Coso Operating Co. reaches settlement over water project
Alexander Richter
22 Aug 2009
Terra-Gen Power, LLC, (Terra-Gen), a wholly-owned affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners (ArcLight), announced today that its corporate subsidiary Coso Operating Company, LLC (Coso) has executed a settlement agreement with Little Lake Ranch, Inc. (LLR), which resolves pending litigation challenging the approval of Terra-Gen's Hay Ranch Water Project.
In a release by the company, Terra-Gen Power, LLC, (Terra-Gen), a wholly-owned affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners (ArcLight), announced today that its corporate subsidiary Coso Operating Company, LLC (Coso) has executed a settlement agreement with Little Lake Ranch, Inc. (LLR), which resolves pending litigation challenging the approval of Terra-Gen’s Hay Ranch Water Project.
Terra-Gen is pleased to announce today that it has resolved a claim in California Superior Court associated with the Hay Ranch Water Project and continues to press forward with construction of the project on federal lands. The Hay Ranch Project plans to use supplemental water injection to restore power production at the existing Coso geothermal plant located in Inyo County, California. The project has undergone extensive environmental review processes at both the federal and state levels and has received key permits from the County of Inyo and the BLM. These environmental reviews concluded that, with mitigation, the project would not result in any significant impacts. LLR filed a lawsuit on June 5, 2009 challenging the project. Among other claims, the lawsuit alleged that the Hay Ranch Water Project may impact Little Lake, a small lake located in Rose Valley used for duck hunting, recreation, and habitat conservation purposes.
Following extensive negotiations, Coso and LLR reached a settlement on August 17, 2009 allowing the project to proceed without further litigation. Coso will assist LLR in providing improvements around Little Lake to ensure that water for recreational and habitat conservation purposes remains available, consistent with historic conditions. Jim Pagano, CEO of Terra-Gen, said, “We managed to find a win-win situation here,” and emphasized, “Terra-Gen stands by our commitments and we are excited to move this project forward in an environmentally responsible manner.”
When completed, the Hay Ranch Water Project will boost renewable energy production at the Coso geothermal resource and allow geothermal energy to serve an estimated 50,000 additional California homes. Terra-Gen anticipates completing construction of the 9-mile pipeline in late 2009, which will be used to deliver supplemental water to the Coso project.”
Source: Company release via PR Newswire
