Buena Vista – The former Cogen wax plant has drawn a power company to Amador County, seeking to reactivate as a cleaner-burning, all-biodegradable power source. The Amador Air District board of directors will host a public meeting August 25th about the plant’s proposed reopening. The meeting will allow all interested parties to comment on “reactivation of the power plant” at 4655 Coral Mine Road in Jackson Valley, near Ione. Oral and written comments may be submitted during the meeting, and written comments can be delivered to the Air District office no later than August 24th. A newspaper legal notice of the public said the “power plant will be reactivated under new ownership in 2010.” Buena Vista Biomass managing partner Mark Thompson said last week at a tour of the plant that they hope to reopen the plant by May or June of next year. The notice said the plant was initially approved for operation in the early 1980s, and it exclusively “burned only lignite, a primitive form of coal,” which was mined around the site. In 1998, a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report was approved for the plant owners, changing the fuel mixtures to 20 percent lignite, and 80 percent ag waste, urban wood waste, offset fuels, demolition material or “tire derived fuels.” The notice said “when the facility is reactivated, it will burn only the previously allowed woody biomass fuels,” and “all other fuels will be eliminated. Lignite and tire derived fuels will no longer be burned.” It said “emissions of air pollutants will be reduced by more than 50 percent by this action.” Thompson said at the open house last week that there would be a “97 percent particulate reduction.” He said they are not a coal plant, but strictly wood and biomass burning facility. The objective is to operate the combustion powered steam generators and market the resulting 18.3 megawatts. He said they would burn about 110,000 “bone-dry tons a year,” and 200,000 to 300,000 “green tons a year.” The latter has 30 to 40 percent moisture content. They will employ up to 60 people during the construction phase, and will employ 20 full-time people when they open, and will run 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Thompson said they should have an annual salary in excess of $2.3 million. The meeting is 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 25th at the supervisors’ chambers, 810 Court Street in Jackson. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sutter Creek - The Sutter Creek Planning Commission met Thursday to continue their ongoing review of Gold Rush Ranch and Golf Resort Conditions of Approval, with hopes of having a final recommendation for the City Council next week. The schedule was supposed to include a presentation by Gold Rush representatives, but Consultant Anders Hague said it was postponed until last night’s meeting due to “changes in schedule.” Commissioner Robin Peters said they will still shoot “for a recommendation on (August 10) if the stars align.” Hague led the commission line-by-line through the latest changes in the Conditions of Approval, a process that began at 7 pm and didn’t conclude until 10:45 pm. Even then, the review of technical and grammatical changes within the document was incomplete and was scheduled to continue at Monday night’s meeting. Sutter Creek Assistant City Manager Sean Rabe sad that because of these delays, commissioners are now aiming for a new date of August 24th to develop a recommendation for city council. Monday’s meeting also was planned to include a development agreement presentation by Sutter Creek Attorney Dennis Crabb, a Transportation Mitigation presentation by Amador County Transportation Director Charles Field and a presentation by the Gold Rush applicants. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ione – The Ione Planning Commission added a series of changes to its recommendation for the draft city General Plan Wednesday, including a land swap for the Q Ranch development. The swap of Q Ranch “policy area” property gives a parcel from Rancho Arroyo Seco to Q Ranch, in exchange for one there. The properties were on opposite sides of Irish Hill Road from the rest of their respective properties. City Planner Christopher Jordan is a report said the 2 parties, the Toma family and Rancho Arroyo Seco, “have agreed to the principles for the transfer of property. The swap is subject to approval of a Boundary Line Adjustment by Amador County and execution of exchange documents.” Jordan said staff reviewed the agreement and recommended the swap be included in the final General Plan. Jordan gave the commission an e-mail in which Ciro Toma said he met with Bill Bunce and Tom Swett of Rancho Arroyo Seco and said he “agreed in principal” to the swap. A map approved to be recommended with the draft General Plan listed the former Arroyo Seco property would have “Open Space” and “Low Density Residential” land use designations. The commission also accepted recommendations form Jordan and General Plan Project Manager Daniel Hamilton for replies to comments from Mintier Harnish Planning Consultants on behalf of Amador Ranch Associates. Replies included mostly notes that questions raised had been address in the General Plan. Staff did not agree with Mintier Harnish’s comments that a Conservation & Open Space Element “action” was “too rigid,” and suggested a change. Jordan and Hamilton also recommended making no changes addressing comments from the Foothill Conservancy’s Thomas Infusino. In the letter, Infusino said the Conservancy is “encouraged by some language and state goals” in Ione’s draft General Plan, but said the “overall growth of the Ione area seems extremely high,” and noted the current population, 3,500, including Mule Creek. He said “it is assumed 2030 the development capacity of the proposed General Plan would be … a population of 18,182.” He said the “mitigation recipe lacks some key ingredients.” Infusino said in “many cases there are no established quantified objectives to guide policy implementation.” He said: “When deferring mitigation to some time in the future, key necessary ingredients are the sorts of quantified standards to which the city and the development community can be held accountable in the future.” He also said it was urgent to get development standards in place, before the approval of other projects. The public hearing on the General Plan was continued to August 26th, when the city council will convene. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.