The community nonprofit in Imperial County says the Hell’s Kitchen geothermal plant and lithium mine was approved without adequate environmental considerations to water supply, tribal cultural resources and air quality.<\/p>\n
SAN DIEGO (CN) \u2014 A community nonprofit opposed to the development of a lithium mine and geothermal power plant in California\u2019s arid Imperial County asked a state Court of Appeal panel<\/a> on Thursday to reconsider their petition aimed at halting the development of the project.<\/p>\n Comite Civico del Valle argued to the panel the Imperial County Board of Supervisors<\/a> violated the California Environmental Quality Act after it approved the project based on a flawed and inadequate analysis of the project\u2019s environmental impacts in 2024. A judge denied their petition last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Attorney Doug Carstens argued to the three-justice panel the project\u2019s environmental impact report overstated the water availability in Imperial County and did not fully appreciate the impact the project would have on an agricultural region that already suffers from strained water resources.<\/p>\n The project is expected to use 6,500 acre-feet of water \u2014 or a little more than 2 billion gallons \u2014 per year, Carstens told the panel.<\/p>\n Add to that the increasing demands from other industrial<\/a>, agricultural and renewable energy projects in the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThose water demands will be growing upon the seemingly limited supply of water,\u201d Carstens said. \u201cThere are a lot of straws in that pool.\u201d<\/p>\n The project, titled Hell\u2019s Kitchen, is situated near the Salton Sea<\/a>, which sits on top of one of the largest geothermal fields in the world. Controlled Thermal Resources, the company behind the project, says lithium can also be extracted in the geothermal power generation process \u2014 though that technology hasn\u2019t been tested on a large scale yet.<\/p>\n In their opening brief,<\/a> the nonprofit and its co-plaintiff environmental organization Earthworks<\/a> argue the project is expected to operate for 50 years, but a water supply assessment only analyzes 20 years of availability, leaving a significant gap of uncertainty. They also point to warnings from the Imperial Irrigation District over the sufficiency of water resources.<\/p>\n \u201cWater that seems available today may not be available in 30 or 50 years,\u201d Carstens told the panel.<\/p>\n