County preps geothermal regulations

Not as “mega” as the regulations for oil and gas

The Gunnison County Community Development Department has written a set of regulations to govern the development of commercial geothermal power plants, in anticipation of some future development in the in the vicinity of Waunita Hot Springs and Tomichi Dome, east of the city of Gunnison.

The area has been known for its geothermal potential since the 1840s, when the first westerners started traveling to Waunita Hot Springs. But according to the Bureau of Land Management, not until the 1973 oil crisis did the federal government and the energy industry start to investigate the potential for geothermal power production in Colorado, including around Tomichi Dome. In 1974, Mobil Oil Corporation applied for geothermal leases in the area, but withdrew its application in 1991.
Then in 2009 another company nominated two tracts of land in the area for geothermal leasing that encompass about 9,000 acres of land at the base of Tomichi Dome. While no development is being proposed, the BLM completed an environmental assessment for the nominated leases and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact.
The BLM concluded, “A long-lived surface expression (Waunita Hot Springs), shallow heat source (tertiary igneous activity related to Tomichi Dome), proximity to transportation and electrical corridors and encouraging data from early work all suggest the area to be an ideal candidate for further research and possibly exploration and development of the geothermal resource.”
A year after that decision, the BLM and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources signed an agreement designed to assist geothermal energy development on state and federal lands and mineral holdings.
Now Gunnison County is planning to issue its own regulations to manage any future geothermal development in the county under the authority it has through the so-called “1041 powers.” Those powers stem from a 1974 law that allows local governments to identify and “regulate areas and activities of state interest through a local permitting process,” according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
County attorney David Baumgarten told the Board of County Commissioners at a meeting on Tuesday, September 16 that the new regulations were aimed at setting a standard of performance, instead of the more prescriptive regulations that were written to address the natural gas development taking place in the North Fork Valley.
He said that while the Regulations for the Use of Geothermal Resources for the Commercial Generation of Electricity, as the 32-page draft regulations are titled, were similar to the county regulations for oil and gas development, in that they both operate independent of the county’s Land Use Resolution, the two documents differ significantly in their scope.
“The statutory foundation for this would be the 1041 statute,” Baumgarten told the commissioners. “This would be the first time that we would use the 1041 foundation in a not-mega sense.”
The regulations would apply to any geothermal power generation activities in the county, with the exception of mapping or maintenance and repairs that cause less than 10,000 square feet of disturbance.
Otherwise the regulations stay away from parameters and delineated setbacks, instead giving applicants a list of requirements they must meet for approval. The commissioners agreed to include the Planning Commission in the review of the regulations and set a joint public hearing on the regulations for October 21.
The draft regulations are available on request from the Gunnison County Community Development Department.