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THE GEYSERS – A company that was scheduled to begin fracturing bedrock in The Geysers in August in order to try out a new geothermal system is having its project put on hold while federal officials conduct further study on the technology.
AltaRock Energy, a venture capital company with offices in Sausalito and Seattle, planned to begin using its engineered geothermal system (EGS) technology on Bureau of Management Land (BLM) leased by the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA), as Lake County News has reported.
However, concerns about the technology AltaRock is using has caused the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Energy to decide to conduct further study before the work moves forward.
“We decided that we better look into it a little bit more,” said John Dearing, a spokesman at BLM's Sacramento office.
“It's a huge relief to the community,” said Jeff Gospe, president of the Anderson Springs Community Alliance.
Public concerns about the project and the use of similar technology in Europe led to the decision, said Dearing. Most similar projects don't have such study, but this is the first time the technology has been used in the United States.
Those public concerns likely began after the publication of an in-depth New York Times article published late in June by reporter James Glanz, who happens to have a PhD in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University.
Glanz's article discussed the AltaRock project and the EGS technology, which was used in 2006 in a geothermal project in Basel, Switzerland. There, the technology a 3.4-magnitude quake and 3,500 others over the following year. Other articles in media around the country – including this publication – followed.
AltaRock's EGS technology drills deep into bedrock to create fractures to release heat from deep inside the earth. Water is then injected to create steam to create geothermal production.
AltaRock executives Don O'Shei and Senior Vice President Jim Turner told Lake County News that the Basel project – which wasn't done by AltaRock – drilled into a major fault, triggering the earthquakes.
The decision to look at AltaRock's project more closely came from the BLM's state director – Mike Pool – last week, said Dearing. BLM consulted with the Department of Energy, which it asked to do the study.
“The Department of Energy has asked us for additional information on seismicity,” AltaRock spokesperson Kimberly Van Hall said Tuesday.
AltaRock provided that information to the agency on Monday, Van Hall said.
The company didn't express any concern about plans for the study.
Van Hall said that, based on AltaRock's current schedule, they don't believe the Department of Energy's study process will influence the project's time table. She said federal officials haven't told the company about any changes to its schedule.
Dearing said the time frame for the study will be up to Department of Energy, which will conduct the review.
The Department of Energy did not respond to Lake County News' requests for information on the project's status on Tuesday.
AltaRock already had begun drilling in an old NCPA well high above the Anderson Springs community in preparation to begin fracturing bedrock next month.
The company has amassed $36 million – including $6 million from the Department of Energy – for its project.
Dearing said the Department of Energy will look into what happened with the EGS technology in Europe “and how it might affect the project here.”
EGS technology sites in other parts of the world also have experienced moderate-sized quakes ranging between 3.1 and 4.6, according to a project assessment AltaRock completed for The Geysers project.
However, that assessment didn't delve into the Basel project or what the technology had triggered there, and last month Rich Eastabrook, a petroleum engineer with the Ukiah BLM office, told Lake County News that AltaRock hadn't told BLM that the Basel project had been shut down due to seismicity.
O'Shei and Turner said they didn't hide the fact, and added that Basel is well known in the geothermal industry.
Late last month Eastabrook said that, while he would have liked to have known about Basel, “I don't think that's a deal killer.”
Eastabrook, who couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday, also had stated previously that BLM already had issued a permit for AltaRock to deepen the existing geothermal well where it plans to drill. That work already had begun.
However, the project was still waiting on a federal sundry notice in order to move forward.
Van Hall said the sundry notice for “stimulation” – in other words, the bedrock fracturing – had been filed with BLM and is under review as part of the BLM's application procedure.
Until the Department of Energy completes its study, “We're not going to issue a sundry notice for them to continue,” Dearing said of AltaRock.
Meriel Medrano, who has lived full-time in Anderson Springs since 1971, said this is the first time she's ever seen a geothermal project in the area experience some hold up or undergo additional study.
“We've never seen one turned down ever. Period. Not a well, not a plant, nothing,” said Medrano, whose home is located a half-mile from AltaRock's drill rig, sitting on a ridge above Anderson Springs.
Medrano and her neighbors told Lake County News that there was only been one community meeting on the project – held April 9 in Middletown and attended by only a handful of local residents. The meeting was accompanied by a month-long public comment period on AltaRock's 218-page assessment document.
Eastabrook stated previously that the mailing list to residents for the meeting “was not as inclusive as it should have been,” although it met the legal parameters.
“It just went through too fast,” Medrano said Tuesday.
Dearing said he didn't know if the new study that's planned will result in more public meetings or another comment period. “It will probably depend on the outcome of what the study is.”
Gospe isn't sure if the project actually will be stopped, but he called the decision for study a “near miracle.”
Community members like Gospe and Medrano have raised concerns about the project and the likelihood that it would add to the numerous earthquakes the area already has, which are attributed to geothermal operations.
“We're messing with things people don't fully understand,” Gospe said.
Since the beginning of the month, The Geysers area has had five moderate quakes measuring 3.0 in magnitude or above, which occurred in an unusually short span of time. The US Geological Survey downgraded a sixth quake from 3.0 in magnitude to 2.9.
“We never used to have earthquakes,” said Medrano.
She said geothermal operators have put it out that the earthquake are natural, “but it isn't so.”
Medrano added, “They finally admitted it but it took a long time,” which she attributed to the work done by Gospe to bring attention to the area's seismicity.
On July 7, the Lake County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved adding AltaRock Energy as an official member of the Anderson Springs Geothermal Mitigation Committee, which company representatives have regularly attended since last fall.
AltaRock has offered to pay $10,000 annually into the community's mitigation fund, and also has stated it will contribute to Anderson Springs' sewer project.
Later this summer, the Board of Supervisors is expected to consider adding AltaRock to the Seismic Monitoring Advisory Committee.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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There is already quite a history of tectonic disturbances, whether this community contributes to the sewer system or sits on an advisory board, this needs to be looked into. I'm contacting the Dept of Energy myself.