Bureau of Land Management's Decision Record and Environmental

• Objective 1: Make available and encourage development of mineral resources to meet
national, regional and local needs consistent with national objectives for an adequate
supply of minerals.
• Objective 2: Assure that mineral exploration, development and extraction are carried
out in such a way as to minimize environmental and other resource damage and to
provide, where legally possible, for the rehabilitation of lands.
• Objective 3: Develop detailed mineral resource data in areas where different resources
conflict so that informed decisions may be made that result in optimum use of the lands.
Management Decision #2 (Leasable Minerals — Geothermal Steam), states that: “All areas
designated by the BLM as prospectively valuable for geothermal steam will be open for
exploration and development unless withdrawn or restricted from mineral entry. All public lands
disposed of in these areas will have the geothermal resources reserved to the federal
government.” (BLM 1987).
The proposal is consistent with the plans and policies of neighboring local, county, state, tribal
and federal agencies and governments.
This finding and conclusion is based on the consideration of the Council on Environmental
Quality’s (CEQ) criteria for significance (40 CFR 1508.27), both with regard to the context and
the intensity of impacts described in the EA.
Context:
In April, 2009 the Mount Lewis Field Office (MLFO), of the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM), received an application from Oi-mat Nevada Incorporated (Ormat) which filed an
Operating Plan (OP), Utilization Plan (UP) and Plan of Development (POD) for both the Jersey
Valley and Buffalo Valley Geothermal Power Plants and associated infrastructure. On May 17 th,
2010, the Nevada State Office of the Bureau of Land Management was advised by Ormat of the
Company’s intention to relinquish all of its Buffalo Valley geothermal leases. This FONSI and
associated documents now reflect this change by addressing the Jersey Valley power plant
development, the plant’s related infrastructure, and the transmission power line and Bannock
Substation.
The infrastructure included a 27.59 mile power line, injection and production wells for the
plants’ geothermal injection and production well fields; pipelines to transport geothermal fluids
from the well fields and return pipelines to the injection well fields; construction a new Bannock
Substation that will connect the produced electricity to the existing Nevada power grid; storm
water diversion dikes/ditches; and roads to access and maintain this infrastructure.
Total permanent surface disturbance is expected to be approximately 85 acres. The life of the
project, as currently projected, is 50 years, at which time the entire project will be
decommissioned and reclaimed. A total of 30 Megawatts of electrical energy per year is
projected to be generated by the project.
iS’s \afley (1 hrcniI Lnt
TX•—B1Jv -\\-() .\((()