Bureau of Land Management's Decision Record and Environmental

The “wetlands” potentially impacted by the Project is the Jersey Valley Hot Springs. Currently,
there are no direct impacts projected to occur to the Hot Springs that may result by implementing
the project. The lease stipulations for all of the geothermal leases provide for no impacts to the
Jersey Valley Hot Springs as a result of Ormat’s project. If Ormat is unable to mitigate any
impacts to the Hot Springs that may occur, operations by Ormat are required to cease. The EA
provides specific mitigation should monitoring of the Hot Springs indicate any changes in flow
or temperature to the Hot Springs.
There are no park lands, prime or unique farm lands, wild and scenic rivers, ecological critical
areas, or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern that will be impacted by the project.
4) The degree to which the effects on the quality of the human environment are likely to be
highly controversial.
The proposed action is not expected to be controversial. Renewable energy projects such as the
Jersey Valley Geothermal Power Plants are important aspects of the Nation’s goal of reducing
dependence on foreign oil imports. This project will also help meet Nevada’s renewable energy
goals.
5) The degree to which the possible effects on the human environment are highly uncertain or
involve unique or unknown risks.
Insufficient information is currently available to know the nature of and relationship between
the geothermal reservoirs to be produced for the proposed Project and the thermal reservoirs
from which the Hot Springs flow. The geothermal leases on which this proposed project would
be developed contain stipulations which require the monitoring of the quality, quantity and
temperature of the adjacent Hot Springs; and prohibit adverse impacts to these Hot Springs from
lease activities (see Appendix A of the EA for these lease stipulations). To determine if adverse
changes to the Hot Springs may be occurring, and to comply with federal geothermal lease
stipulations applicable to this proposed Project, a progressive geothermal resource monitoring
program will be implemented. Should this monitoring program indicate that adverse impacts to
the Hot Springs may be occurring; the unit operator would be required to retain a competent
consultant, acceptable to the BLM, to evaluate the collected data and recommend appropriate,
reasonable mitigation measures. A group consisting of the applicable stakeholders would be
convened to review the recommended measures. Such mitigation measures may include
providing compensation to the current water rights holder, if any; providing supplemental
geothermal fluids to the affected Hot Springs; andlor the implementation of geothermal reservoir
management techniques (such as altering geothermal production and injection well pressures,
locations and depths), which are often employed to change the pressure distribution in
geothermal reservoirs to modify or reverse adverse pressure changes. The effectiveness of any
implemented mitigation measures and/or reservoir management techniques could be evaluated
by the ongoing information collected by the geothermal reservoir monitoring program, and
adjusted as necessary.
Ultimately, if impacts to the Jersey Valley Hot Springs cannot be mitigated, the lease stipulations
require Ormat to cease operations.
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