The Desert View Power plant in Mecca—owned by Greenleaf Power and its parent company, Greenleaf Investment Holdings II LLC—began burning agricultural and other waste products to produce electricity in 1992, under prior ownership.
It’s now been out of operation for more than a year, and its Environmental Protection Agency operating permit expired on Sept. 30—which is good news to east valley residents who have been demanding that the biomass renewable-energy power plant shut down permanently.
But worries remain: These frustrated community members are seeking the assessment of pollution levels at the plant, and a rapid cleanup of any toxic materials found in and around it.
Krystal Otworth is a senior policy advocate with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability (LCJA), an advocacy group whose mission is to “secure equal access to opportunity regardless of wealth, race, income and place.” In a recent interview with the Independent, Otworth explained that biomass power plants are known to emit excessive amounts of mercury and other toxins.
“While it is part of California’s renewable-resource portfolio, biomass energy is actually one of the dirtiest forms of energy … dirtier than burning coal at the smokestack,” Otworth said. “The other thing that’s worth noting is that some of the dirtiest emissions from biomass (plants) happen during startup and shutdown of their boilers—so those emissions are not being monitored, since monitoring of emissions would start after startup and (end at) shutdown, right?”
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) has been monitoring ozone levels around pollution sources in at-risk areas of Southern California since Assembly Bill 617 became law in 2017. In 2019, the eastern Coachella Valley—including the cities of Coachella and Indio, as well as the unincorporated communities of Mecca, North Shore, Oasis and Thermal—was rated as having particularly high ozone levels, requiring regular SCAQMD monitoring for years to come.
In 2022, the EPA issued a notice of violation to Desert View Power for exceeding legal limits of mercury and other pollutants being discharged into the air. It was around that time that the LCJA began working with local community members to highlight the potential environmental dangers related to the DVP plant.
“One of the big priorities was plant shutdown, because there had been reports of foul odors or smoke plumes throughout all hours of the day,” Otworth said. “The Salton Sea is a huge-air pollution issue. It’s very complicated. … You have that in comparison to the Desert View Power plant, which seems as though it would be a more straightforward case—but it isn’t.”
America Noriega is a lifelong Mecca resident, now in her first year as a public-health major at California State University, Fullerton. She interned in the Leadership Counsel’s Coachella office over the summer, and has been advocating for the DVP plant’s closure since she was a junior in high school. She is also co-founder of the Coachella Valley United for a Better Environment, an organization fighting for the cleanup of the Desert View Power plant.
“Mecca has always been my home, and the home of my grandparents, who came from Mexico,” Noriega said during a recent interview. “So to find out that there’s this big corporation running a toxic power plant near our home, without any regards to the health and safety of the residents, really is heartbreaking. … We already suffer enough from the toxins of the Salton Sea. We live in a field-working town, so the pesticides from the fields affect our air quality, so it was extremely heartbreaking to find out that there’s a power plant also affecting our already poor air quality.”
Noriega said some of her neighbors didn’t even know DVP was a power plant.
“When you would ask people about it, they would say, ‘Oh, the cereal factory, or the light factory?’” Noriega said. “The DVP plant tends to have so much light emitting from the plant. … People would refer to it as ‘la planta de las luces,’ or ‘the plant of the lights.’ But being kept in the dark about what this plant actually does was very shocking. Once the group found out about how (the EPA) has an investigation going on, because the plant has emitted toxic chemicals into the air multiple times over the years, it was a no-brainer for us that we needed to stand up for ourselves and stick up for our homes.”
“We already suffer enough from the toxins of the Salton Sea. We live in a field-working town, so the pesticides from the fields affect our air quality, so it was extremely heartbreaking to find out that there’s a power plant also affecting our already poor air quality.”
Mecca resident America Noriega
One of the first successful actions by CVUBE members was the creation of a petition demanding the decommissioning and physical closure of the plant, followed by an environmental inspection and a complete cleanup of the site, if warranted. She and her CVUBE colleagues have gathered more than 450 signatures to date.
“I’ve participated in outreach outside of the market that we have in Mecca, where we informed people about the plant and its violations, and we asked for signatures for the petition,” Noriega said. “We also do a lot of media work, where we record videos of people in the group talking about their story, and encourage people to speak up and sign the petition. I’ve written an op-ed for The Desert Sun, opposing the plant and calling on IID (the Imperial Irrigation District) to take action … I’ve also participated in workshops with local nonprofits and youth-led institutes. Also, the CVUBE had a meeting with the EPA (in 2024), and hosted lots of community meetings.”
