Despite lying within Humboldt County limits, the Winnemucca Municipal Airport and adjacent land is owned and managed by the City of Winnemucca. A 177.31 acre parcel of land east of the Airport has been identified as a potential site for a transloading terminal — proposed by Lithium Nevada — which will take materials necessary for mining operations in Orovada from rail cars to trucks for transport.
Despite lying within Humboldt County limits, the Winnemucca Municipal Airport and adjacent land is owned and managed by the City of Winnemucca. A 177.31 acre parcel of land east of the Airport has been identified as a potential site for a transloading terminal — proposed by Lithium Nevada — which will take materials necessary for mining operations in Orovada from rail cars to trucks for transport.
The decision whether or not it is in the best interest of the city to sell or lease the land — necessary in order for any facility or site to be constructed — is based on information from experts in various fields; much of that information was available during a joint meeting April 17. At that meeting, Humboldt County Commissioners and Winnemucca City Councilemen heard from an array of authorities in various fields. All members of both entities were present at the meeting; councilman Ashley Maden abstained from the discussion.
Aspects regarding who has authority of the property — which has recently been called into question — potential input from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) (due to the property’s proximity to the Airport), construction and operation of a terminal, information about the materials that would be transloaded, and potential impacts of additional traffic according to the Nevada Department of Transportation were presented to the Board and the Council.
Authority of the Property
Called into question recently because the property was purchased in joint efforts by the Humbold t Development Authority, the City of Winnemucca, and Humboldt County, City Attorney Kent Maher and Deputy District Attorney Mike Macdonald assured both bodies that the City holds sole authority of the Airport and surrounding properties based on United States Patent.
“The District Attorney’s office agrees with the City Attorney in that the property is clearly—based on U.S. patent—owned by the City,” explained Humboldt County District Attorney Mike Macdonald.
The Airport’s advisory body, the Airport Board, helps to maintain proper operations of the facility, but does not hold the power to determine if properties in proximity are acceptable for sale or lease either, according to the legal professionals.
“The airport board definitely has a function per state law, but they don’t have authority over city owned property…[The Airport Board’s] authority is primarily over the airport operations,” said Maher.
The ability to sell or lease the property for the potential terminal rests solely in the hands of the City Council, just like other facilities that are owned by the City but used by the County and vise versa (like the Convention Center or the Fairgrounds) as a part of a cost-share agreement, which is used as to not duplicate government functions, according to Maher.
FAA Overview
Mike Dikun, the Western Territory Manager for Armstrong Consultants, an airport specific planning, engineering and construction management firm for the western states, provided information to the Board and Council about possible approvals that the FAA may require since the parcel is near the airport, as well as an official statement in regards to the FAA’s authority of the particular parcel.
Dikun explained that Winnemucca’s Airport Layout Plan, a part of FAA oversight that helps regulate and maintain aviation safety in the U.S., includes the parcel, but it is zoned for non-aeronautical use, meaning it is not for designing, building, and operating aircraft, so the FAA, only having authority of land for aeronautical use, leaves the decision up to the land owner.
“The airport district office in Phoenix has reviewed the proposed non-aeronautical use of that site and has stated officially, in writing, to the City, that the FAA lacks the legal authority to approve or disapprove changes to the Winnemucca ALP for the proposed project and also the final word id the FAA lacks the authority to regulate the use of land associated with the project [proposed for the terminal],” explained Dikun.
In order to enter the parcel of land though, because there is currently no legal access, a road crossing has been proposed that would cross aeronautical zoned land, but according to Dikun, the road does not impede runway operations or other safety areas.
Commissioner Tom Hoss asked Dikun about potentially hazardous materials being transported through the airport property on the proposed road, but Dikun said “I’m not aware of any specific limitation on what can and cannot transit through an airport with regards to hazardous material other than requiring it to be identified as hazardous material and the proper procedures for handling that.”
Construction and Operation
Savage, whom Lithium Nevada has consistently named as the likely contractor for construction and operation of the facility, has an outstanding safety record, as well as decades of experience in supply chain management and infrastructure globally.
Safety in operations of the facility has been highlighted as a significant concern amongst locals and according to Savage officials, Savage will work with all local fire departments to form an appropriate safety plan, as well as design the facility with particular attention to the potential hazards of the materials that will be transloaded. The facility will also handle all of the materials being actively transloaded on nonpermeable surfaces.
“The folks that operate this facility are going to be trained not only to operate the facility but to respond to any spills that occur at the facility and they will be equipped with all the proper equipment [Personal Protective Equipment] and other equipment to respond to those spills,” explained Savage Senior Vice President Jack Cohen.
Materials
Dr. Glenn Miller, Co-Chair, Emeritus Professor, Natural Resources
& Environmental Science Office, University of Nevada-Reno presented information to the Board and the Council regarding the materials that would be transloaded at the facility, including soda ash, quick lime, off-road diesel, caustic soda solution, liquid sulfur, and hydrochloric acid, all of which are fairly common in the mining industry according to Dr. Miller, but pose some level of risk for those handling them.
“The risk is going to be very localized with the caustic materials and I don’t want to underestimate the issues associated with those but those are ones where I think exposure is going to be primarily a problem with workers or people that are directly interacting with those. They are not going to move throughout the community in a spill,” explained Dr. Miller.
The sulfur, according to Dr. Miller also poses very low risks to the community because of its “incredibly low toxicity” and the ease with which it can be cleaned up in the event of a spill.
“[Liquid sulfur] rapidly turns into a solid and that could just be picked up and moved away.”
Concerned County resident Christina Kenison, whose property is within a half a mile of the parcel, asked Dr. Miller the potential hazards of living near the facility with health problems such as asthma.
“If there’s a fire from a railroad derailment there’s a serious problem… But you know caustic soda, sodium carbonate, soda ash—they’re all water soluble. They aren’t volatile. And so again, I would not consider these chemicals to be a serious threat,” Dr. Miller explained.
Traffic Impacts
In order for Lithium Nevada to offer truck drivers and other employees of the facility full-time employee jobs and important benefits, the facility must be located where drivers can make the appropriate amount of trips transporting materials from rail to the mine site, thus the significance of the particular parcel—with its proximity to the highway and position on the railroad, but it’s no secret that Highway 95 is thought by most to already be dangerous without added truck traffic.
An official from the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) gave the Commissioners and Council a report based on highway data and how the added trucks from the transloading facility could impact the traffic on the route that the trucks would be taking from I-80 to the East Winnemucca exit, East Winnemucca Boulevard, Rhinehart Lane, over the bridge and up Highway 95 and then on State Route 293 to the mine.
The official explained that the I-80 Highway currently sees an average of 10,000 vehicles per day both ways, 3,000 of them being trucks and Highway 95 sees about 1,000 trucks going both ways each day.
Lithium Nevada has stated that during the first phase of their operations, there will be 39 trucks making round trips to and from the facility, which will double during phase two.
“There’s still a fair amount of capacity for a lot of these roads. The larger roadways—80 and 95—have a lot of capacity that are not currently being utilized well as Rhinehart Lane and State Route 293. I spoke with the [NDOT] Traffic Operations Engineer and then he said we believe there would be negligible impact to U.S. 95,” explained the official, but there are more “drastic impacts” to the smaller roadways and traffic patterns may change as large trucks travel and stop and make turns.