by M. Diane Bairstow

On the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 7, the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Baca Grande resident Alex Rykken, saying that a man was hurling himself at her windows and demanding to be let into her house.  He was later identified as Calvin A. Tibbs, a 24 year-old male.

“I thought he was obviously impaired,” Rykken said, “He would fall, roll on his back, jump up and hurl himself at my patio doors yelling, ‘Let me in.’” Rykken said the assailant threw himself repeatedly against her large, 10′ windows and sliding glass patio door.

This continued for at least a half an hour, said Rykken. When she attempted to use the phone, she said the assailant would growl, curse and pound harder. She called  911, and then she called her neighbors Steve Fillenberg and Jane Adorney. Finally, the assailant hefted a huge rock and threw it through the sliding glass door. “I believe he would have killed me,” Alex told me, still visibly shaken days later.

“I don’t like conflict or violence,” Fillenberg, a volunteer firefighter, said as he described his part in this incident, “but my neighbor called, and I went to help.” Adorney picked him up from the Baca Grande Fire Department at about 7:20pm and told him of the phone call from Rykken, and as their car pulled into Rykken’s driveway, he said, the assailant was climbing through the hole in the glass door.

Fillenberg said the headlights seemed to distract Tibbs from entering the house. “Out of the periphery” Fillenberg said, “came this young black kid with dreds, and I could tell he was pretty messed up.  I told him ‘Why don’t you just go home and leave this lady alone?’”  Fillenberg continued to talk to him soothingly, but the young man wouldn’t listen, he said. “I knew,” Fillenberg explained, “that I would have to get him away from the car and take control. I managed to get him on the ground and put a knee on his chest, but that didn’t work.” Tibbs managed to break free and, according to Fillenberg, started growling and lunged at him, trying to bite his face and neck. They wrestled, Fillenberg got away, but Tibbs lunged at him again.

Fillenberg fell on the ice and landed on his hands and knees. “I felt excruciating pain in my left knee and wrist.” He managed to stand; but said that Tibbs lunged at him and knocked him down again. The pain was so severe, Fillenberg couldn’t get up.  Fillenberg said that Tibbs dragged him up and knocked him down several times.

“I thought ‘This kid is crazy, I’ve got to get to safety.’ I don’t know how I did it, but I drug myself to the back door of the car. Jane unlocked it and I crawled in.” Fillenberg said.

According to Fillenberg, the assailant leapt onto the hood of the car, tearing at the windshield wipers and banging his fist against the glass in front of Adorney’s face. They realized they had to get him away from the house, so they drove several miles away with the Tibbs still clinging to the hood and banging his fist on the windshield. When Adorney slammed on the brakes, Tibbs fell from the hood to the front of the vehicle. Adorney began backing up, and the young man continued running toward the car trying to attack it, they said. They got farther away and called an ambulance.

Shortly thereafter, State Trooper Brian Bouet and another trooper arrived on the scene. Fillenberg was already in the ambulance, and Adorney told them that they had last seen the assailant in the area of Enchanted Way. He was arrested on Splendid Way, where, according to the police report, he had broken out windows in another residence prior to being detained. Saguache Sheriff’s Dept. Sargeant Tristan Van Zalinge, Deputy Tyler Harford and Deputy Kayla Covington were also on the scene.

Calvin A. Tibbs, who has lived in the Crestone area for a year or two, was arrested and identified by the victims. He tested positive for alcohol, but declined to submit to a blood test for drugs. He is being held on a $50,000 bond and was charged with criminal mischief, 2nd degree burglary, and 2nd degree assault, which, according to Sheriff Norris, would probably change to 3rd degree assault at arraignment as a result of the seriousness of the injuries received by Steve Fillenberg.  Tibbs was known locally as a mild-tempered person, and it was not known what had provoked his behavior.

Fillenberg’s wrist and femur were fractured. He won’t be able to work for at least two months.

Sheriff Norris encourages all residents to contact him or Under-Sheriff Trevor Hawkins with any tips they might have of any suspicious activity in the area. Unless you are willing to give your name, they can’t issue a warrant and directly act on tips; nevertheless, any information you have will be useful in conducting investigations.

