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School Building Committee authorizes start of Article 97/NEPA permitting work for Pollard geothermal plan
Summary
The School Building Committee voted to initiate the application process for Article 97 permitting and to begin NEPA/ENF preparatory work for proposed geothermal wells; project engineers said the permitting path should be manageable absent an environmental-justice trigger.
The School Building Committee unanimously approved a motion on Aug. 10 to authorize initiation of the Article 97 application process and related NEPA/ENF work for proposed geothermal wells associated with the Pollard Middle School project.
Tina Stanislavski, the presenter for permitting, explained that although the geothermal wells are subsurface, they could trigger an Article 97 review. She said the team has already gathered environmental, wetlands, hazardous-waste and historic-resource information from the study phase and expects to file an Environmental Notification Form (ENF/E and F) that typically takes one to two months to assemble. "If there's not an environmental-justice community within a mile of the project, then you don't trigger an EIR," she said, adding that in that case permitting can be completed in a few months and that engineers have seen similar Article 97 work proceed without long delays.
Committee members supported beginning pre-consultation with NEPA and packaging the ENF material while the team continues work on schematic design and funding steps. The SBC's roll-call vote recorded all members "Aye."