The group has been requesting another sit-down with the EPA to reinforce their ongoing concerns, and delivered a copy of their petition to the agency as well. They want an update to help residents understand how the EPA will help them, learn what’s causing the long delay in obtaining answers to their concerns, and a description of any protective action to be undertaken.
The Independent reached out to the EPA for comment. After some voicemails back and forth, we received this terse statement via email: “EPA cannot comment on potential or ongoing investigations. … EPA does not have plans for a community meeting at this time.”
Mecca is an unincorporated community in Riverside County, and any resident issues should come before the Mecca-North Shore Community Council, which reports directly to Riverside County District 4 Supervisor V. Manuel Perez. But Otworth said efforts to engage Perez and his office have been largely unsuccessful.
“In terms of their involvement, it has been very minimal,” Otworth said. “… I don’t believe I saw them at any of the EPA meetings that were held. If they’ve been in communication with Desert View Power themselves, I don’t know. But, as far as public communications, they have not been very active. I do believe the county should be involved. I think it’s going to require everyone who is a decision-maker in this space, and that includes the county, because Mecca community members are their constituents, right? I think Desert View Power has some responsibility here as the operating plant. The (Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians) tribe has some responsibility here as the land owner of this facility, and the county has responsibility here to ensure the safety of their constituents moving forward.”
For several weeks, the Independent attempted to talk to representatives from those entities.
After several email and telephone exchanges with Darin Schemmer, communications director for Perez, he provided this email statement on behalf of the supervisor: “The Desert View Power Plant sits on tribal land and is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ultimately, decisions regarding the future of that site are up to the tribe and the federal government. As the residents around the plant live in our jurisdiction, we will work with the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians to help keep communication ongoing with the community of Mecca, such as at our community council meetings.”
Jacquelyn Barnum is the former director of environmental affairs and planning and operations for the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians, and she just became the director of strategic planning for the East Valley Remediation Facility (EVRF), a tribe-operated business located next to the DVP plant. Barnum wrote in an email: “In 2023, the tribe assumed ownership and operational control of the site in an effort to clean up legacy conditions left by prior operators and lessees, and to restore Cabazon Reservation lands for future use. That cleanup work is under way—non-hazardous, recyclable materials are being properly managed and transported off-site to permitted landfills, and the facility operates under applicable tribal and federal requirements.”
In response to the Independent’s question regarding the future of the DVP plant and the land surrounding it, Barnum wrote: “In reference to Desert View Power: EVRF remediation work is distinct from—and not a cleanup of—the DVP powerplant. … However, I can report that DVP shut down operations in or around April of 2024 and remains non-operational. The tribe is coordinating with all relevant parties, including government regulators, on both the present status and long-term future of that separate site. There is no new activity at the DVP site, andthe tribe will communicate promptly with the community when there is further information to share.”
However, it appears that Perez and the tribe are starting to be more responsive. A staff member from Perez’s office and an employee of the EVRF both attended the Nov. 13 Mecca-North Shore Community Council meeting.
In an email to the Independent, Stephanie Ambriz, a communications specialist with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability out of Coachella, wrote: “Sabino Alejos with Coachella Valley United for a Better Environment shared that he felt it went well at the Mecca-North Shore Community Council, because the council was receptive to what the group was sharing in regards to their concerns about (DVP) site safety, transparency and decommissioning plans. The community council shared that they would relay the message to the county supervisor. A representative for Manuel Perez didn’t commit to anything or say anything according to Sabino, but she was taking notes, and then she also shared that somebody from the East Valley Remediation Facility was there (although not representing the tribe). He stated that he would relay the message back to the tribe. Overall, (Sabino) was glad that they were able to share the community asks and to at least get agreement from the (community council) that they understood the concerns, and that they’re also going to ask the county to respond to the community group.”
Meanwhile, Noriega said the current priority for east valley residents is to get some answers.
“Right now, the No. 1 priority is communication and transparency,” said Noriega. “The group would like to know: Is the plant safe? Are there any cleanup plans? Are there any plans to test the site for toxins? Just any form of information from all of the parties involved is our first priority, because the county, Desert View Power, Greenleaf, the EPA and the tribe haven’t given the community any response or any transparency on what’s actually going on.”
Noriega said she feels like the operators of the power plant have taken advantage of her community.
“We don’t have the luxury to go get medical attention, because we’re far away from the clinic. We’re a 20-minute drive from the nearest city, so all of these health-care services are not accessible to us,” she said. “Being prominently a farm-working town, missing a day of work is extremely important. It’s super-heartbreaking to know that, if this were happening in a high-income area, this plant would have been shut down a long time ago. … But we keep going, and we keep pushing, and we’re going to continue to keep pushing until we get what we deserve.”