People have expressed concern that our community is no longer safe. Sheriff Norris feels this is an isolated incident, and it probably is. I have lived here 25 years and during that time, there have been a couple of incidences of violent crimes, occasional petty theft and some vandalism. Anything can happen anywhere. We’re no different than anyplace else; we’re just smaller.

A lone bison wanders near Cottonwood Creek in the southwest area of the Baca Grants. Did it come from the Baca Wildlife Refuge left over from the days of the Baca Ranch or had he escaped from the Medanao Ranch? This could be the last of the wild bison running free. Photo by Cora Wilker

On January 19, at least two people sighted a lone buffalo (bison) roaming along Camino del Rey, around the far western end of the Cottonwood drainage. One called the POA and then the police department, but neither agency knew what to do about it.

In an attempt to get some information on this “breaking news” story for the Eagle, I called Zapata Ranch, Colorado  Division of Wildlife (CDOW), the Nature Conservancy and Gary Boyce.  No one knew, for sure, where the buffalo came from or to whom it belonged.  Jeff Gossage, from Zapata Ranch, said he might come out and take a look. He promised to give me a call if he did come to round up the buffalo, but no call was forthcoming. Gossage told me that Gary Boyce had, at least at one time, owned one lone buffalo.

Gary said that when he owned the Baca Ranch. before it became the Baca Wildlife Refuge, he had purchased a buffalo from the Medano Ranch. The buffalo, a male, liked Gary’s property better than his own turf, and when the buffalo’s owners came to round him up, the buffalo tore down 7 or 8 gates on the way home. Gary decided it was cheaper to buy the buffalo than to keep fixing gates.  “I saw him as the last of the real bison,” Gary said, “the wild buffalo.” Gary sold the ranch, and on January 1, 2005 when he moved his 85 bulls, 200 head of cattle and numerous horses from the ranch, the buffalo was not seen and didn’t come along. Gary hasn’t seen him since.

photo by Cora Wilker

Is this that same buffalo? Has he been roaming wild and free all these years? No one knows. But it seems likely. Gary likes to think of him as “a free spirit,” and in his opinion, “he should be left that way.”

“We never bothered him,” Gary said, “and he never bothered us.” So if you see a buffalo roaming around, and he’s not bothering you, I’d say, let him be free—he may be the last of his kind.

An election to recall County Clerk Melinda Myers, held on January 24, 2012, unseated Myers, just over a year after she won her second term as clerk. The total vote in the county was 941 in favor of recall, and 453 against. Two alternate candidates, Carla Gomez, Republican, and Pat Jenkins, Independent, were on the ballot, and Gomez took the election 762 to 319. Ballots were counted by hand and it was reported that the election went smoothly and the tallying went quickly.

The election of November 2010 has been fraught with controversy ever since it occurred. The controversy stemmed from a mistake in the election night count, which originally called Gomez, who ran in that election as well, the winner. Later, Clerk Myers noticed a discrepancy in the number of votes tallied and the number of votes cast, and re-ran the numbers. In the second count, it was discovered that Precinct 5, which includes Crestone and Baca, had not been counted correctly because of a computer program that tabulates votes. When the votes were recounted, the 197 extra votes from District 5 changed the outcome of the election, and showed Myers as the winner. A number of investigations ensued, including an investigation by the Colorado State Grand Jury, which indicated Myers was innocent of criminal activity or gross negligence, but the political controversy continued. A few months later a recall petition was circulated and signed by enough voters to put the measure on the ballot.

At the special recall election,  which was run by the Saguache County Treasurer in collaboration with El Paso County, eight of the nine precincts showed majorities going in favor of the recall. In Precinct 5 (Crestone/Baca), which is where the election was won in 2010, 261 voters said “no” to the recall, while 42 voted in favor.

A number of issues were raised prior to the election. Many arose because of legal challenges brought by Marilyn Marks, an Aspen resident who identifies herself as an election advocate. One of the issues that drew the most attention was whether a County Clerk has the right to withhold ballots from the public.

