New dam proposal in Sierra Nevada stirs debate over California energy policy

Up a remote canyon in the towering eastern Sierra, a Southern California company has an ambitious plan to dam the area’s cold, rushing waters and build one of the state’s first big hydroelectric facilities in decades.

The project, southeast of Yosemite near the town of Bishop (Inyo County), faces long regulatory odds as well as daunting costs. But residents of the Owens Valley downstream and state environmentalists are not taking it lightly.

The complex, as proposed in an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month, is scheduled for mostly federal land at the edge of the Inyo National Forest, partly in the popular John Muir Wilderness. It threatens to disrupt a landscape known for its brown trout and bighorn sheep, unparalleled alpine vistas, and pristine rivers and lakes.

Yet, the plan comes at a time when California is eager for clean, climate friendly energy, and renewed interest is emerging in hydroelectric plants. Such facilities are not always considered green; however, they offer a unique way of storing wind and solar power, which are cleaner but provide only sporadic contributions to the electrical grid.

The proposed “pumped-storage” project would essentially bank solar and wind energy by pumping creek water uphill when the power sources are plentiful, say during sunny or windy times, and conversely, send the water back down through power-producing turbines when the energy is needed.

“It’s a great way to manage the intermittency of renewable energy,” said Frank Wolak, an economics professor at Stanford University and director of the school’s Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, who called pumped storage “ideal” for helping the state scale up its clean power. “But the problem in California is siting the projects.”

Several federal and state agencies will have a say in whether a new, large hydroelectric undertaking is appropriate for California. Most regulators have only begun reviewing the proposal, though officials at the Inyo National Forest recently expressed concerns about disturbances to mountains, rivers and wildlife in a letter to the applicant.

The application for the facility was filed by Premium Energy Holdings LLC of Walnut (Los Angeles County). The company, which appears to be a consultant in the power sector, did not return multiple calls from The Chronicle.

FERC officials confirmed they’re considering the company’s request for a preliminary permit, which would simply grant Premium Energy an exclusive right to study the project. Before any construction could begin, the company would have to take the additional step of getting a license from FERC, a process that involves more review and more input.

California regulators have been wary of new hydroelectric facilities because of their sprawling environmental footprint, even when they can assist in meeting renewable energy goals. But some fear that the Trump administration could try to limit the state’s voice on the matter as part of a continuing effort to make public lands more accessible to industry.

“We are entering perilous times,” said Ron Stork, senior policy advocate for the environmental group Friends of the River and a longtime dam expert. “California has been shut out of any meaningful participation in FERC licensing. We are potentially entering an era where there’s no one but FERC or the licensee making the decisions.”

The proposed Owens Valley Pumped Storage Project, according to the FERC filing, would bring an elaborate series of dams, pumps and pipes to Lower Rock Creek Gorge, a rugged canyon of sagebrush and pine that’s commonly used by hikers and mountain bikers.

The process of storing and generating power would begin with three concrete dams, some more than 300 feet tall, that would capture water from Lower Rock Creek. The water in these reservoirs would then be pumped through pipelines thousands of feet uphill to three other reservoirs, built along 11,000-foot Wheeler Ridge in the John Muir Wilderness.

There, water would be held until electricity is needed, at which time the water would be released back downhill to three power-generating stations near the dams. The water could be recycled through the system as warranted, in what Premium Energy describes as a “closed-loop” hydroelectric operation.

As an alternative, the company proposes damming nearby Owens Valley River Gorge and similarly pumping water to reservoirs on Wheeler Ridge.

Either configuration would have an energy capacity of 5,200 megawatts, according to the FERC filing, a staggering amount of power that could meet the needs of a couple of million homes. The project would be California’s largest such operation.

Eight pumped storage sites currently operate in California, with a total capacity of 4,500 megawatts, according to the California Energy Commission. Wolak, at Stanford, said there’s a demand for plenty more facilities, given both the existing storage needs of wind and solar power and the future needs of the growing renewable sector.

California last year set an aggressive goal of getting 100 percent of its power from zero-emissions sources by 2045. While state law limits how much hydropower counts as clean energy, the storage potential of the plants alone is driving their resurgence.

“People see the need for what they provide, and developers are trying to get their licenses and work the deals,” said Jeff Leahey, head of governmental affairs for the National Hydropower Association. “In the past five to seven years, we really started to notice the increase in project proposals, particularly in the West.”

Preliminary permits for about a half dozen pumped-storage projects in California are being sought or were recently granted, FERC records show.

What makes the Owens Valley project different from several of the others — and more controversial — is that it proposes construction of new infrastructure instead of using existing hardware. Many pumped-storage operations piggyback on drinking-water reservoirs, like Lake Oroville, where water released from the reservoir is sometimes pumped back into the reservoir for power generation.

A proposal near Joshua Tree National Park would use old mining pits to hold water for generating electricity. Two other proposals, one at the San Vicente Dam near San Diego and one at Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, would add a single reservoir near an existing one to move water in between to produce power.

The Owens Valley project would build a total of six new reservoirs, a major ask that faces significant federal, state and local constraints. For starters, most development is banned in federally designated wilderness. Plus, residents and environmental groups are already raising concerns about a hydroelectric project chasing off threatened bighorn sheep and migrating deer, degrading water quality in the area’s many streams and simply shattering the natural beauty.

“I don’t know anybody who doesn’t support clean energy,” said Mono County resident Evan Russell, who has hiked the area along Lower Rock Creek hundreds of times. But “this would absolutely destroy the canyon.”

Most in the region remain flabbergasted about how something so big could be proposed for the sparsely developed eastern Sierra.

“Of course it was a surprise to people,” said Fran Hunt, a local organizer for the Sierra Club. “It’s really lit up the phone lines and people’s emails.”

Energy experts, who note that such an endeavor would likely cost billions of dollars, say the applicant may be pitching the project now as a longshot bet that it will become viable in the future. Others suggest that the applicant could be working with a larger company or utility that has the means and interest in moving a project forward quickly.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which has infrastructure in the area, is listed on the application as a possible recipient of the new energy. The utility has had a long and strained relationship with the residents of the Owens Valley over efforts to cull water and power from the region, dramatized in the 1974 movie “Chinatown.”

The utility did not return multiple calls from The Chronicle for comment.

Steve Evans, who tracks hydroelectric projects as program director of the California Wilderness Coalition, said he normally would dismiss the Owens Valley proposal as completely unrealistic. But with the Trump administration working to upend many of the nation’s environmental protocols, on top of state pressure to ramp up clean power, Evans said now anything seems possible.

“I’m sure Trump would love to stick it to California’s renewable energy program by approving a reservoir in a wilderness area,” he said. “All this is just really troubling.”