TRI-COUNTY — Within a matter of days, plans for a proposed hydropower facility northeast of Alpine became publicly known then abandoned by the company due to protests from area landowners.
Locals were narrowly alerted to the issue via a notice published last week in the Jeff Davis Mountain Dispatch. Paradigm Shift Hydro, LLC, a company based out of Rhode Island, recently filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a large-scale hydropower facility dubbed the “Last Chance Energy Project” after Last Chance Mesa. The “Declaration of Intent” stated that the deadline for filing comments, protests and motions to intervene on the project would have been September 3.
Paradigm Shift Hydro’s website lacks detail about the company, but FERC documents show it has recently filed several other applications for similar hydropower projects in different states.
The application for the Alpine site states that the project is a “closed-loop pumped storage hydropower facility” consisting of two 50-foot-high dams, a 50-acre upper reservoir and a 75-acre lower reservoir connected by industrial pipes, as well as other pumps, turbines, concrete and steel powerhouses and a new transmission line that would connect to an existing American Electric Power (AEP) substation nearby.
These facilities — there are 43 across the country, according to the Department of Energy — are considered to be renewable, with power being generated as water moves across reservoirs at different elevations. They are often referred to as “water batteries” because they respond to power demands, with water passing through turbines to upper and lower reservoirs to generate electricity when needed.
For area landowners near Last Chance Mesa and Brewster County Groundwater Conservation District (BCGCD) representatives, the notice in the paper, and subsequent e-mail chains, were the first they’d heard of the proposal that was supposedly taking place in their backyards.
BCGCD member Kevin Urbanczyk told The Big Bend Sentinel that the amount of groundwater needed to initially fill the reservoirs, 3,100 acre-feet, according to the FERC application, exceeds the district’s annual “modeled available groundwater” allotment for the entire county — 2,586 acre-feet of which 600 acre-feet is already permitted for use. “Their initial water investment was so huge,” Urbanczyk said. “But then you get the impression, if it’s a closed loop, that’s all they need. But that’s not true, right?”
Urbanczyk said high evaporation rates would result in significant water loss from the reservoirs, which would mean additional groundwater pumping on top of the initial investment to sustain the operation. Other residents getting wind of the project said excessive groundwater withdrawal was their initial and primary concern.
“I just emailed everyone I could possibly think of who I thought might be interested, county judge, ranchers, hydrologists,” said Alpine resident Julie Balovich whose house well went dry during the pandemic. “I mean, look, everybody in this community is concerned about water.”
Word got out, and soon Jonathan Petrillo, the company representative listed on the notice, had heard from several area ranchers who opposed the hydropower facility. When contacted by The Sentinel on Monday, Petrillo stated that “based on preliminary feedback from local stakeholders” the company submitted a request with the FERC to withdraw its application. It is unclear whether the application withdrawal means the project is totally off — Petrillo did not respond to further requests for comment.
Preliminary maps of the project included in the FERC application showed it would be located on the historic o6 Ranch, possibly extending onto other neighboring ranches. Former Brewster County Judge Val Beard, whose family owns the adjacent Leoncita Ranch, spoke to Petrillo at length and discovered that no landowner permission had been secured for the project.
“I asked him who had, from the landowner standpoint, given permission for the project, and he was free in saying, ‘Well, that would come at a later stage in the project,’ and they didn’t have any landowner permission,” Beard said.
The Leoncita Ranch, long ago a part of the o6, has been owned by the same family for well over 100 years; Beard’s husband, Tom, is the great-grandson of Herbert Lee Kokernot Sr. She said the family relies on well water, and they were also concerned about the health of “fragile” springs on their property.
“When you start withdrawing large quantities of groundwater, you’re very likely to injure a spring, even kill it off,” Beard said.
Beard said she tried to express to Petrillo that the project was not feasible considering the water constraints of a desert environment, and if a hydropower facility proceeded the family would “lawyer up and very shortly.”
“I was trying to convey that it would be a very sensitive issue region wide, because the Igneous Aquifer just cannot sustain giant, industrial-sized projects,” Beard said.
This isn’t the family’s first time encountering the FERC; a portion of the Trans-Pecos Pipeline runs through their ranch. Beard said she got the impression from Petrillo that the company was hoping FERC would turn down jurisdiction — something that can happen if a proposed hydropower project meets certain criteria — over the project, thus freeing them from obtaining a license.
“If FERC does not have jurisdiction over a project it’s much more marketable,” Beard said. “It means there are a lot fewer regulatory hoops to jump through.”
While the ill-conceived project may have been nothing but “a desktop exercise,” for the company, Beard said, it underscores the importance of paying attention to, and addressing, attempts to exploit the area’s scarce water resources.
“It’s another one of the water wars. It’s ongoing. It will be with us forever,” Beard said. “What I’m hoping is the next generation will continue to follow water issues. It’s just something we have to watch all the time.”
Balovich said the company’s move to shut down the hydropower proposal shows that community action can make a difference. “It’s also a lesson in: read those notices,” she said. “They matter.”