Shortly after the election, which was handled under the jurisdiction of the previous Secretary of State, the new Secretary, Tim Geitner, under pressure from Marks, ordered Myers to release the ballots for a hand count, which he planned to allow Marks to observe. Myers refused to turn the ballots over to the Secretary without a judge’s order, saying that doing so might violate her legal obligation to protect voter privacy. Geitner contended that county clerks do not have that right, and went to court to challenge Myers on the issue. Judge Martin Gonzales ruled that clerks don’t have such a right to withhold ballots, and Myers did release the ballots to Geitner, who conducted a review of the ballots in Saguache, with a number of citizens observing. Later, Marks made copies of the ballots, except for a few that Myers contended could be traced to the individual voters.

Another issue between Marks and Myers was related to CORA requests, Colorado Open Records Act allows citizens to request public records. While there is a great deal to be said for open elections and hand counting of ballots, debates are ongoing about whether all ballots should be public, or whether making them so violates privacy of voters. Other issues that this election raises, some of which are now being addressed with new regulations at the Secretary of State’s office, are whether CORA requests must take precedence over other county business. Secretary Geitner recently announced new regulations which limit CORA requests that are filed close to elections. He is also clarifying procedures for releasing ballots. Controversy is still alive over whether hand counts are superior to machine counts. The recall election itself was hand counted.

The controversy stirred up a lot of conflict in Saguache County, and has cost the county tens of thousands of dollars in staff time, legal fees, and election related expenses. Hopefully, in the long run, this will prove to be a valuable experience for the voting public, and the important elections of 2012 will be handled correctly.

CSP uses mirror fields to focus solar energy on a tower receiver near the center of the array of mirrors. Steam from boilers in the tower drives a turbine, generating electricity for the transmission grid.

This is the first in a two-part series examining the energy sector’s role in healing climate change.  I’m investigating both large- and small-scale energy projects—two major approaches whose often conflicting, polarized mindsets genuinely reflect the larger complexity of community and world transformation today.  I seek the ever-elusive “bigger-picture” perspective that might bring a synergy to both, and perhaps add some clarity amidst the confusion.   This month’s article is primarily about the large-scale; next’s will cover the small.

The global context:  The IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) identifies 2015 as “the tipping point,” the time after which no human activity will forestall catastrophic global climate change (CC), although human carbon emissions won’t peak until around 2030.  CC detractors still largely disregard CC science.

Of Earth’s 7+ billion humans, nearly 1% are homeless today.  Many are “climate refugees,” including 20+ million victims (four hundredtimes our valley’s population) from the 2010 Pakistani monsoon event alone.  We’ll have an estimated 200 million climate refugees by 2050, so beyond politics, it’s actually a real survival issue.  CC detractors usually aren’t among the homeless!  Pew Research reports that 84% of the world believes CC to be real, and majorities in all countries surveyed believe humanity is to blame.

Tomorrow's large-scale, multi-bio-regional green-energy systems will provide greater resilience for more extreme climate change. The African/European Desertec Supergrid Project will link electricity generated in Africa to consumers in Europe and employ multiple renewable fuel-sources that will generate 100GW by 2050.

In all this data, surely the most powerful headline is the “dead”-line: FOUR YEARS LEFT!  It elicits unpredictable, powerful feelings and emotions: grief, dread, fear, anxiety, anger, despair, helplessness, and hopefully, a greater sense of urgency—the motivation to do all we can, in time.  Many folks, lead by activists like Tim DeChristopher and Bill McKibben, have adopted direct civil disobedience against massive fossil-fuel energy projects in response.  It’s radical decision-making and action-time!

In this context, Global-Interdependence Philosophy sees all aspects of civilization as interrelated, especially energy usage, recognizing that global problems like CC require global solutions.  It uses collaborative, interdependent relationships among governments, utilities, corporations, and developer/financiers to implement quick, effective, large- and mega-projects.  It also empowers small ones—as the underlying corporate infrastructure providing essential small-scale solution-ingredients like the solar panel.

Yet such obvious large/small interdependence doesn’t defuse their quarrel concerning appropriate project scale and associated local impacts. Large projects are criticized for greater local disruption, while small ones are less disruptive (and less carbon-reducing).  Sometimes we’re culpable no matter what we do (100 million of the billion birds we kill each year die colliding with glass).

Bio-regional interdependence sees our valley (SLV) non-autonomously, as an individual bio-region in the larger continental family and global community of bio-regions, a key contributing participant in the larger, organic whole.   It recognizes that neighboring bio-regions aren’t always so renewable-energy-fortunate.  Being a good bio-regional neighbor means sharing our “solar wealth” with less fortunate neighboring bio-regions.  Large-scale projects and relationships help make such important sharing happen.

