Spring / Summer 2008

Shasta is always at home to those who love her … burning fires within, grinding glaciers without, and fountains ever flowing.
—John Muir

POWER PLANTS ON MOUNT SHASTA?

by Michelle Berditschevsky

Vulcan appeals decision not to lease

Vulcan Power Company has appealed a local Forest Service decision not to award geothermal leases high on Mount Shasta’s northeastern flank. The appeal to the Chief of the Forest Service and the Interior Board of Land Appeals challenges decisions made at the local and regional levels by the U.S. Forest Service and BLM, which rejected Vulcan’s application for geothermal leases on approximately 13 square miles of land on Mount Shasta’s north side.

BLM has made it clear that the decision lies in the Forest Service’s hands. By law, as the agency that has legal jurisdiction, the Forest Service has the ability not to consent to leasing on National Forest System lands.

Local officials rejected leases

In early April, the California BLM issued a rejection of geothermal lease applications, based on the decision by Regional Forester Randy Moore not to consent to geothermal leasing on Mount Shasta. Shasta-Trinity Forest Supervisor Sharon Heywood determined that leasing would be inconsistent with the Forest Plan because of “the risk of adverse impacts to cultural and historic values” on Mount Shasta, an “iconic landmark known world-wide for its beauty and spiritual significance.” The Forest Plan directed in 1995 that Mount Shasta would be managed for “cultural and historic values, recreation and visual quality.” Heywood said she considered several sources, including public comments, in making her determination, concluding that, “geothermal development…would in fact be a significant degradation of a place held sacred by many Native American peoples.”

Native American tribes urge no leasing

Native American consultations with the Forest Service emphasized that “the entire Mountain, from the peak to the surrounding flatlands, is of significance…. Repeated comm-unications over the years document the interconnected nature of features on Mount Shasta. Tribal consultations clearly demonstrate that Mount Shasta, in its entirety, continues to be held as a sacred entity,” according to Supervisor’s Heywood’s report.

In her recommendation, Supervisor Heywood stated many of the points that the Tribes and the Ecology Center have been making for 20 years, first during a successful decade-long challenge of a proposal to build a large ski-condominium resort on the Mountain; and more recently, invoking the spiritual importance and pristine magnificence of Mount Shasta in attempts to forestall geothermal development by Vulcan Power Company.

Regional Forester Moore agreed with Supervisor Heywood, citing authorities under Sacred Sites Executive Order 13007 that directs agencies to avoid adversely affecting the physical integrity of Indian Sacred Sites.

Medicine Lake court victory supports Mount Shasta protection

The Ninth Circuit Court decision to invalidate leases for one of two geothermal projects in the nearby Medicine Lake Highlands played a large role in Heywood’s determination, which found that “There is no mitigation that can offset the significant impact [of geothermal development].” The 1998 EIS for geothermal development at the Medicine Lake Highlands concluded, “all of the alternatives considered would have significant adverse effects on traditional cultural values.”

The Pit River Tribe and Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, together with the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, prevailed in a Ninth Circuit Court decision in November 2006 over the Fourmile Hill geothermal project proposed for the Medicine Lake Highlands.

Heywood added: “As was found with the geothermal developments at Medicine Lake, I believe there is no way to proceed with geothermal development on Mount Shasta in a manner that does not damage fundamental cultural values.”

Vulcan’s plans for Mount Shasta

The original lease applications, issued to Vulcan in 1992, would have allowed development on 28 square miles of lands that would have encircled the Mountain at mid to high elevations west of Panther Meadows, above Sand Flat, near the Ski Park, and below the Wilderness Area, close to Whitney Falls, Brewer Creek, down to Military Pass Road.

The company abandoned the lease applications on the west and south sides in 2007, and decided to concentrate on the 13 square miles in the less controversial Military Pass-Whitney Falls-Brewer Creek area. Vulcan’s plans include two 30-megawatt power plants with associatrd well pads, drill rigs digging thousands of feet down, pipelines, night lighting, constant noise, as well as air and water pollution. These are all well documented impacts of industrial geothermal development. Geothermal development uses similar resource extractive equipment and techniques as oil drilling (including acidification of deep-level strata to pool the resource), and results in a degraded, visually blighted landscape.

The message of the Mountain — don’t pollute the source

The message is loud and clear that these sacred areas have a profound meaning for Native Americans and for humanity as a whole that must be safeguarded, both as huge sources of pure water—together Mount Shasta and the Medicine Lake Highlands account for as much as a third of California's water as well as sources of inspiration and wellbeing. Rising high above the busyness of industrial society, these pristine places allow us to experience the earth’s sacred dimension. Their magnificent atmosphere and outstanding healing qualities bring renewal to body, mind and soul, and must be preserved for future generations.