Stopping Battery Storage in Alpine

We’ve got a lot of posts on Battery Storage Facilities coming to Alpine, so I tried to gather information for ease of use. Thank you to all the members who have shared information with the group. Laureen Bellmer and Misty Vise have been particularly diligent.

Should something else be added? Share in the comments. If you would like to manage this article, or create other ones for our community, please let me know. We want the website to be community driven just like the Facebook Group is.

What Can You Do To Help Keep Battery Storage Facilities Out of Alpine?

Alpine Planning Meeting Summary by Misty Vise 9/27/24

I attended last night’s Alpine Planning Group’s meeting. We had about 55 residents attend as well as representatives from Joel Anderson and Brian Jone’s offices. These are my take aways:

1) A large number of speakers were concerned with the fire danger. The battery facility could be a source of a wild fire, or be directly hit and catch fire. NOTE: Alpine was evacuated in 1970 in what was at the

time the 2nd largest fire in CA history. There’s no reason to believe it can’t happen again. The area where the battery storage is proposed is among the most risky of all of the east county areas. Wildfires repeat the same patterns based on topography, wind direction (Santa Anas), and fuel. CalFire has published fuel maps- this area has some of the oldest fuel (See photo…regrowth after the 1970 fire) so it is among the highest risk. Ironically, the batteries are part of a larger movement to reduce CO2 emissions. A wildfire generates far more CO2 and pollutants than the batteries will ever save. (This information was emailed to me a local environmentalist/concerned member of our community).

2) Urban areas don’t want the battery facilities after seeing the toxic fumes and hard to control fire in Escondido. So the rural areas are now being considered? Why are our lives not as important as those living in the densely populated cities?Even when they are not on fire these batteries have health hazards to consider. Recent studies have found Lithium-ion batteries release “Forever Chemicals” which are being found in the soil and water around these battery plants/facilities. Residents near this property are very understandably concerned about these chemicals getting into their well water and in case of fire, the chemicals would become airborne and settle in the soil, on their food they grow and eat affecting them as well as their livestock.

3) Water run-off; One Board member reported that he had spoken with the Fire Marshal and when asked how the fire department would respond to a fire at this facility he said they would not go into the facility. They would soak down the surrounding area and attempt to keep from spreading. In the event this would take firefighters out of the home defenses and put them solely at protecting the facility. This brought up more questions as to the water run off so close to Loveland Residents which is the drinking water for Sweetwater Water District, not to mention our wildlife out here, as well as the possibility of this run-off carrying toxic Forever Chemicals into the underground rivers that feed our wells.

4) Response time for emergency crews to arrive to this address was stated to be 16 minutes. Personally I highly doubt that a firetruck would make it there that quickly and this will be looked into and reported on at the next meeting.

5) Due to the hazardous nature of a battery storage facility that is burning, evacuating the homes west of the address would most likely not happen. The Hazards Material Crew would be called on scene and nobody would be allowed within the perimeter they see safe, causing these families to be trapped.

6) Several people asked why this can’t be located in the desert, next to the wind farms and solar panels.

During the Q & A it was obvious the representatives had no answers to our questions. I left with the feeling they were caught off guard at the pushback they received. I will hand it to them, they took it well and were much mire respectful than the Sweetwater Water District was when they came out here a couple years ago.

The Board voted to table the Battery Storage Facility and revisit it once the County sends the Board their scope for this proposal. It is imperative we get the Sycuan Indian Reservation on board as this will greatly affect them in the event of a fire!!! Please contact all the influential people you can and help put an end to these companies who think they can come in and profit off our neighborhoods while causing who knows what health issues even in the best scenario.

*CORRECTION: I had previously posted that Amberjack Energy, LLC was owned by Amberjack Capital out of Houston but their representatives last night corrected that and said they are owned by Samsung.

I asked these representatives where they have already placed these battery facilities in CA and they said, Valley Center. Ha! I laughed and told them that was a terrible example since that one caught on fire and they actually agreed.

Please plan on attending these meetings the 4th Thursday of every month at 6 PM. If you would like to receive emails regarding this or any other topics being discussed please email [email protected] and request to be put on the email list for upcoming meetings. Original post https://www.facebook.com/groups/AlpineLifestyle/posts/3720393118221603/