Keeping Crestone and the SLV pristine requires massive environmental degradation elsewhere today. If we don't make renewables-based power, we directly support a Colorado coal power plant like this one. Ours is the Craig Station (1,274 MW).

Large-scale renewable-energy systems include hydrogen, bio-fuels, solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal energy. These renewable energy sources lead to fuel-cell transportation, 120,000 megawatts (MW) of wind-power, and many 100,000’s of MW’s of solar and geothermal projects worldwide.

Some ideological pivoting is required for small- and large-approach advocates to enter into authentic, mutually-respectful partnership.  The Occupy Movement demonstrates our mistrust of global corporate manipulations that seek individual rights but reject obvious responsibilities. Yet such self-protective corporate behaviors are part of human nature.  We all seek to protect ourselves and the things we value—in our case, this precious valley and a balanced, whole, nature-loving life.  But even in our treasured remoteness, we live in profound interdependence with the corporations providing our housing, workplaces, energy/fuel, transportation, clothing, healthcare, communications, entertainment and leisure.  Eliminating just one large-scale corporate enterprise (fossil-fuel-based trucking, for example) could decimate the resiliency afforded by our food/fuel/supplies in days.  Clearly, our sustenance takes a global corporate village today.

The large-scale approach thus seeks fair, balanced trade between the valley and the larger world, a sharing of the corporate infrastructure burden, and accepting at least some of the responsibility for sustaining it here.  Thankfully, multi-decade transformative leadership by far-sighted visionaries like Paul Hawken, Al Gore, Amory Lovins, William McDonough and Jeremy Rifkin pioneered green commerce models that have improved the global business activities of established corporations and new ones like SolarReserve.

The current (2010) global carbon footprint is over 36.8 metric gigatons/CO2/year (gty), with (coal-intensive) power generation (46%), transportation (23%), and industry (19%) leading the emissions parade.  Large-scale efforts in these major sectors will thus mitigate the lion’s share, followed by multi-scale global energy-efficiency improvements, smart growth, land-use-practice improvements, and the small-scale approach, over the next 20-30 years.  Clearly, more approaches are better than one!

SLV now hosts ca. 40-45 MW of medium-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar, so we’ve still miles to go.  SolarReserve is currently SLV’s only larger-scale, high-effectiveness, quick-turn-around option.  Each of its two planned 100 MW phases (75% of SLV’s peak load ea.) take 2.5 years to build.  When fully completed, it would single-handedly mitigate the majority of SLV’s carbon footprint—2.4 million/tons/CO2/yr!  Most or all the power will stay here short-term, enhancing our electrical resilience, self-reliance and energy-independence while small-scale projects ramp up.

A proven technology, SolarReserve has similar Power Tower projects under construction in Utah, Spain and California.  It will require less water than existing on-site agricultural uses, and become SLV’s sole provider of commercial, full-cycle solar power (night and day).  Other benefits include: appropriate siting away from wetlands/flyways, 50 long-term jobs, significant, sustained, county tax-base revenue-enhancement, and not requiring any community effort, organizing, fundraising or up-front costs.

Concerns/criticisms include tower height and glow, potential salt-pond environmental issues and possible avian impacts.  For more info., please review Matie Belle Lakish’s Eagle article (January 2012, page 28), or websites: www.solar-reserve.com, www.saguachecounty.net (for 1041 information/other information).   Although not requiring EPA review, SolarReserve’s on-site biological survey, literature review, etc. are available in the 1041 documents.

In the bigger picture, SolarReserve will greatly support the health and vitality of the larger whole, the global interdependence of humanity and nature.  If we still had lots of time, and the SLV was an idyllic, autonomous world unto itself, we could legitimately wait for superior technologies and/or small-is-beautiful methodologies to save the day. Unfortunately though, time is short, we don’t live in a vacuum, and we can’t continue shirking the CC heavy-lifting.  Although it’s imperfect, one trait makes SolarReserve admirable and worthy of our support:  its huge, global-interdependence-recognizing, carbon-saving paradigm is doable, right here, right now, and hopefully, in time.

