Oppose the Copper Rays Solar Project

Basin and Range Watch

Oppose the Copper Rays Solar Project!

^Mesquite woodlands on the site of the Copper Rays Solar Project

Tell BLM to select a Conservation Alterative to protect the irreplacible resources in the South PahrumpValley, Nevada. Comments due December 19th - Sample letter below

December 12th, 2024 - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared this Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Copper Rays Solar Project and is taking comments until December 19th, 2024.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Southern Nevada District Office, has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the construction and operation of the 700 megawatt Copper Rays Solar Project project including battery energy storage and interconnection to the regional transmission system proposed on public lands. The Copper Rays Solar Project is located on approximately 4,414 acres of BLM-managed public land in Nye County, Nevada, southeast of the town of Pahrump and 40 miles west of Las Vegas and includes a photovoltaic solar power generating facility with battery storage and interconnection to the regional transmission system. The electricity generated from the project would be collected at the onsite substation and conveyed to the existing Gamebird substation located northwest of the project site via a gen-tie transmission line. Construction for the facilities is estimated to take approximately 54-months over two phases. All energy would be exported to California.

The project will create multiple environmental and socioeconomic impacts.

Development would impact mesquite woodlands, habitat for rare plants on alkali soils, desert tortoise population, Ice Age fossils, cultural landscapes and archeology sites, visual resources (including the Old Spanish Trail viewshed), and overuse of groundwater.

The Copper Rays Solar Project will need 1,750 acre feet of water and seeks to drill a well onsite. This will draw down the aquifer and most likely impact the mesquite on the site which is used by neotropical migrating birds. It could also lower private wells in the south Pahrump Valley.

The project site has significant habitat for the Federally Threatened desert tortoise and the alkali soils on a portion of the site support rare plants like the Pahrump buckwheat.

The project potentially contains significant Pleistocene fossils. About 50 percent of the site being classified as Class 3 Moderate Potential Yield and a small portion of the site having a Class 5 Potential Very High Fossil Yeild. In spite of this, BLM has not required them to do a paleontological survey. In 2023, Laura Cunningham from Basin and Range Watch located a Columbian mammoth tooth fossil on the nearby site for the Purple Sage Energy Center with the same soil type.

The project will have significant visual impacts. It will be visible from Mt Charleston, the Bonanza Peak Wilderness Area, Highway 160, the South Pahrump Valley, the Kingston Wilderness Area in CA and a variety of other vantage points.

In 2024, Basin and Range Watch along with a coalition of other organizations sent in a nomination for a South Pahrump Valley/ Old Spanish National Historic Trail Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) instead of sacrificing over 18,000 acres of public land for large-scale energy sprawl. The Copper Rays Solar Project is just one of 5 proposed solar projects in the region

The ACEC would protect 144,715 acres of public lands in the region and if designated, is intended to prevent the solar construction from taking place. We are supporting this as an alternative to the projects. OR we are supporting a pause on the review of the 5 projects until the ACEC can be fully evaluated in a separate public review. The BLM has said the proposal does not fit in the Purpose and Need of the 3 solar projects under review. We do not agree with this. Due to all the opposition to these projects, we belive a conservation alternative is reasonable.

^The 144,715 South Pahrump Valley-Old Spanish Trail Area of Critical Environmental Concern proposal that would be a Conservation Alternative to 19,000 acres of large-scale solar planned for the area. Also in this picture are the solar proposals in the region.

^Abundant desert tortoise burrows located on the Copper Rays Solar Project site

^The potential Fossil Yeild Classification of the project site. Without surveys, we can't actually know how significant the site is but important fossils were just found on the adjacent site of the Purple Sage Energy Center. These include small mammals, invertebrates and mammoth fossils.

Sample Letter

Below is a letter you can copy and send to BLM. If you add your own thoughts, it will be more effective. Tell BLM to select a Conservation Alternative over approving the Copper Rays Solar Project. Comments are due on December 17th, 2024.

The BLM prefers that you send the comments electronically from the BLM eplanning page here. To make sure comments are received, also copy and send to BLM_NV_SND_EnergyProjects@blm.gov. Comments can also be mailed to: BLM Pahrump Field Office

Attn: Copper Rays Solar Project

4701 N. Torrey Pines Drive

Las Vegas, NV, 89130

"Dear BLM,

The Copper Rays Solar Project should be rejected and the BLM should designate the 144,714 acre South Pahrump Valley-Old Spanish Trail Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) as an alternative to approving the solar project. In spite of several requests from the public, the BLM failed to consider this as an alternative in the Environmental Impact Statement for the project. This can be done in two ways. The first way would be to designate the ACEC through the Plan Amendment for the Las Vegas Resource Management Plan being reviewed for the Copper Rays Solar Project.

The second way is to pause the review of the Copper Rays Solar Project and review the proposed ACEC through a new plan amendment and National Environmental Policy Act review with its own Environmental Impact Statement.

The Copper Rays Solar Project is one of 5 more solar projects proposed for the South Pahrump Valley spanning nearly 19,000 acres and these developments will industrialize the region, and the power would be exported to California.

The Copper Rays Solar Project would have the following impacts:

The Project would need 1,750 acre feet of water for construction and 8 acre feet per year for operation. The developer seeks to use an onsite well. This would potentially draw down the aquifer and kill mesquite on the project site. It could also impact local wells in the region of South Pahrump. All of the solar projects in the area could end up needing over 4,500 acre feet of water. The basin is overdrafted and this is not sustainable.

Project construction will create fugitive dust by removing desert pavments, biological soil crusts and disturbing clay-based soils. This can result in health impacts to local people.

Grading and site disturbance will cause invasive weeds to move in. This is a fire hazard and will need to be controlled with toxic herbicides. The nearby Yellow Pine Solar Project had a recent invasive weed outbreak and sprayed herbicides on a significant part of the project site. These herbicides can enter the watershed.

The project will remove a significant number of threatened desert tortoises from the site and the ones that are missed could be killed during construction. The species is seeing a range-wide decline of nearly 40 percent in the last two decades. Desert tortoises should not be disturbed in the Pahrump Valley.

The site has habitat for rare plants like the Pahrump buckwheat which grows on the alkali soils on the project site.

The project and associated construction will impact, crush and kill millions of living organisms. These include kangaroo rats, horned lizards, kit foxes, Mojave yuccas, pencil chollas, burrowing owls, leopard lizards, tarantulas, roadrunners, Joshua trees - the list is gigantic.

Fifty percent of the project site could contain significant Ice Age fossils. Fossils have been found near the site on identical soil types. These include mammoth, small mammals, camels and others. The BLM has not required a paleontological survey for the Copper Rays site but should do so.

The project will use lithium battery banks which can burn in a thermal runaway fire. It will take a large quantity of water to control these fires, and the fires will create toxic fumes.

The project site contains valuable mesquite woodlands which are rare and provide habitat and food for many species.

The project will cut off public access to nearly 7 square miles of public land.

The project will have irreversible visual impacts and will be visible from the community of Pahrump, wilderness areas in Nevada and California, Highway 160 and public lands throughout the region. This project and the other nearby proposals will lower the property values of nearby residents."

Thank you,

(your name and information here)