Beatty Advisory Board makes its voice heard

Many of the Beatty Town Advisory Board’s actions of late have consisted of drafting and sending letters in support of or against proposals or projects possibly affecting the community.

This was very much the case with the board’s Feb. 13 meeting, in which all the action items involved the approval and sending of letters.

The first letter on the agenda was to be sent to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in support of a 20-year extension of Public Land Order 7566. This March 2003 order withdrew 277.05 acres of land for a period of 20 years to protect the historic town of Rhyolite, and is due to expire next month.

The next letter was also directed to the BLM requesting that Beatty stakeholders be included in pre- and post-race inspections of off-road event routes.

There have been conflicts in the past between local residents and event organizers when races have left off-highway roads in poor, sometimes effectively impassable condition.

The letter noted that a process put in place by the BLM for the 2020 Best in the Desert event, which included the involvement of local volunteer inspections, resulted in “some of the best reclamation” experienced, and requested that this process be kept in place.

After some discussion, the wording of the letter was adjusted to request that the BLM notify the town whenever the permitting process begins for an event so that the town can identify stakeholders familiar with the area’s outback who can partner with BLM employees in making the inspections.

The longest letter addressed to the BLM dealt with proposed changes to the 2012 Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).

The BLM is proposing to modify the part of that PEIS dealing with solar energy projects and to add five states (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming) to the area it affects.

The five-page draft of the board’s letter requests that the comment period be extended until April 1 to give more time for “detailed and focused comments.”

It also notes that the Resource Management Plans (RMP’s) for the local BLM offices are 25 years old, and argues, “The PEIS should not be completed until all the district RMP’s have been updated with current local land needs.”

Following the BLM’s suggested comment format, the letter addresses areas that might be considered suitable for utility-scale solar energy projects, favoring designated Solar Energy Zones (SEZ’s), previously disturbed land, especially the Nevada National Security Site, Brownsfield sites, and various urban locations.

It also suggests areas that should be excluded from solar or wind energy projects. Among many others, this includes areas and towns “that depend on tourism, outdoor recreations and access to public lands.” It also lists suggested criteria to be used to determine what areas should be excluded.

The letter then lists resources “likely to be affected” by solar energy projects. Included are landscape values, recreational and view shed values, things that could impact physical and emotional health, and possible effects on wildlife and fauna. It then lists resource issues that need analysis.

Under “reasonable alternatives to be considered in the analysis,” the letter suggests that priority be given to SEZ’s and that developers not be allowed to apply for other lands until those were all utilized. It suggests that the BLM work with other federal agencies, including the military, to identify areas not accessible to the public that could be used for solar projects.

One suggestion, that “nuclear power be fully analyzed,” drew an objection from board member Melody Koivu.

Gerling answered that she was not promoting a nuclear power plant for the area, only that it should be analyzed as an alternative, and that she was taking into consideration that the PEIS included eleven states.

The last section listed were issues specific to the Beatty area. This includes, among other considerations, the difficulty imposed on land use for local development that results from the community being sandwiched between a national park and the National Test and Training Range.

In conclusion, the board writes, “The Beatty Town Advisory Board and the residents it represents are supportive of renewable energy to address our growing energy needs and climate change. We would like to see all options explored when prospectively using hundreds of thousands of acres of public land for utility scale renewable energy projects. New science and technologies are being discovered that may advance the country’s renewable energy goals. There are alternatives to PV solar arrays on huge swaths of land. We respectfully ask that the process be slowed so some of these new technologies can be developed and understood.”

The last letter approved in the meeting was in strong support of the Beatty Water and Sewer District’s application to the Nevada Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for economic assistance in recoating the town’s drinking water tanks.

Richard Stephens is a freelance reporter living in Beatty.