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Basin and Range Watch
OPPOSE THE ARITINA SOLAR PROJECT!!
October 6th, 2021
Comment Deadline extended to 10-12!
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^Western Joshua trees on the 2,300 acre Aratina Solar Project site (All site photos by
Millie Ashpaugh)
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Aratina Solar Project would destroy 4,276 Western Joshua trees! |
October 6th, 2021 –
8minute Energy proposes to build the 2,300 acre Aratina Solar Project on 5 parcels of land surrounding Boron, California. The developer is saying it would be a solar photovoltaic power generating facility with associated facilities on 2,317 acres that would generate a projected total of approximately 530 megawatts (MW) of energy and 600 MW of energy storage. The proposed project consists of five separate sites (Sites 1 through 5) located on 22 parcels.
The proposed sites are undeveloped and support a large amount of species in the West Mojave Desert including 4,276 Western Joshua trees. There are too many trees to be salvaged or moved so most of these will be killed and mulched.
On October 15, 2019, the California Fish and Game Commission (CFGC) received a petition to list the Joshua tree as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). In February 2020, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) completed a review of the petition. In its review, CDFW determined that “the petition provides sufficient scientific information to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted” (CDFW 2020). On September 22, 2020, the CFGC accepted for consideration the petition to list the Joshua tree as threatened or endangered under the CESA and made the Joshua tree a candidate species (CFGC 2020a).
Sadly, CDFW adopted a regulation authorizing incidental take of Joshua tree during the candidacy period pursuant to Section 2084 of the Fish and Game Code for some solar energy projects in Kern and San Bernardino Counties listed in the regulation (the “2084 Rule”).
The Aratina Solar Project is one of the projects listed in the 2084 Rule, but the approval has not been decided yet. Now is the time to tell the Kern Supervisors that it is not acceptable to allow a solar developer to kill this many threatened Joshua trees.
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How old is this Joshua tree?
When Joshua trees get this old and large, they become very difficult to move. They usually break apart in the process. It is unlikely that any of the older Joshua trees on the Aratina Solar site could be successfully moved. This one may be over 500 years old.
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Other Wildlife:
Desert Tortoise:
The project site is located on desert tortoise habitat and is specifically within the Western Mojave Recovery Unit under the Revised Recovery Plan for the Mojave Population of the Desert Tortoise. The project site is located within a habitat linkage for the desert tortoise that connects populations in the Fremont-Kramer and Superior Cronese Critical Habitat Units.
Mohave Ground Squirrel:
The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) concludes that the intact nature of the vegetation communities (creosote bush scrub and Mohave desert scrub), limited human disturbances, the appropriate soil types for burrow construction, and the availability of forage and cover from predators and weather events, that the project area may support a Mohave ground squirrel population. During the botanical survey, a botanist who is also experienced with Mohave ground squirrel, heard a call she identified as Mohave ground squirrel. The Mohave ground squirrel has long been listed as Threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.
The site also provides important habitat for the burrowing owl, American badger and kit fox.
Special Status Plants:
The EIR determines that 141,319 Special Status Plants would be destroyed by this project.
These include:
Desert cymopterus: 132 individual plants
Barstow woolly sunflower: 69 plants
Mojave spineflower: 135,679 plants destroyed by the solar project
Silver cholla: 196 cacti destroyed
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This has been one of the big mitigation failures and public health impacts of large-scale solar projects in desert areas.
The removal of established vegetation, biological soil crusts, and centuries old desert pavement soils types creates opportunities for dust to be airborne every time the wind blows. Not only does fugitive dust create problems for visual and biological resources, it creates issues for public health as well. Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) is a common issue in the desert regions when too much land is disturbed. The top right photo is from 2019 of the Sunshine Valley Solar Project in Amargosa Valley, Nevada. In spite of great effort, dust was never mitigated during construction. The middle right photo is the Athos Solar Project in Riverside County, CA. The soil on the entire site was bulldozed.
Impacts to the local community:
Large-scale solar projects destroy the scenery, remove wildlife, create dust problems and access issues to large tracts of land, no matter what the ownership of the land is. The projects can require so much land that any adjacent communities and property owners are almost always adversely impacted. It becomes difficult to even sell a property adjacent to a large-scale solar project due to the adverse visual impacts. For example, the Aratina Solar Project EIR's aesthetics report concludes that the proposed project would result in adverse visual change and potentially significant impacts on existing visual character and scenic quality from public views near the project site. This includes but is not limited to areas within and surrounding SR 58, Twenty Mule Team Road, Borax Road, Sierra View Street, Chaparral Avenue, Ferguson Street, South Wesley Street, Boron Avenue, and Boron Park.
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^Above - the green shows the Visual Impacts range of the Aratina Solar Project - from the Environmental Impact Report.
The impacts to rural communities of the desert are significant and severe. These communities should not be forced to bear the burden of renewable energy build-out when the demand is in urban load centers--cities--which should be required to enable better Distributed Energy policies, and adopt more solar panels in the built environment.
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Left: Distributed energy using rooftops and structures over parking lots eliminates the need to destroy so much natural habitat.
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Sample Letter to Send to the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department
Comment Deadline Extended to October 12th!
Written comments can be sent to the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, 2700 "M" Street, Suite 100, Bakersfield, California 93301
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Dear Supervisors,
Please reject the application for the Aratina Solar Project located in Boron, California. The project would impact 2,317 acres or 3.6 square miles of undeveloped Mojave Desert habitat and be built too close to residential properties. The project would destroy over 4,200 Western Joshua trees that are now protected as a Threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act. The project would destroy over 140,000 protected Special Status Plants including many individual rare Barstow woolly sunflowers. The project will remove habitat for the Federally Threatened desert tortoise, the Mohave ground squirrel (listed as Endangered in California), the burrowing owl, the kit fox and American badger. The project would be so large and close to residential areas, the visual impacts could never be fully mitigated. Such huge impacts would diminish local property values and degrade the quality of life for residents. Construction would tear up stabilized soils and cause fugitive dust issues for years impacting local public health.
The county should reject this proposal in favor of installing solar energy on previously built areas such as rooftops and shade structures over parking lots.
Thank you
(Your name and info here)
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Top Left: Sunset on project site
Bottom Right: Large Joshua tree on project site
Bottom left: Playa Solar Project under construction on S. Nevada.
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