Next month I’ll investigate the much-loved small-scale approach to Earth-healing.

A long-time Crestone sustainability advocate, writer, community organizer and consultant, Lee Temple has been living the low (carbon) life and continuously producing “100% Genuine SLV Solar Power” since 1993.  These exciting topics and more are covered in his forthcoming book, The Inherent Unity of All Things, Healing the World with Mindfulness, Understanding, and Loving Kindness.

Yes to recall       941

No to recall        453

Carla Gomez      762

Pat Jenkins        319

by Crestone Conglomerate

http://larrycalloway.com

The above diagram gives a basic breakdown of the inner workings of how clean electrical power is generated in the molten salt towers. To see the diagram in color, and for more information, go to their website at solarreserve.com

Saguache County Commissioners set the Public Hearing for the SolarReserve’s power tower generating proposal for February 2, from 2-8pm, at the Center School Auditorium. Public comments are now being accepted for the project, and can be submitted in writing until 3pm on Thursday, January 26. Comments may either be emailed to Wendi Maez at wmaez@saguachecounty-co.gov or mailed to Saguache County Land Use at P.O. Box 326, Saguache, CO 81149.

The proposed solar electric generating facility would consist of two, 100-megawatt projects, each consisting of a 656 ft. tower surrounded by approximately 2000 acres of heliostats, or reflective concave mirrors, that would reflect sunlight onto a central receiver at the top of the tower where molten sodium and potassium nitrate are circulating. Heat would be collected and stored in the molten nitrate salts, which would then transfer the heat to a generator where power would be produced. The project would to be sited next to the major 230 kilovolt (kV) transmission line so that power can be transmitted to locations outside the Valley. At this time, SolarReserve does not have a power purchase agreement, but is actively seeking an agreement with Xcel or Tri-State to buy the power.

Saguache County Land Use Department is the County department working most closely with SolarReserve. The application has been posted to the Saguache County website and can be accessed by typing Solar Reserve into the Search box at the upper left of the website, www.saguachecounty.net. Nancy Lauro, of Russell Engineering of Durango, has once more been engaged to assist Saguache County Commissioners in the 1041 process, and she has already submitted a list of questions to be addressed by the applicant.

The SolarReserve application is long, with 57 different sections or entries. Most of them are visual simulations, maps, diagrams, or studies on various topics by contracted groups. The real application, and the most informative document for most people, is #55, the Final 1041 Permit Application. This is the actual document that Solar Reserve is required to submit to the County, and it has many headings and sub-headings in its 101 pages. There are also more detailed reports on topics of interest to citizens in the other 54 sections of the application. These include a number of computer-generated visual simulations of the two towers and heliostats from various locations in the county, studies done by independent groups on a number of topics such as sound and noise, birds and wildlife, nitrate salts, geology, FAA regulations, soil types, and numerous other topics that the public had expressed an interest in knowing more about when SolarReserve presented their Preliminary Application in 2010.

As I read through several of the reports, one thing became clear: this type of project has never been done before.  Many questions were answered with computer modeling. All the views of the tower, for instance, are computer simulations. Bird impact studies are based on very limited real experience with projects of a similar type combined with much modeling. The sections dealing with the sodium and potassium nitrate salts gave the example of the much smaller three-year pilot project done at Sandia National Laboratory that used a similar, but not exact, type of salt combination to collect and transfer heat. This would truly be a pilot project.

The 656 foot tower would definitely change the nighttime skyline. Several lights, both blinking and steady, will be necessary to bring the towers into FAA compliance. Since the towers will be close to the airport, there may be some impacts to aviation.

The tower will be massive, and it will be surrounded by a container wall that will be able to catch and hold the molten salts should there be an emergency that would cause the salts to escape. I found the section on Geotechnical Feasibility interesting, and this quote by Ninyo & Moore insightful: “Due to the anticipated, relatively shallow depth of groundwater at the project site and the unconsolidated, saturated, poorly graded, fine-grained nature of the on-site soils, it is our opinion that liquefaction will be a design concern and should be studied in detail during de-sign-level evaluations.” How well this has been done is a question that deserves to be asked.

