Air District touches on Fremont Valley project

A cloudy subject popped up during the monthly meeting of the East Kern Air Pollution Control District meeting in Ridgecrest on Wednesday.

Glen Stephens, director of the agency, briefed his board members about the current project happening in the Fremont Valley area of Kern County, near Cantil.

Stephens brought the subject up at the request of Ridgecrest Vice Mayor Chip Holloway, who sits on the air district’s board of directors.

The project, named the Fremont Valley Preservation Project, is a proposed 4,800-acre, 1,008 megawatt solar energy and water banking project. It is currently undergoing the environmental impact report as required by California law.

There have been concerns about AquaHelio’s water banking and solar banking project, especially when it involves water rights. AquaHelio has proposed banking 114,000 acre-feet of water a year from the area.

The other issue is possible air quality issues, especially when and if the project breaks ground following approval of the EIR.

“The concern is when this project goes into its construction phase,” Stephens said. “During that period it can be very grave.”

He said that the air pollution control district — an agency responsible for monitoring East Kern’s air quality — requires such projects to conduct staged construction and clearing of the area to minimize dust storms.

“We have not heard any comment back from them,” Stephens said. The company heading up the area is AquaHelio, LLC.

Stephens had written a letter on Oct. 31, and AquaHelio has 30 days to respond.

Kern County Supervisor Mick Gleason, who sits on the board of directors, said that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process will conclude Nov. 27, barring any future extension.

Gleason said that dust mitigation control will play a pivotal role in both the AquaHelio project and future proposals.

“We’ve seen how troubling (this kind of issue) is at times in Inyokern, and I want to take all appropriative measures to assure that we minimize or mitigate air pollution and the impacts it has across the board for people in Cantil, in (Kern County) District 2 and up here,” Gleason said.

Holloway said that once AquaHelio’s response to air quality mitigations comes back, the Air Quality District will want to make sure to report on it.

Gleason asked whether Stephens had read the meat and potatoes of the 8,000 page draft EIR.

“I would like to request to do a formal report of the EIR from our vantage report to understand the impacts on the air pollution — what will happen and where it’s going — and apply our knowledge as to whether that EIR is to our satisfaction and if it complies with all of applicable regulations,” Gleason said. “When people do have issues down the road with air pollution, (it will answer whether) we did our due diligence.”

Final public comment period for the project ends Monday.