I received the following email from the Anza Borrego Foundation yesterday about the a proposed wind turbine project that would be next to the park and its possible impacts on view, wildlife, plant life, cultural sites and more. Please read and consider writing to the California Desert District Office with your concerns:
September 28, 2011
We are writing to you because we need your immediate help – before an October 6, 2011, deadline. We are asking you to send a letter regarding the proposed Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility to:
Cedric Perry
California Desert District Office
Bureau of Land Management
22835 Calle San Juan De Los Lagos
Moreno Valley, CA 92553
cperry@blm.gov
With a FAX copy to the State Clearinghouse: 916-323-3018
The proposed Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility consists of the construction, operation, and maintenance of wind turbines and associated facilities to generate up to 465 MW of electrical energy directly adjacent to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, within the vicinity of the community of Ocotillo. A proposed total of 155 wind turbines, which would power up to 140,000 homes—each up to 425 feet tall—and up to 42 miles of access roads would be located on 12,436 acres. The project would be located contiguous with the southwestern border of ABDSP, straddling Highway S-2.
Please read below to view the visual impact on the Park and to see a list of all other impacts to the Park. This is “Sunrise Powerlink” all over again with many of the same impacts.
STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING!
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Needs Your Help NOW
See Below for What YOU Can Do—Act by 10-6-11
View Toward Ocotillo from Red Hill in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
View from Access Road to Mortero Palms in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
From the Anza-Borrego Foundation—Chuck Bennett, President, 9-27-11
IT’S MORE THAN THE PARK VIEWSHED THAT IS THREATENED
By the Ocotillo Express Wind Turbine Project
Impacts to Natural Resources of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (ABDSP):
1. Disruption of wildlife corridors for desert bighorn sheep.
2. Adverse effects to golden eagles due to the birds striking the turbines.
3. Adverse impacts to burrowing owls, long-eared owls, Vaux’s swift, peregrine falcons, flat-tailed horned lizards, barefoot geckos, Red diamond rattlesnakes, American badgers, and several listed plant species.
4. Could cause significant deaths of bats due to the drop in air pressure causing internal hemorrhaging in the lungs as well as deaths from direct strikes.
5. Unavoidable impact to plants during construction and the introduction of invasive plant species.
6. Permanent scarring to the landscape leaving an “industrial” look to the area.Impacts to Cultural Resources of ABDSP:
1. Visual impacts to the newly designated Cultural Preserve at Piedras Grandes, just west of Ocotillo and its “sacred site.”
2. No adequate accounting for impacts to the multiple cultural resources of the area when viewed as a cultural landscape.
3. Cultural Studies not completed prior to assessing impacts.Other Potential Impacts
1. Substantial increase in noise levels from the operation of the turbines, especially at night in surrounding areas.
2. Impacts to air quality from truck traffic and from concrete batch plants.
3. Increased risk of wildfire hazards.
4. Loss of soil’s ability to absorb carbon from scraping.
5. Degradation to the recreational and natural experience of ABDSP by the sight of the turbines and associated facilities.
6. Loss of dark night skies.
7. Degradation of wilderness character of the several BLM wildernesses surrounding the proposed project.The NEPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Document does not include an alternative for production of renewable energy at point of use in cities and thus the Draft EIR/EIS is incomplete.
Please adopt the “no project” alternative and protect this important desert habitat from devastation by private industry for private profit!
Letters are extremely important RIGHT NOW. Please personalize your letter, adding your own experiences of the area and what the loss of this area would mean to you personally.
The draft EIS (Environmental Impact Study) does not meet NEPA requirements because it lacks a full range of alternatives, namely, the alternative of producing renewable energy on rooftops in the cities where the energy is used. The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) should adopt a “no-project” alternative. The BLM is mandated to consider viable alternatives that could meet the “need” for the project that lie outside of lands within their jurisdiction.
This project is not needed. Local rooftop and local distributed renewable energy generation could power the 140,000 homes that this project is slated to power. Adopt the no-project alternative and protect 12,000 acres of intact desert habitat from destruction for private profit on a project that will be de-commissioned in 30 years! If this project goes through, there will be irreparable damage to the landscape.
With GREAT appreciation for your support at this crucial time,
Sincerely,
Chuck Bennett, President
Ralph Singer, Vice-President Environmental Affairs
Diana Lindsay, Trustee
ANZA-BORREGO FOUNDATION
P.O. Box 2001
Borrego Springs, CA 92004
760-767-0446
Natural History Wanderings 
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