At the public hearing on the Preliminary Application that was held in 2010, a number of Center residents spoke to the need for economic development in the town. Since this project is close to Center, that town will be impacted more than northern areas of the county. There is an extensive section in the 1041 application on the economic impacts that are expected and the job opportunities likely to be available. Approximately 250 to 300 jobs will be filled over the 30-month course of construction, with about 50 ongoing positions once construction is complete. Some specialty areas will be contracted out, and SolarReserve anticipates that many specialized positions will require recruiting workers from other areas. However, a number of skilled and unskilled construction positions will be available for local workers, and a job fair will be held in Center. The company also hopes to work with Trinidad State Junior College and Adams State College to develop training programs. They anticipate the skilled wage to be about $40/hr.

Revenues for the County are also an area of interest, especially to the county commissioners and local governments that are looking at losses in tax revenues as a result of the drying up of agricultural lands. Farmers who have relied on well water to irrigate may have to retire their land, which will mean less spending at local businesses and less revenue for school and County budgets. Projects such as SolarReserve’s could moderate those losses.

A Development Agreement has been submitted to commissioners by SolarReserve, and, although it had not been posted at press time, should be available on the website by January 2. Commissioners will hold a work session on January 17 to discuss it. The work session, although open to the public, will not be an opportunity for the public to talk. A time has not yet been set. Please check the website or call the Land Use office for further information.

The management alternative that is adopted for the CCP planning effort will complement a larger landscape scale conservation effort to protect the rich diversity of wildlife habitat, including some of the nation’s most dynamic wetlands through the use of conservation easements. The landscape conservation effort is a part of the Secretary of Interior Salazar’s vision for conserving the working landscape of the San Luis Valley under America’s Great Outdoors initiative.

“The Service is committed to taking significant steps to help achieve the Secretary’s vision through our planning efforts in working with partners throughout the San Luis Valley,” stated Steve Guertin, Regional Director. “The input we receive on the CCP is an integral part in moving us forward in this direction.”

The CCP will address the conservation of fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats, and describe opportunities for wildlife-dependent recreation that are compatible with refuge purposes. It will guide management decisions and set forth goals, objectives, and strategies to accomplish these tasks. The Service hopes to finalize the plan by late 2014.

Throughout the public comment period, the Service will host a series of public meetings in the Valley. During these meetings, the Service will present four management alternatives:  (1) no action; (2-Proposed) wildlife populations, strategic habitat restoration, and enhanced public uses; (3) habitat restoration and ecological processes; and (4) maximize public use opportunities. In addition, the Service will provide background information on the larger landscape scale conservation effort.

These meetings are scheduled as follows:

January 23—6:30-8:30pm, Alamosa County Building, 8900 Independence Way, Room 108, Alamosa

January 24—6:30-8:30pm, Monte Vista COOP Community Room, 1901 E. Highway 160, Monte Vista

January 25—6:30-8:30pm, Moffat School, 501 Garfield Avenue, Moffat

The refuges provide important habitat for nesting, migrating, and wintering birds, including grebes, herons, ibis, ducks, geese, hawks, eagles, falcons, shorebirds, owls, songbirds, and others. They are also an important stop over for numerous migratory birds. Nearly 20,000 sandhill cranes spend several months in the San Luis Valley during the spring and fall migrations, feeding and resting to replace critical fat reserves. Additionally, many species of mammals also use the refuges, including elk, deer, coyote, porcupine, and other small mammals.

For more information about the alternatives, to subscribe to the mailing list, or to submit comments on the project visit: www.fws.gov/alamosa/planning. Comments will be accepted during the meetings or via letters addressed to: Laurie Shannon, Planning Team Leader, PO Box 25486, Denver, CO 80225-0486; or via email to SLVrefugesplanning@fws.gov.

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/mountain-prairie. Connect with our Facebook page, follow our Twitter feed, watch our YouTube channel, and view our flickr photo stream.

by Matie Belle Lakish

The above diagram gives a basic breakdown of the inner workings of how clean electrical power is generated in the molten salt towers. To see the diagram in color, and for more information, go to their website at solarreserve.com

Saguache County Commissioners set the Public Hearing for the SolarReserve’s power tower generating proposal for February 2, from 2-8pm, at the Center School Auditorium. Public comments are now being accepted for the project, and can be submitted in writing until 3pm on Thursday, January 26. Comments may either be emailed to Wendi Maez at wmaez@saguachecounty-co.gov or mailed to Saguache County Land Use at P.O. Box 326, Saguache, CO 81149.

