STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
As one approaches the Cerro Prieto geothermal field below Mexicali, a half dozen white plumes of steam rise from the earth as if emanating from a submerged school of whales.
But after one crosses the scrubby flat land east of Laguna Salada, one sees that all it really is: a cluster of giant metal cylinders with clouds of steam billowing out.
The cylinders are mufflers. To work around an unmuffled geothermal well requires either a man who is deaf, or a man with very effective earplugs.
But the mufflers do an effective job. You only have to shout to be heard. The vast steam power quivering beneath the soil, seeking an outlet, causes the ground to perceptibly vibrate. Finely tuned instruments must be grounded securely. Unsecured, instruments and machinery would rattle away into a jumble of springs and wires.
Several miles to the northwest the incipient volcano of Cerro Prieto rises from the Mexicali Valley floor like a huge, black thousand-foot-high and pile. The upward thrust of this monstrous rock shard, and the rumbling of the geothermal wells is concrete evidence of the busy world beneath the Mexican surface.
The Mexicans, far ahead of the United States in geothermal development, are going to tap that power with a 73,000 kilowatt-hour plant by 1970.
The first geothermal well, Pozo or Well 1-A, was tapped in 1959. that was a year after a wildcat oil man stumbled on the steam south of the Salton Sea.
Since that initial discovery, Campo Geotermico de Cerro Prieto had drilled and taped about 20 wells.
40 years ago
The owners of a cluster of homes on West Larsen Road in Imperial will air complains to a Calcot expansion program, which, they argue, puts their property in jeopardy.
The matter will be heard again at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 29 before the county Board of Supervisors, possibly for the final resolution of a controversy that has continued for about a year.
Wayne Dickey, along with his wife and daughter and mother-in-law, Herber and Thelma Juenke and Howard and Virgina Hough are angry at the nearby cotton marketing company for its plans to expand warehousing in their direction.
The dispute is over Calcot’s plans for a zone change from the agriculture designated A-2 to M-I-N, which would permit light maufacturing. About 40 acres of land would be affected in the proposed zone change from A-2 to M-I-N at the intersection of Larsen Road and Highway 86.
Calcot, in its final environmental impact report, stated that “long-term plans for this land call for the construction of warehouses to store baled cotton.”
30 years ago
Calipatria Unified School District Monday became the 16th district to approve a settlement with the county on the issue of interest paid to schools on invested district funds.
The vote was 5-0, with trustees Jack Wright and Luis Zendejas absent.
Of the county’s 17 districts, only Brawley School District has yet to sign the settlement agreement. All the districts must approve for the agreement to take effect.
Under the settlement, Imperial County has agreed to make an initial payment of more than $800,000 to schools to compensate for interest income earned by school district funds invested by the county treasurer.
Howard Sullivan, Brawley School District acting superintendent, said today the district would still like to see some language clarified in the agreement.