Press release from GBUAPCD and MCWD

Mammoth Lakes, CA – Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District (Great Basin) and Mammoth Community Water District (MCWD), having reached a full and complete settlement, Thursday filed a joint stipulation to dismiss pending litigation.  The two public agencies, Great Basin and MCWD, believe that withdrawing the lawsuit will foster a more collaborative path forward, allowing the parties to work together to jointly ensure protection for our community’s air and groundwater.  Today’s filing formalizes the agreement reached between the two parties to settle the dispute outside of the courtroom.

“Great Basin has been committed from the beginning to protecting the drinking water and the environment,” said Phill Kiddoo, the Great Basin’s Air Pollution Control Officer.  “This has always been its priority and of upmost importance.  Great Basin is looking forward to having litigation behind us and pursuing cooperative interagency discussions with the MCWD.”

“MCWD’s mission is to deliver safe and reliable water to our customers in Mammoth Lakes,” said Patrick Hayes, General Manager of Mammoth Community Water District. “Our goal in initiating the lawsuit was to defend the region’s groundwater supply from harm by establishing a robust monitoring and response plan to address our concerns for Ormat’s Casa Diablo IV Geothermal Expansion Project so that we can continue to reliably deliver water.  In light of recent discussions and new information, it has become apparent that this litigation was an obstacle to the progress we are seeking. Going forward our customers will be best served by us focusing on delivering solutions that are within our control.  To that end, we will be acquiring additional wells sites and drilling more production wells to provide alternate supply should we lose existing wells to geothermal impacts” said Hayes.

Hayes and Kiddoo indicated the MCWD and Great Basin will continue to collaborate with stakeholders regarding the Bureau of Land Management’s adaptive Groundwater Monitoring and Response Plan.