The proposed solar electric generating facility would consist of two, 100-megawatt projects, each consisting of a 656 ft. tower surrounded by approximately 2000 acres of heliostats, or reflective concave mirrors, that would reflect sunlight onto a central receiver at the top of the tower where molten sodium and potassium nitrate are circulating. Heat would be collected and stored in the molten nitrate salts, which would then transfer the heat to a generator where power would be produced. The project would to be sited next to the major 230 kilovolt (kV) transmission line so that power can be transmitted to locations outside the Valley. At this time, SolarReserve does not have a power purchase agreement, but is actively seeking an agreement with Xcel or Tri-State to buy the power.

Saguache County Land Use Department is the County department working most closely with SolarReserve. The application has been posted to the Saguache County website and can be accessed by typing Solar Reserve into the Search box at the upper left of the website, www.saguachecounty.net. Nancy Lauro, of Russell Engineering of Durango, has once more been engaged to assist Saguache County Commissioners in the 1041 process, and she has already submitted a list of questions to be addressed by the applicant.

The SolarReserve application is long, with 57 different sections or entries. Most of them are visual simulations, maps, diagrams, or studies on various topics by contracted groups. The real application, and the most informative document for most people, is #55, the Final 1041 Permit Application. This is the actual document that Solar Reserve is required to submit to the County, and it has many headings and sub-headings in its 101 pages. There are also more detailed reports on topics of interest to citizens in the other 54 sections of the application. These include a number of computer-generated visual simulations of the two towers and heliostats from various locations in the county, studies done by independent groups on a number of topics such as sound and noise, birds and wildlife, nitrate salts, geology, FAA regulations, soil types, and numerous other topics that the public had expressed an interest in knowing more about when SolarReserve presented their Preliminary Application in 2010.

As I read through several of the reports, one thing became clear: this type of project has never been done before. Many questions were answered with computer modeling. All the views of the tower, for instance, are computer simulations. Bird impact studies are based on very limited real experience with projects of a similar type combined with much modeling. The sections dealing with the sodium and potassium nitrate salts gave the example of the much smaller three-year pilot project done at Sandia National Laboratory that used a similar, but not exact, type of salt combination to collect and transfer heat. This would truly be a pilot project.

The 656 foot tower would definitely change the nighttime skyline. Several lights, both blinking and steady, will be necessary to bring the towers into FAA compliance. Since the towers will be close to the airport, there may be some impacts to aviation.

The tower will be massive, and it will be surrounded by a container wall that will be able to catch and hold the molten salts should there be an emergency that would cause the salts to escape. I found the section on Geotechnical Feasibility interesting, and this quote by Ninyo & Moore insightful: “Due to the anticipated, relatively shallow depth of groundwater at the project site and the unconsolidated, saturated, poorly graded, fine-grained nature of the on-site soils, it is our opinion that liquefaction will be a design concern and should be studied in detail during de-sign-level evaluations.” How well this has been done is a question that deserves to be asked.

At the public hearing on the Preliminary Application that was held in 2010, a number of Center residents spoke to the need for economic development in the town. Since this project is close to Center, that town will be impacted more than northern areas of the county. There is an extensive section in the 1041 application on the economic impacts that are expected and the job opportunities likely to be available. Approximately 250 to 300 jobs will be filled over the 30-month course of construction, with about 50 ongoing positions once construction is complete. Some specialty areas will be contracted out, and SolarReserve anticipates that many specialized positions will require recruiting workers from other areas. However, a number of skilled and unskilled construction positions will be available for local workers, and a job fair will be held in Center. The company also hopes to work with Trinidad State Junior College and Adams State College to develop training programs. They anticipate the skilled wage to be about $40/hr.

Revenues for the County are also an area of interest, especially to the county commissioners and local governments that are looking at losses in tax revenues as a result of the drying up of agricultural lands. Farmers who have relied on well water to irrigate may have to retire their land, which will mean less spending at local businesses and less revenue for school and County budgets. Projects such as SolarReserve’s could moderate those losses.

