Read Part One
I was chatting with my friend Glenn Walsh, following the 4-3 vote by Town Council to allow the Pagosa Springs Community Development Council (PSCDC) to spend $2,000 paying for an outline of a plan for a study — an outline that, to all appearances, was scheduled to be delivered free of charge prior to the intervention of local business guru Ken Vickerstaff into the process.
Mr. Walsh began by admitting that he knows very little about the current geothermal issues, or about the politics going on between the PSCDC and the Town of Pagosa Springs.
“But I know how to read body language,” he claimed.
There were two key witnesses testifying before the Town Council on Tuesday.
Kirsten Skeehan, representing a local group of volunteers with an interest in developing our geothermal resources, was pushing for a competitive Request For Proposal process that would be, essentially, open to every geothermal expert in the entire world. She thought an RFP process could be completed within a couple of months.
Ken Vickerstaff, representing in a somewhat ad hoc fashion one single company — Geothermal Management Company — was arguing that we don’t have a moment to lose, the world is passing us by, we must immediately pay Geothermal Management Company $2,000 to deliver an outline of a plan for a study, and we must not waste time allowing an open RFP process which would likely produce several competing outlines from several competing companies at no cost to the Town or the PSCDC.
 I had to agree with Mr. Walsh. Ms. Skeehan had come across as cool, calm and sensible — in her body language as well as in her verbal presentation. Mr. Vickerstaff had appeared harried, anxious, and overbearing.
Given those two very different presentations, the Town Council was to determine the best way to proceed with a community-wide study of Archuleta County’s geothermal resources — resources that may be contained in one single underground aquifer, or in several separate aquifers.
How vast is our supply of geothermal water?
I am not aware of any studies done of the Pagosa Springs geothermal aquifer — or aquifers, plural? — since the early 1980s, when the Town sunk its two wells behind the County Courthouse, to supply heat for a new, somewhat experimental municipal heating system. During the drilling of those well — a somewhat controversial process considering the already-adjudicated geothermal water rights owned by several private businesses — the Town had made a promise to operate its wells only during the winter months. Well, that probably seemed pretty sensible — Pagosa Springs had very little tourism traffic during the winter months back in 1980, so some wintertime use of the geothermal aquifer probably wasn’t going to hurt anything.
The Town had also promised to continue its testing as the municipal system was expanded, to make sure no private businesses were being harmed. Additionally, the Town promised to cease its heating operations if evidence showed a depletion of the aquifer.
Since then, however, the Town has dropped the ball, in so far as continuing to study the aquifer. (Studies are not cheap, as we are now finding out.)
And not only has the Town ceased studying the aquifer, but it has signed a “tap agreement” with the privately-owned Springs Resort, to deliver up to 450 GPM (gallons per minute) to the resort — year round. 450 GPM is the Town’s entire water right from its two geothermal wells. The water is no longer being pumped solely to heat downtown buildings on an “as needed” basis — it is now (presumably) being used to fill bathing pools year round.
So the time is obviously ripe for another community-wide geothermal study.
How deep do we want this study to drill, however? Do we really want to know, for example, how the Town’s year-round delivery of water to the Springs Resort is affecting the aquifer? Or do we just want a cursory study that we can wave in the air, claiming, “Yes, we’ve studied the aquifer, and here are the results”?
Mr. Vickerstaff’s main argument for spending $2,000 for a previously free outline seemed to be centered upon some kind of very important time consideration.
We’ve been waiting since 1980 for the Town to continue its study of the geothermal aquifer. How can we possibly wait, Mr. Vickerstaff wanted to know, for an RFP process that might take a couple of months?
Commissioner Michael Whiting tried to clarify Mr. Vickerstaff’s position, and the position of the PSCDC (on which board he now sits as one of two County commissioner board members).
“This $2,000 ... the intention was that this gives, without any delays in either direction, whether it’s RFP or sole source ... [the PSCDC] was struggling with the timelines on those two tracks. The object here was ... if it’s sole sourced, and if the Town Council needs additional clarification to approve the funding [of the GMC outline] we wanted to have that funding available to you.”
Mr. Whiting then characterized our underground hot water as “the future of Pagosa Springs — whether you believe it or not.”
Certainly we all see a role for hot, stinky, corrosive, mineral-rich water in Pagosa’s future, especially as we look ahead from the current situation, where our construction and real estate industries — formerly almost 25 percent of our local economy — are running as fast as they can just to stay in one place.
It’s very possible that Mr. Whiting is correct — that geothermal is our future. Not necessarily because it makes the most sense, but simply because our local leaders find it the most interesting option. Alternative energy is, once again, very sexy, just as it was in 1980, following a big jump in oil prices. Sexy is important, when you are planning the future for the 12,000 people living in Archuleta County.
Based on a couple of presentations I’ve attended, I personally believe that Geothermal Management Company is an ethical consulting firm, and that they will do their best to give us a proper plan for a future study of our local aquifer, or aquifers.
I suspect GMC would have been the final choice, even if an open and competitive RFP process has been conducted. But we will never know.
Four of the seven Town Council members liked something about spending $2,000 for a sole source outline of a plan for a study, and voted to accept the PSCDC offer to pay Geothermal Management Company to provide the Council with said outline. As I noted before, the money the PSCDC is spending comes mainly from Town and County subsidies.
But the Council wasn’t through spending our tax monies — not yet. They were just getting started, in fact.
Read Part Five... |