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Groups oppose nuke plant
by Robert J. Taylor
Mountain Home News
On Wednesday night the Elmore County Planning and Zoning Commission heard from groups that are neutral to or opposed to the request by Alternative Energy Holdings, Inc. to rezone approximately 1,345 acres of Agricultural A zoned property to Heavy Industrial in order to build a nuclear power plant on land southwest of Hammett.
The commission heard from one neutral group and 13 groups in opposition to the plan.
The groups ranged from residents and farmers of Hammett trying to convince the commission the rezone would not fit into the county's comprehensive plan and would disrupt their agriculture community, to groups outside the county trying to argue the same point, to groups outside the county offering little more than anti-nuclear seminars to the panel that were either loosely or not at all related to the county's comprehensive plan.
The commission's decision must be based on how the rezone would affect the county's comprehensive plan and specifically address two questions:
1) Would a change in zoning of the subject site from Agriculture A to Heavy Industry be in accordance with the comprehensive plan; and,
2) Does the proposed development agreement appropriately limit uses in the requested Heavy Industry Zone, if the change were to be approved?
The commission heard from a number of speakers who lived between a quarter of a mile and five miles from the proposed site.
They had a number of concerns with the proposed rezoning, including the water usage of the plant, the use of spot zoning to rezone the land, the lifestyle change the plant would bring with it, the boom/bust cycle of workers into the community to construct the plant and the strain it would cause on the county's infrastructure and budget, the use of prime agriculture land to be turned into heavy industry land, the storage of nuclear waste on the land and the perceived lack of answers to the questions that holes in the application beg to be asked.
Bob Bledsoe, whose farm is located to the east and southeast of the proposed site, spoke on behalf of farmers and ranchers from the Hammett/Indian Cove area.
He said the group did not believe the rezone was in the best interests of the people of Elmore County.
Nor did he think the plant would enhance the livability of Hammett or that the livability of Hammett needed enhancing.
"A nuclear power facility would not enhance the livability of the community and would actually degrade our existing lifestyle," Bledsoe said. "Our lifestyle does not need to be improve. It is just fine the way it is."
Diana Hooley spoke on behalf of citizens living in the Snake River Valley. She said rezoning the land would be a mistake because of the number of family farms surrounding the land and the lack of power lines and grids at the site. She said the Snake River is shallow at the site and she couldn't imagine a nuclear power there.
She also expressed concern of what would happen if the power plant isn't completed for financial reasons and what would happen to the land after it was rezoned as heavy industrial.
She said the plant AEHI CEO Chairman Don Gillispie has said he'll use isn't currently being operated anywhere in the world.
"Do we really want to rezone a property for a nuclear plant that has no previous track record?" she asked the board.
Nancy Blanksma, speaking for long-time Elmore County/Hammett/Indian Cove residents, said rezoning the land from its historic use as agricultural land to heavy industrial would be in direct contradiction of the Elmore County Comprehensive Plan.
She used her time to point out areas of the application she and the members of her group thought were in direct conflict with the plan, including spot zoning, and expressed concerns about the period of time the county would wait to see an increase in tax money once the project is operational.
She also expressed concern about the strain on the county's infrastructure and public services due to the number of people who would move to the county as temporary workers to build the facility. She said expanding services for temporary workers and their families would be a burden carried by the current taxpayers and would be unneeded and unused once the workers left for a new project.
She then went though the county's comprehensive plan and pointed out ways she thought the request did not fit into the county's plan.
She said the rezone in no way protects agriculture land, would dramatically affect land values of surrounding properties by affecting the agricultural nature of Hammett, questioned if the water usage would fit into the plan, and said it would violate the county's plan to only put heavy industrial areas in the Simco Road area.
She said the rezone would go against much of the intent of the county's plan.
Edwin R. Schlender, from Mountain Home, of Elmore Citizens Against Loss of our Rural Lands, spoke on the importance of maintaining farmland for its intended use.
"Are we going to be a nation that has to go down to the pier and wait for the ship to come in to feed us?" Schlender asked after presenting statistics on the number of farms and acres of farmland lost in the past and the rising number of agriculture imports.
He said while electricity is important, one can live without it, but not without food or water. He said he isn't anti-nuclear but didn't think farmland needed to be used for industrial use.
Boise-based Snake River Alliance had several reasons for opposing the request and despite being a "nuclear watch dog" organization, focused mostly on how rezoning the land would not fit into the comprehensive plan.
Concerned Healthcare Workers and the Sierra Club, Middle Snake Group, loosely used the county's comprehensive plan as a platform to speak against nuclear power plants in general while Joe Weatherby (speaking on behalf of the groups Treasure Valley Against Nuclear Reactors and Land Air Water Sustainability), Idaho Families for Safest Energy spokesperson Pete Rickards of Twin Falls, and Alma Hasse from ICARE used their allotted time to speak largely against nuclear power.
The Boise Astronomical Society, the lone neutral group at the hearing, requested the commission enact an ordinance requiring proper exterior lighting at the site to avoid "light pollution" of the sky at the public observatory at Bruneau Dunes State Park.
Before representatives of groups spoke, the commission addressed a memo they received earlier in the day from Gillispie asking to withdraw the development agreement from the application.
The board decided to proceed with the hearing as advertised (which included considering the agreement) and agreed to hear testimony related to both the development agreement and the application.
Sharp said she did not know how the commission will proceed with the withdrawal request at press time.
At 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, the commission will hear from individuals in opposition of the request. Individuals will have three minutes to speak and the commission will stop hearing testimony at 10:30 p.m.
Bonnie Sharp, director of Elmore County Growth and Development, said the board wanted to hear from all those with concerns but was not sure what arrangements would be made if the number of individuals who wish to speak extended past 10:30 p.m.