After securing a lease with the City of Winnemucca for a 177.3-acre parcel to the west of the Winnemucca Municipal Airport to serve as a future transloading facility for the Thacker Pass site, Lithium Americas is hoping to begin construction of the facility as soon as possible, according to Lithium Americas Vice President of Government & Community Relations Tim Crowley.
Their request for a variance to increase the allowed height of structures from 35 feet to 137 feet for silos to be constructed on the parcel was tabled by the Humboldt County Board of Commissioners pending review from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The zoning of the parcel that Lithium is leasing is Airport Industrial District, which means that the height allowance for structures without a variance is three stories, or 35 feet, but Lithium Americas must construct a 40-foot silo to store liquid sulfur and two more 137-foot silos to temporarily store soda ash and quick lime before it is trucked to Thacker Pass once it is offloaded from rail cars. All of the Commissioners were present, as was Airport Board Chairman Brad Wigglesworth.
Concerns were raised by Wigglesworth and Commissioners about the potential impact on airport operations and residential areas. They discussed the importance of proper procedures and transparency in the decision-making process, while public speakers expressed safety concerns about storing and transporting the materials near an airport.
The need for a FAA study to determine if the structure will interfere with airport operations was also emphasized.
Commissioner Jesse Hill pointed out that the former Google Loon structure that is right next to the airport is taller than the proposed silos and does not obstruct airport operations, as was a concern form Wigglesworth and the public, but Humboldt County Senior Planning Technician Betty Lawrence explained that the area that the Lune structure is positioned in is not zoned the same, which means it did not require a variance or approval from the Commission.
Commissioner Mark Evatz also pointed out that structures like the Grand Sierra Resort, more than double the proposed structures from Lithium Americas, safely exist near the airport in Reno.
Additionally, according to comments from Airport Manager Alicia Heiser presented by Lawrence, under FAA standards a structure under 150 feet in height would be allowed in this area.
Wigglesworth pointed out that if the variance were to be granted by the Commissioners prior to FAA review, the FAA cannot prevent structures from being constructed around the airport even if they interfere with operations, but can only then change airport operations to adjust to the structures.
“Unfortunately, the FAA has no authority to prevent construction of structures off the airport. The only thing they could do is modify the operations of the airport to accommodate those structures,” explained Wigglesworth.
“I’d like to see the FAA come in and do some due diligence on it and tell us whether it’s feasible or not,” said Commissioner Tom Hoss.
After discussing potential impacts, Crowley said “We value this airport…It’s not something that we want to jeopardize, so it seems completely reasonable to have the FAA do their review and then we’ll proceed from there. We are, indeed, very antsy. We have a lot of balls to move forward and this is one of them but we have to do it in a way that everybody’s comfortable with and we’re confident we can,” said Crowley.