Indian Reservation
August 1, 2001
Power Drain: The U.S. Energy Crisis
California's Needs for Water, Power
Pit One Necessity Against Another
By MAHVISH KHAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
In brief, it all boils down to watts vs. water.
Authorities in the bone-dry Palm Desert east of Los Angeles, desperate for
more drinking water, have proposed replenishing the area's underground
aquifers with water pumped from a Colorado River canal. At the same time,
energy giant Calpine Corp. has plans to pump water from that same canal --
enough drinking water to supply 8,000 families a year -- to cool a proposed
530-megawatt power plant in the Palm Desert.
It would seem that the water interests would trump those of Calpine:
California has regulations meant to minimize the use of scarce water
resources in power generation. But Calpine, based in San Jose, Calif., has
found a way around those rules. It is locating the proposed Palm Desert
facility and two other power plants in the parched Southwest, on Indian
reservations -- sovereign territory exempt from state water regulations.
Environmentalists and water regulators are crying foul. "California is a
terribly water-short state," says Gerald Meral, executive director of the
Planning and Conservation League, an environmental group based in
Sacramento, Calif. "When faced with drought, there will be tremendous water
demand; the last thing we need is to evaporate our fresh water into the
air."
Calpine spokesman William Highlander acknowledges "there will always be
controversy with the fresh-water issue," but he says Calpine chose the
Indian reservations for several reasons, not just access to fresh water. He
says the tribes' cooperative attitude was in sharp contrast to the hostile
reception power-plant operators often find in more-populated areas. The
reservations' locations, he says -- in California, Nevada and Arizona -- lie
in close proximity to high-voltage transmission lines, allowing inexpensive
access to the electricity grid linking the main markets of Los Angeles and
Las Vegas.
And Calpine, Mr. Highlander adds, can't be accused of insensitivity: The
company already operates three California power plants cooled by
nondrinkable wastewater, with two more wastewater-cooled plants in
development. For that and other reasons, some environmentalists consider
Calpine exemplary in the industry.
"It would seem out of character for them to risk their good reputation,"
says Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resource Defense Council in San
Francisco. Mr. Cavanagh notes further that many Indian tribes desperately
need revenue from projects like power generation to pay for social services.
The Cahuilla Indians' Torres Martinez Reservation in the Palm Desert, for
example, relies almost entirely on federal grants, says tribal member Bobbi
Fletcher, coordinator of the tribe's power-plant negotiations with Calpine.
The deal is the only economic-development project the desert reservation has
going, he says, and is thus the linchpin of the tribe's effort to generate
income for everything from sewer lines and housing repair to road
development and human services.
Still, Calpine has come under a cascade of criticism. Environmentalists and
others insist Calpine should explore alternatives to fresh-water use. In
addition to wastewater, available in abundance near urban areas, so-called
dry-cooling technology now makes it possible to cool power plants using 95%
less water. Yet Calpine, citing the extra cost of dry cooling and the
surplus water allocated to Indian tribes, is pursuing the fresh-water route
instead.
"This is not the best use of our resources," says Steven Robbins of Palm
Desert's Coachella Valley Water District, which opposes Calpine's plans.
Daniel Frink, an attorney with California's Water Control Board, says that
had the same power project been proposed for outside the reservation,
Calpine would have been out of luck. The Colorado River, which feeds the
Coachella Canal in that part of California, was apportioned among California
and neighboring states years ago -- to the point, environmentalists say,
that the flow left in the river is inadequate for wildlife.
"It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to acquire a new water right
to the Colorado River in California," Mr. Frink says.
Yet, because of the reservations' sovereign status, state and federal water
regulators say they are hamstrung from stopping Calpine's Indian strategy.
In the southern Nevada desert, for example, Calpine wants to pump some 7,000
acre-feet a year of groundwater to cool a proposed plant on the Fort Mojave
Reservation of the Moapa band of Pauite Indians. State officials, fearing
the project will diminish groundwater badly needed for fast growing
residential areas around Las Vegas, have formally opposed the proposal. So
have the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, both
of which are concerned that groundwater use for industrial purposes will
harm animal habitat by drying up vital desert springs and streams.
But Calpine, through its Indian agreement, claims rights to some of the
reservation's surplus water, which in 1998 amounted to a total of roughly
35,000 acre-feet -- the volume of water needed to cover 35,000 acres to a
depth of one foot. Regulators say there's not much they can do to stop the
company.
"If the tribe wishes to exert their sovereignty, they have that option,"
says Michael Anderson of Nevada's State Engineer's office. "In the end, it
is the tribe, not the state of Nevada, who will divvy out water for the
project."
Some environmentalists worry that Calpine's apparent successes, and the
nation's thirst for power, will encourage other energy companies to site
projects on Indian reservations, further straining water tables across the
West.
"This is the latest example of escaping state law by operating on Indian
lands," says Todd Carter of the Natural Resources News Service in
Washington, D.C. "What's been happening for years with casinos is now
happening with environmental projects, too."
Robert Looper, an executive with Summit Group International, a Colorado
developer of power projects, doesn't disagree. He's currently studying
Calpine's Indian strategy for possible use by Summit.
"When you're on Indian reservations," he notes with some envy, "the states
no longer have jurisdiction." |
