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The Mysterious Greenhouse Project, Part Two |
Bill Hudson | 4/17/09
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Read Part One
The Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership has a friend in the U.S. House of Representatives: John Salazar. I’ve never personally met Mr. Salazar — the older brother of Colorado’s former U.S. Senator Ken Salazar, who was recently appointed Interior Secretary in the Obama administration — but from what I can gather, John Salazar sees himself as a champion of rural America.
Here is the introductory statement from Congressman John Salazar’s website:
“For me, the right choice is always the one that rings true with rural values — honoring personal sacrifices, keeping our commitment to working families, rewarding hard work, honesty, and integrity. If we do not keep our promises, our words have no value.”
The website goes on:
“Salazar is dedicated to defending rural values and ensuring that the government keeps its promises to the people. Now in his third term, Congressman Salazar comes to Congress after serving in the Colorado State Assembly, where he gained recognition for protecting rural water …
 “Raised on a farm where he shared a bedroom with five siblings, with no running water or electricity, Congressman Salazar understands what it means to count your pennies and work with a tight budget. He is an outspoken advocate for fiscal responsibility and will work to reduce the deficit, making sure that money is spent wisely and where it matters most …
“Congressman Salazar’s appointment to the powerful House Committee on Appropriations in the 111th Congress is a victory for Colorado.”
Congressman Salazar seems to agree with Pagosa Springs mayor Ross Aragon and the rest of the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership steering committee — that it would be wise to spend our precious federal tax dollars on the mayor’s proposed greenhouse project in downtown Pagosa Springs.
The Geothermal Greenhouse project made it onto Salazar’s short list of nineteen funding requests for the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill:
“Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership Project
$265,800
Southwest Land Alliance
450 Lewis Street, Suite 3A
Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
“Explanation: The Project consists of three to five greenhouses powered and heated by renewable energy sources located in the center of the Town of Pagosa Springs. It will showcase to the nation how an economically devastated, rural mountain community can come together and creatively diversify and utilize its alternative energy resources to stimulate its economy. This Project supports local agriculture and local small businesses while creating more jobs in the community, which are additional priorities of the current Administration.”
Southwest Land Alliance’s greenhouse proposal sits about halfway down Salazar’s list, standing out as a bit of a “green thumb” among bridge replacement projects, road resurfacing projects, airport runway projects, and one “housing assistance program.”
How, exactly, an innovative geothermal greenhouse project fits into a “Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill,” only the politicians in Washington will ever know, I suppose. But there it is, nevertheless. Whether this federal appropriation request by Southwest Land Alliance — the local land conservation non-profit which is serving as “fiscal agent” for the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership — will actually get funded is still an open question.
Another unanswered question is: what, exactly, would the federal government be funding?
We can all grant that Pagosa Springs, Colorado is indeed, as Congressman Salazar claims, an “economically devastated, rural mountain community.” Whether that community can “come together and creatively diversify and utilize its alternative energy resources to stimulate its economy” under the leadership of long-time mayor Ross Aragon is perhaps more difficult to predict, based on past history.
The Town of Pagosa Springs first got into the geothermal business in the early 1980s, just as America was beginning to get serious about alternative energy resources following the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s.
Developing alternative energy resources in a innovate way is, as the town discovered, a tricky business. And what the Town was proposing — the construction of a municipal heating system, using “free” geothermal water from underground wells to heat government buildings, businesses and residences in the downtown area — was pretty innovative back then.
First off, the Town had to make peace with the local businesses which already had geothermal water rights and who were afraid the Town municipal heating project might deplete the resource. That required thousands of dollars spent to study the geothermal aquifer and to negotiate with other water rights holders.
Then the Town had to please the state of Colorado, and its water resources bureaucracy – a department committed to prevent damage to the state’s water resources, and to fair distribution of water to all users based on a seniority system.
Lawsuits from that first municipal adventure into geothermal heating are still being settled.
Then we had the engineering and delivery problems to solve. The
Ross Aragon was the town’s new mayor back in the early 1980s, while the Town struggled to resolve the political and construction snags inherent in developing an innovative alternative energy system.
That innovative municipal heating system, unfortunately, is yet to be fully developed, nearly thirty years after the project was begun. According to some sources at least, the Town of Pagosa Springs municipal geothermal heating system is significantly underutilized. Investments into upgrading the heat exchanger and distribution pipeline might be able to double number of downtown customers, using the Town's existing water rights.
Would such upgrades enhance life in an “economically devastated, rural mountain community?” Apparently, not nearly as much as a new, innovate geothermal greenhouse project would.
But we are still not clear. Who is the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership, and what are they proposing to do for Pagosa Springs?
It seems they don’t really know, yet, themselves — even though they are already soliciting federal Transportation and Housing funding, and being sponsored by a hard-working, honest champion of rural America.
Read Part Three... |
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