new Thai 20-bhat or even 100-bhat bills (as valued locally as $20 bills here).

But for expression of community engagement, to me the most profound Theravada tradition is the morning rounds of monks with their begging bowls. I have seen hundreds of barefoot monks in bright saffron file down the sunny side of the ancient avenue in Luang Prabang, Laos, at 6am. (Tourists with cameras are on the other side.) Townspeople and merchants drop small parcels of food—sticky rice, packaged noodles, cakes and such—into the bowls. The monks receive the gifts impassively and walk on. It’s the givers instead who express gratitude, putting their palms together, because they are earning merit under the inexorable law of karma. In the 2007 protests in Yangoon, Burmese monks turned their begging bowls upside down.

The meritorious giving takes place everywhere in the Theravada countries, although the pictures elsewhere are probably not as spectacular as in Luang Prabang, which is a U.N. world heritage site. At my wat, Joy and other young monks would walk to the ugly and noisy highway, stopping at business stalls. Sometimes he would stand alone with his bowl in the dimly lit early morning market.

Joy was impassive, but he was also preoccupied. If he left the order, replacing his robe with civilian clothes, he would be vulnerable. But it was the only way to enter the private college and pursue courses in Chinese. If he continued as a monk, he would receive a free Buddhist education but the language study would be limited to English.

After four weeks and a disrobing ceremony, I hopped a bus for Chiang Mai, a baseball cap pulled down around my ears. Joy, Charin and my Blood Foundation friends waved goodbye at the highway stop, and I was sad …. A few days ago I got in touch with some of them on Facebook and asked about Joy, his decision. He chose Chinese.

The writer is a retired journalist and Stanford Knight fellow with a 2001 master’s degree in Eastern classics from St. John’s College of Santa Fe.

Another NEPA process has been scheduled
Alamosa, CO – The US Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), the agency that manages the Baca National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) has reached a settlement agreement with The San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC) and Citizens for SLV Water Protection Coalition (WPC) regarding Toronto based Lexam Explorations, Inc.‟s use of the Baca NWR to explore the privately owned mineral estate underlying the refuge. Under terms of the agreement the Service will withdraw all approvals, authorizations and/or decisions they have issued regarding the company‟s use of the refuge. Additionally, the Service will initiate a new public process in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regarding Lexam‟s use of the refuge to explore for minerals.
In 2008, the Service prepared an Environmental Assessment as part of the NEPA process. NEPA is a United States environmental law that requires all Federal governmental agencies to consider the environmental impacts of any proposed federal actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions.
The results of the 2008 NEPA process found that Lexam‟s proposed mineral exploration activities would not have a significant effect on the human environment.
The Service‟s 2008 finding and supporting analysis were challenged in Colorado Federal District Court. As a result of the agreement, the Service will begin a new NEPA process that will analyze the impacts of Lexam‟s two proposed oil and gas exploratory wells. The public will be invited to comment on the scope of the NEPA analysis in coming weeks.    A draft NEPA document concerning the proposed drilling project will be available by Jan. 7, 2011 and a final decision resulting from the NEPA process will be issued1 by April 1, 2011. Opportunities to participate in this new NEPA process will be announced soon.
“The public process has been effective, but much work remains”, says Christine Canaly, Director of the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, whose group filed the original challenge in May 2007. “Another NEPA process is expected begin regarding drilling on the refuge, in the
meantime, we are still working with interested parties to have the mineral rights purchased and retired.”
Matthew Crowley, Chairman of WPC believes “this has never been an „us and them‟ situation. It is validating to see environmental law working to uphold the goal of protecting the Baca
National Wildlife Refuge. These are important public lands and we look forward to working with the Service to protect and preserve these unique qualities.”
Michael Blenden, Service Project Leader for Alamosa, Baca and Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuges, is “happy that this episode of litigation is over and eager to restart the environmental analysis with a clean slate.”
The Baca NWR was created by the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act of 2000 – a culmination of a decade‟s worth of growing public support in the San Luis Valley and across the State. The complex of public lands, part of which became the Baca Refuge, was purchased for $33 million, with the final appropriation occurring in 2004.
The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.
-FWS-

Contact: Mike Blenden, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (719) 589-4021

Christine Canaly, San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (719) 256-4758, (719) 589-1518

Training for the Cannon Air Force Base in NM has led the U.S. Air Force to issue a proposal training ground in southern Colorado and eastern New Mexico that would involve C-130 and CV-22 aircraft flying as low as 200 feet above the ground.

Initially, comments were to be received by 10.4.10, but after a massive public response, plus Congressional delegations, that deadline for comments has been adjusted to November 15.

The Air Force spokesman stated that the proposal was in the early stages of assessing the impacts of the proposal, and now more comments can be offered at their website: http://www.Cannon.af.mil