The LA Times reported August 7th that the Eagle Crest Energy Co. is planning to build a hydropower station on the old site of the Eagle Mountain iron mine; land that was previously battled over when it had been proposed as a landfill site. The hydropower station would rely on groundwater pumped from private wells in the area to fill its reservoirs.
Park officials are worried the aquifer reserves of the park would be drained, and the reservoirs would draw animals that would skew the balance of Joshua Tree National Park’s ecosystem.
” ‘…there’s been almost 70 years of fighting over this landscape,’ said David Lamfrom, California desert director for […} the National Parks Conservation Assn.”
Read the whole story here: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-eagle-mountain-20170807-htmlstory.html