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During the Navajo County Mayor’s Summit held in Winslow last week, Navajo County Assistant Manager Paul Watson addressed the latest updates in 4FRI (Four Forest Restoration Initiative) efforts.
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Even though there is still a contract in place for phase one of 4FRI, the Forest Service determined that there was enough acreage available to put out a second contract. “We also worked with Congressional delegates, with the state and others to also get the Forest Service to expand their contract timeline, which was 10 years,” stated Watson, noting that as a result, the contract timeline has been expanded to 20 years.
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On July 10, the Forest Service approved the Phase 2 Request For Proposal For Large Scale Stewardship contract with the RFP to be issued in August followed by a 90-day period for responses.
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Watson noted that the first contract was issued by the Forest Service internally and a lot of things were not included in that contract, like penalty clauses for non performance. This second RFP allowed other individuals to be part of the development process.
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He explained that this second contract is for the processing of 605,000 to 818,000 acres of forest over a 20-year period, or approximately 30,000 to 40,000 acres per year in addition to the initial contract.
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It was noted that the proposal must be sustainable, innovative, feasible and cost effective, aspects that were not listed in the Phase 1 contract.
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“The challenges include that there is only one viable alternative for that volume of biomass and that is bio energy,” stated Watson, noting other potential considerations but none effective for the volume that will be produced. “Right now we have Novo Power as the only bio energy plant and they produce about 30 megawatts per year and they take material from about 15,000 acres of forest restoration a year and that’s pretty much maxed out,” he explained.
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“So now, with 50,000 we’re talking 90 megawatts of power and a lot of biomass. So APS (Arizona Public Service) took it upon themselves to do an initial study, spent $2.5 million, on the possibility of converting one of the units at Cholla into a biomass burning unit.”
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Watson went on to explain that APS then went before the Arizona Corporation Commission last week seeking a mandate for APS to move forward with the next phase of study with an application for converting a unit from coal to biomass.
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Watson noted that several commissioners were expressed concerns such as the cost being placed on the back of ratepayers and questioned why state legislators and the governor had not stepped up to have a roll in this. At the end of the day the vote was to not move forward with mandating APS to submit an application of conversion a unit to biomass, with the motion passing three to two.
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“What they did say, was that it did not stop APS from coming back and submitting an application on their own if they can find a way to do it without costing the rate payers any money,” stated Watson.
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He found such results concerning as any bidder for a contract with the Forest Service is going to want to know what they will be doing with all of the biomass that will be produced. “The current forest thinning produces about half biomass and half usable material. For us, the issue may be that we need to go back and put some more pressure on the Corporation Commission to step up and help make this happen.”
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On another topic, Watson talked about Moonshot, a program that fosters economic entrepreneurs that was held in Show Low and St. Johns earlier this year. He explained that it’s an opportunity for business entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas for development. It involved a series of workshops that included branding, and making business connections. The program concluded with a reception and a pitch event in June. Laura Nash, a YouTube gamer, was chosen as the winner at that event.
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“We are working on more grants, more funding to take that to the next level, which would include developing an incubator site so these individuals can have a place where they can foster that business until they get to a place where they can go off on their own,” stated Watson.
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He noted that the program was the result of the study done for the county that determined the impacts due to the loss of the power plants and coal industry in the region. “We want to foster growing our own from within through a mentorship program.”
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