Bulletin E-Edition:
If a disaster hits Oregon, Christmas Valley could be a refuge
By Keith Chu / The Bulletin
Published: March 15. 2009 4:00AM PST
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WASHINGTON — Christmas Valley’s former military radar site could be a camp for disaster victims — as well as a renewable energy hub — if the state of Oregon gets its way.
The 2,622-acre site once held an Air Force radar complex designed to watch for threats across the Pacific Ocean. But the machine was shuttered in 1990, only a few months after it was finished. Since the Air Force announced it would close the radar station in 2005, the military, the Bureau of Land Management and the state have envisioned developing the site for solar or wind power.
Now, the state is also eyeing the land as a depot for emergency supplies or tent encampment for people displaced by natural disasters, said Oregon Emergency Management Director Ken Murphy.
The site is about 95 miles southeast of Bend and far from any large population centers. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to storing supplies or relocating disaster victims, Murphy said.
“To some extent your population centers might not be available,” Murphy said. “They may be destroyed, they may be contaminated, so I always look for those areas away from population centers.”
The Christmas Valley site once sported 216 antennae that varied in height from 35 to 135 feet, according to earlier reports by The Bulletin. What’s left is several empty buildings and a lot of empty space. Murphy envisioned storing food, water, ice, clothing and other basic supplies there, along with tents, on 20 to 100 acres of the site.
Capt. Russell Gibson, the construction facility management officer for the Oregon National Guard, is working with the federal government to transfer some of the property to the state.
“If we had to move a large number of people, for example, from the coast, could we put them out there?” Gibson said.
The state can receive the property used for emergency management for free from the federal General Services Administration, which is responsible for selling the land, said Blaine Hastings, the GSA project supervisor.
Last year, two Indian tribes — the Burns Paiute and Klamath tribes — also wanted to take control of the land, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs never submitted the final paperwork to apply for the parcel, Hastings said.
“Two of the tribes did make applications through the BIA,” Hastings said. “There was never a final request made from the BIA for the property.”
That means the state of Oregon is next in line to acquire the land, Hastings said. A portion of the land used for emergency management can be conveyed for free, because it’s for a “public use,” but the rest must be paid for, he said.
“They don’t have another public use (besides emergency management),” Hastings said. “Perhaps they will buy part of it under a negotiated purpose for future development.”
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, and Lake County and state officials have eyed the land for renewable energy because of the massive transmission lines already in place. Those lines can transmit up to 200 megawatts of energy at a time, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
In 2007, Gov. Ted Kulongoski designated the property as an Or- egon Solutions project, which brings together state and local officials on economic development issues.
The $410 billion spending bill that became law last week includes a $380,600 earmark to the state Department of Energy. The department will use the money to research geothermal, wind and solar power potential at the site, said Diana Enright, assistant director for the Renewable Energy Division at the department.
Once the assessment is complete, the Oregon Solutions group plans to bring renewable energy developers to the site to gauge their interest, said Jim Walls, executive director of the economic development group Lake County Resources Initiative, who is also working on the project. In one scenario, developers would help fund the state’s purchase of the land, Walls said.
“We will have an open house for developers or something so everyone can put in a proposal,” Walls said. “That would be the plan.”
Keith Chu can be reached at 202-662-7456 or at kchu@bendbulletin.com.
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