Palmdale, California

Palmdale Water Treatment Facility

(1) 950 kW turbine (equivalent to 300 homes)

Development Timeline: 2001 - 2004

Owner: Palmdale Water District

(2001) “To reduce price volatility — as well as show environmental stewardship, generate some positive public relations, and achieve a degree of self-sufficiency — the [Water] District decided to investigate renewable energy options.” (1)

(November 2002) "This is significantly larger than any current structure located within the vicinity and will have a negative impact on the visual character of the city of Palmdale...The city does not believe that any proposed mitigation measure will adequately mitigate the highly negative impact the proposed project will have on aesthetics...Unless these issues are resolved through cooperative planning efforts between our agencies, the city will actively oppose this project." Laurie Lile, Palmdale's director of planning (2)

(December 2002) "The project will, however, directly, immediately and substantially impact and impede residential views of the San Gabriel Mountains south and west of the project site. Likewise, the project will directly, immediately and substantially impact views of the city and the Antelope Valley from Highway 14 (along the very first viewing stretch on Highway 14 encountered by motorists traveling north from Los Angeles, the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys)." Filing in Los Angeles Superior Court (3)

 

Project History:

In the midst of the 2001 energy price spikes in California, the Palmdale Water District decided upon a series of energy improvements at its water treatment facility on Lake Palmdale.(4) Included were plans for a 950 kW wind turbine, which would offset the facility's energy use while selling excess power back to the grid through a net metering arrangement. The Water District approved the project 4-1 in November 2002. Despite the District's intentions, the project became ensnarled in a legal fight that pitted the Palmdale's Water District against City Hall. Objections from the Mayor and some neighbors and a lawsuit by the city challenging the project's "Mitigated Negative Declaration" were ultimately unsuccessful, but delayed the project by eight months.(1) The turbine was eventually installed and began operation in August 2004. (5)

 

Site:

The water treatment facility is located on the north shore of Lake Palmdale, on the outskirts of the city. Palmdale is an edge city of 121,000 in the sprawling Antelope Valley (6), approximately 30 miles north of Los Angeles. Much of the debate over the wind turbine centered on questions of "aesthetics" as they related to the city and valley's self-identity:

ANTELOPE VALLEY

Photo credits: leblog.exuberance.com (left), www.palmdalelibrary.org (middle), www.cityofpalmdale.org (right)

The city's court challenge decries the loss of mountain views and the wind turbine's impact on the scenic qualities of the "Antelope Valley." The lawsuit's language is in line with a view of a valley of high desert vistas, crisp air, and Joshua trees. While neighbors expressed concerns about impacts on noise, birds, and property values, the focus of the city's opposition was centered squarely around "aesthetics." Called by some a "monster", the turbine proposal seemed to draw opposition due to concerns about the city's image. A Los Angeles Times article (6) points out that while "some scoff at the notion that Palmdale, with its auto-lots and dun-colored tract homes, has any beauty to spoil" this might precisely be why there was so much opposition. According to one homeowner's letter to the Water District: "Putting it dead center in the view from the Highway 14 overlook will bring great joy to our neighbors to the south who love to make fun of the 'ignorant hicks' that are stupid enough to live in the Antelope Valley." (6)

 

AEROSPACE VALLEY

Photo credits: astrosurf.com (left), airpower.callihan.cc (middle), Aerofiles (right)

Yet what this view of the valley leaves out is the area's parallel moniker of "Aerospace Valley." The valley, the "Aerospace Capital of America", is home to over 28,000 aerospace and defense related workers who work at Edwards Air Force Base, the Edwards Rocket Site, the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, and Palmdale's own Air Force Plant 42, where NASA's space shuttles were assembled. (7)

The city's filing challenges the wind turbine's impact on bird life, calling the wind turbine a "178-foot aerial buzz saw" and that 156 different bird species in the area will be harmed. Yet when one considers the avian effects of Air Force Plant 42, built to facilitate “flight testing high performance jet aircraft over heavily populated areas,”(8) this claim, and the view that the wind turbine will bring "gigantic mechanized industrialization" (6) becomes less convincing.