A Development Agreement has been submitted to commissioners by SolarReserve, and, although it had not been posted at press time, should be available on the website by January 2. Commissioners will hold a work session on January 17 to discuss it. The work session, although open to the public, will not be an opportunity for the public to talk. A time has not yet been set. Please check the website or call the Land Use office for further information.

by William Alder Lakish

On Tuesday, December 20, at 9:48pm, on the cusp of the longest night of the year, Baca firefighters responded to a chimney fire call in Chalets I. Two fire fighters who were at the station donned structural bunker gear, provided incident information for later-arriving firefighters, and pulled out the initial attack engine. In less than ten minutes CAFS-1 with a crew of three was en-route to the scene with sirens blaring. Minutes later Attack 1 and the 7 Up Truck pulled out with three firefighters in full personal protective equipment.

CAFS-1 and crew arrived fourteen minutes after the 911 page to find a wood frame single story home belching thick gray smoke out of the open garage door, attic vents, and chimney. A Mutual Aid request was radioed to the Northern Saguache Fire Protection District. Crestone and Moffat fire fighters reported to their stations.

Residents of the home said that the chimney fire had ignited the wood framing built around the fireplace insert, and flames were spreading from the void space into a linen closet. Before firefighters arrived, residents tried to slow the fire’s spread with fire extinguishers and pots of water, and to remove flaming fabrics from the linen closet. They were unable to find the pet cat.

Firefighters encouraged residents not to inhale the intensifying smoke. Most structure fire fatalities occur from inhalation of toxic smoke and gases.

Following size-up protocols, propane was immediately turned off and electric breaker panels identified by Incident Commander Ivan Lakish. Simultaneously, Chief Ben Brack donned Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (Scuba diving gear for firefighters) in order to safely enter the house to extinguish the belching fireplace, locate the cat, and determine the extent of the fire. Brack used a Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC) to scan through the smoke to locate flames and hot spots. Other Baca crewmembers charged pumps, dragged hoses and set two ladders to access the attic crawl space.

Chief Brack quickly removed the fuel from the fireplace, then attempted to starve the fire of oxygen by utilizing a Chimfex flare. Unfortunately, the fire had already extended outside of the chimney and firebox into the wood framing around the fireplace insert. Tongues of fire extended inside the wall, engulfing the closet. A sheet of flames surged across the ceiling.

Brack ordered an immediate water assault into the void space using an inch and a half attack hose to knock down the advancing flames and extinguish the remaining heat in the stove’s firebox. In an effort to protect the structure from extensive water damage, a precise application of water was made with an 8’ piercing nozzle that was rammed through the drywall ceiling to confront the fire from above.

A Saguache County Sheriff’s Deputy arrived on scene to assist fire fighters and the residents while Crestone and Moffat fire fighters “stood by” in case the fire extended beyond initial attack capabilities.

The flames were extinguished using less than 200 gallons of water. Amid thick smoke and steam, Chief Brack and Assistant Chief Chris Botz manually removed smoldering insulation and debris from the void space and linen closet. Baca volunteers removed embers from the ceiling and interior of the framed walls where the flames had traveled. Other volunteers worked to ventilate smoke, extinguish hot spots, and prevent hoses from freezing in the 13° weather.

The cat was found, safe and sound.

Mutual aid resources were stood down, and the house was ventilated. No one was hurt. Damages were contained to the fireplace framing and the linen closet and contents. Some residual smoke damage occurred close to the fire.

The fire was declared fully extinguished at approximately 1:10am. Utilities were turned back on to the house and lightly frozen hoses were rolled and equipment repacked. Following a final check for heat, trucks and crew returned to the firehouse to undertake post incident readiness procedures. All trucks, gear and equipment were cleaned and readied for reuse, ensuring that equipment is fully operational for subsequent events.

The six local volunteers who extinguished the blaze convened for an after-action review de-briefing that focused on what went well, and what could be improved in future operations. Due to the fast response time, good teamwork, and effective use of prior training, the team considered the operation a success. Had these elements not been present, it is likely the fire would have extended into the space between the ceiling and the roof causing a much larger fire with much more extensive damage.

All volunteers were released from the incident and retired to their respective residences at approximately 2am. Due to the smell of smoke, the residents spent the night at a friend’s house. At the time of this writing, the residents were still planning on hosting their annual solstice party at the house, despite the fire’s effects.