Southern California Set to Build New Dam in National Forest

Southern California is not known for its wilderness areas, more for its rampant suburban sprawl, and yet one of the last islands of wilderness is being recommended to be the site of a 240 feet tall dam and 30 miles of 500,000 volt transmission lines. The Nevada Hydro Company has received the go-ahead from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with plans to flood Decker Canyon within the Cleveland National Forest, and pump the water upward through underground tunnels to an elevated reservoir. The water will then be run through generators to produce electricity to meet the growing Southern California and Nevada energy needs.

This project, known as the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage (LEAPS), has been in the works for nearly a decade, and the decision to choose the Decker Canyon location came after trouble getting approval to flood Morrell Canyon, adjacent to Decker Canyon. Morrell was seen to be more ecologically sensitive to Decker Canyon, and the FERC has approved the location change. With the location change came an increase in the dam's height, to the equivalent of a 24 story building, an eyesore indeed in an area known for its natural Southern California wilderness. In fact, three years ago, the National Forest Service recommended that both Decker and Morrell Canyons be designated as wilderness and thus protected from all future development.

The FERC has adjusted the initial cost projection from Nevada Hydro, to 1.3 billion dollars. This for an hydro-electric plant that will need power to pump the water to the upper reservoir to run down through the generators in the dam. It is expected that the dam will use 17 per cent more energy than it will create. The trick is that the plant will pump water at night, while kilowatts are cheaper, and then sell the energy created during the day when the price increases. It is merely an energy transfer that will create a small profit, but not enough to cover expenses, or rather the rate of return for the investors, who could be promised a 14.5 per cent return before money made by the plant would go to pay expenses. Some estimates put the annual loss at $200 million, with the taxpayer filling in the gap between profit and loss.

Other costs not factored into the Nevada Hydro plan include the loss of habitat for the mountain lion and other species that have suffered habitat loss on a grand scale in the last fifty years of unabated Southern California development. This section of the Cleveland National Forest is literally an island in the middle of human expansion. 65 acres of habitat for special needs species will be lost, just for the 30 mile transmission line. On a more human level, property rates will fall for the 406 privately owned parcels that fall within the transmission line area.

Nevada Hydro has been associated with the Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, from the District where the proposed dam is to be built. In the last congress, Issa voted for the increase in off-shore drilling, voted for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and more tellingly, voted against federal assistance programs to help low-income households afford energy. Congressman Issa is willing to pay for subsidies to an energy company to knowingly operate at a loss, but will not do the same for the more disadvantaged homes in the United States.

The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity are working to stop the construction of the net-loss dam, as the FERC is set to issue its final approval soon. The Sierra Club is hoping that all interested parties, including nature lovers, hang gliders that use the Cleveland National Forest, and homeowners in the area will pressure the FERC to withhold support for the Nevada Hydro LEAPS project.