Officials said Monday that parts of the Santa Fe National Forest could be leased for exploration and development of geothermal energy as early as 2017.
The U.S. Geological Survey has identified 195,000 acres west and north of the Valles Caldera National Preserve in the Coyote, Jemez and Española ranger districts as having significant geothermal potential. And last week the Santa Fe National Forest released a statement draft on the environmental impact to help guide forest managers determine the viability of geothermal energy development on public lands.
“The big question right now,” said Larry Gore, a geologist with the Santa Fe National Forest, “Is there a resource north of the Caldera that could be developed? And that is completely unknown at this time.”
Geothermal resources consist of underground reservoirs of hot water or steam, as well as subsurface areas of hot rock. Geothermal steam reaches the earth’s surface as hot springs, geysers, mud pots or steam vents. Hot water also is found below the earth’s surface and can be accessed by wells to provide heat directly or to generate electricity.
A public meeting on the proposed project and the potential effects outlined in the draft will be held on Tuesday in the Jemez Puebloand Wednesday in El Rito. Members of the public will have until Aug. 22 to submit comments on the draft. The forest manager, Maria Garcia, is expected to make a final decision on whether leasing will occur by early 2017.
Gore said that during a scoping period in 2015, many people raised concerns about water pollution, disruption of wildlife habitat and livestock grazing ranges, seismic activity, and vehicle and dust emissions. Tribal communities also expressed fear that lands of cultural and religious significance would be disturbed.
Earthquake tremors have been noted near geothermal drilling in Switzerland and California, an issue that was addressed in the environmental impact statement. A study by the University of Santa Cruz in 2013 found “a strong correlation between seismic activity and operations for production of geothermal power,” it said.
But advocates of geothermal say it could be a job builder and an affordable energy project that could lessen the state’s reliance on fossil fuels.
James Witcher, a geothermal and geology consultant based in Las Cruces, said he supports leasing, but was skeptical of it gaining enough support to move forward.
Geothermal has the potential to generate large amounts of energy with minimal geological disturbance, taking up roughly the space of a football field, he said. It would be cheaper than importing nuclear power from other states, which New Mexico currently does, and wouldn’t rely on railroads or pipelines for transport like coal and natural gas.
“If [industries] are willing to spend money and risk resources to drill it and see if it is there, they ought to be allowed to do it,” he said. “Because it could benefit that part of the world.”
Witcher added that federal rules address concerns about water depletion and soil disturbance.
“One of the problems is [when] you mention drilling rigs and you mention bulldozers, there is an automatic knee jerk to that and people fight it,” he said.
New Mexico territories were first explored for geothermal potential in the late 1960s, identifying areas, predominantly around the Jemez range known for boiling natural hot springs, where energy could be developed by tapping into hot water and steam drawn from the earth’s crust. Projects were also proposed in the 1980s but failed to move forward.
But development interest was reawakened over the past four years, when Ormat Technologies Inc., an alternative energy company focused on geothermal development and based in Nevada, notified the Bureau of Land Management they would like to lease land in New Mexico for development. According to the environmental impact statement, there has been interest in leasing 46,000 acres in the Santa Fe National Forest.
Not all of the 195,000 acres in the project area are available for leasing. Some land is private or owned by the state and other governmental entities. And 32,000 acres are protected by conservation statutes, leaving 136,650 acres as potential leasing options.
Modeling studies have indicated hot rock exists that could be tapped into, but have not determined if it is accompanied by water or would require water to be injected to create steam, according to Gore. Only development would reveal this for certain, he said, and a company would have to weigh the economical benefit of work with an unknown result, even if leasing were to be approved.
“Everything we are doing is very speculative,” Gore said. “If the energy is needed, it is going to come from somewhere, so if we don’t do geothermal, there is going to be something else done to create that energy.”
• Public meeting on a geothermal project in Jemez Pueblo, 6 p.m. to 7:30 Tuesday, July 19, Walatowa Visitor Center Conference Room, 7413 N.M. 4, Jemez Pueblo, NM 87024
• Public meeting on a geothermal project in El Rito, 6 p.m. to 7:30 Wednesday, July 20, Rio Arriba County Rural Events Center, 122-A N.M. 554, El Rito, NM 87530
