The Role of a Technical Advisory Committee in the Permitting of a Geothermal Power Plant in the Long Valley Caldera

Abstract

IN 1984, while considering an application for a conditional use permit to drill geothermal exploration wells in the Long Valley caldera, the Mono County Energy Management Department (MCEMD) determined that baseline data on the shallow hydrothermal system would need to be collected prior to drilling and testing. Further, the decision was made that a regional hydrologic baseline data collection network should be established in the Long Valley caldera for the evaluation of potential impacts to the hydrologic system which future geothermal projects may create. The USGS was the entity selected to conduct the baseline data collection and a multi agency technical advisory committee was formed by the MCEMD to oversee the implementation and ongoing function of the monitoring program. The technical committee, now known as the Long Valley Hydrologic Advisory Committee, has played a key role in the evaluation of hydrologic monitoring data, proprietary geothermal production and injection data and in the permitting of the Mammoth Pacific Unit II Geothermal Power plant Project in the Long Valley caldera in Mono County, California. Such a technical advisory committee is viewed by permitting agencies and developers as having a positive and constructive place in the permitting and ongoing management of geothermal power projects.