Groups fighting ‘invasive’ wind farm project near Idaho WW2  incarceration camp site

Shaun Goodwin
Mon, February 20, 2023 

About 80 years ago, on a 33,000-acre plot of land about 60 miles northeast of Twin Falls, over 13,000 people of Japanese descent were incarcerated in a camp over a four-year span because of their ancestry. Those inside the camp were subject to cramped living conditions and often spent their winters struggling to walk through knee-high mud and below-freezing conditions.

But how did they end up there?

At the height of World War II, on Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal of Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast of the United States following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans living in “military zones” on the West Coast were deemed a threat to national security and incarcerated in camps throughout the country.

The Minidoka Relocation Center was Idaho’s sole camp. Following the camp’s closing in 1945, much of the land that once belonged to Minidoka — farmed and cultivated by those incarcerated — was auctioned off to local farmers.

The historic footprint of the site is now under threat from a new wind farm project funded by a New York private equity company. The potentially 400-turbine wind farm, called the Lava Ridge Wind Project, would be built directly north of the Minidoka National Historic Site on historic Minidoka land, casting an imposing view over the site.

Despite the region’s dark past that has affected generations of Japanese Americans, some groups are trying to preserve and restore the camp in the name of education, including Friends of Minidoka, the National Park Service and the National Parks Conservation Association.
The Lava Ridge Wind Project

The Lava Ridge Wind Project is being headed by Magic Valley Energy, a subsidiary of investment firm LS Power. Magic Valley Energy has proposed to develop the wind farm on a nearly 200,000-acre area, potentially as close as 2 miles north of Minidoka. The wind farm would power approximately 350,000 houses in Idaho, according to Luke Papez, senior director of project development for Magic Valley Energy.

About 340 of the turbines, which stand approximately 740 feet tall — for comparison the Statue of Liberty is 305 feet tall — would be visible from the visitor center at Minidoka.

Papez told the Idaho Statesman that the company selected the land north of Minidoka for the project because the region is “already crisscrossed and fragmented by several high voltage transmission lines and has a long history of wildfires.”

Magic Valley Energy looked at other locations for the project, Papez said, such as the China Mountain area southwest of Twin Falls and the Cassia Division, also called the South Hills, south of Twin Falls. But concerns about sage grouse and other environmental concerns pushed the company away from those locations and toward Lava Ridge.

The project would occupy about 75,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land. BLM filed a Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Jan. 20, outlining several alternatives for the project. Some of those alternatives are more imposing than others. BLM is taking public comment on the project until March 23.

“Some of the alternatives have wind towers on the historical footprint (of Minidoka), which is not actually on the (National) Park Service part of the site that exists now,” Janet Keegan, Friends of Minidoka board member, told the Statesman in an interview at the Minidoka National Historic Site in early February.

Friends of Minidoka supports the preservation of the camp for educational purposes. The group works with the National Park Service, which has administered the site since 2001.

“The historic footprint was many thousands of acres,” Keegan continued. “That would be in their original plan of development.”

Today, the Minidoka National Historic Site sits at the center of what was once the Japanese American incarceration camp. The National Park Service took ownership of the land after the camp was named a national monument in 2001. The site includes a visitor center and a few structures from its time as a camp, including a guard tower and housing barracks, spread over a 1,000-acre patch of land.

Two of the original structures at Minidoka National Historic Site have been preserved. A food hall on the left and a barracks were part of a larger camp where 13,000 people of Japanese descent were placed during World War II.

The Lava Ridge Wind Project would also impose upon the land of local farmers and ranchers. Driving along Hunt Road, the long and barren stretch that takes you from Idaho 25 to the historical site, handmade signs are nailed into wooden posts with messages to “Stop Lava Ridge.”

Multiple alternative plans outlined in the DEIS acknowledge the wind farm’s impact on Minidoka, Wilson Butte Cave and wildlife. BLM outlined two alternatives that it thinks would be most effective: Alternative C, which would reduce the farm to 146,389 acres and 378 turbines, and Alternative E, which would reduce it to 122,444 acres and 269 turbines.

Papez said that Magic Valley Energy is comfortable pursuing Alternative C, saying that he thinks it provides a “great compromise.”

“That alternative would incorporate, I believe, it’s up to approximately a five-mile setback from the Minidoka National Historic Site,” Papez said. “And that is really quite a reduction in the visual change to that location.”

Visual simulations created for Alternative C show that the nearest wind turbines would be 5.5 miles from Minidoka but still visible in the distance from the Minidoka visitor center.

“It’s still invasive,” Keegan said. “It’s not like they’d move it clear out of the viewshed.”

A visual simulation showing what the nearest turbine siting corridor would look like from the Minidoka National Historic Site visitors center under Alternative C.

The project’s impact on Minidoka

While there are concerns about the Lava Ridge wind farm creating an imposing view over the site, those included in pushing back against the project are also worried about the historical damage it could inflict.

Robyn Achilles, executive director of Friends of Minidoka, said she was frustrated at how Minidoka was described in the Environmental Impact Statement, a federal document outlining how a project will affect the surrounding environment. Terms like “recreational” and “tourist spot” were used, lumping in Minidoka with other nearby landmarks such as Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve.

“It’s also a sacred place for survivors and descendants to come,” Achilles said in an interview with the Statesman. “So it’s not just an educational space; it really is more of a reflective, sacred healing location for us. So it’s not like a regular park. It’s a site of conscience.”

Large swaths of empty land surround the visitor center. A short walk from the center takes you past a long-abandoned sports field to the left and an abandoned root cellar to the right. At the bottom of the path stands the last standing barracks — locked from the outside and derelict within. Standing silent, all that you can hear is the passing wind.

“It will forever change the immersive and educational experience at Minidoka National Historic Site,” said Robyn Achilles, executive director of Friends of Minidoka. She refers to a commercial energy plan to construct a wind farm on BLM land near the site in Jerome.

Friends of Minidoka’s primary purpose is to act as a supporter and vehicle for education regarding Japanese American incarceration. The group played a part in helping to open the new visitor center in 2020 and has helped protect and restore historic buildings on the site, such as the guard tower and a barrack.

But it’s getting more difficult to fulfill that mission, Keegan said, because of the fight against Lava Ridge. In 2021, Friends of Minidoka spent $18,000 — about 5% of its total income — on resources to push back against the Lava Ridge Wind Project, according to the organization’s financial report.

But it’s not just educational and financial impacts that Friends of Minidoka is concerned about. It’s the larger historical impact, too.

Karen Hirai Olen knows that more than most people. Her parents and grandparents were forcefully removed from their homes and incarcerated because of Executive Order 9066, and Hirai Olen was born in the camp in the summer of 1943. She remained there until her father earned a job as a farmhand about 18 months later, Hirai Olen told the Statesman.

“Minidoka had about 13,000 people pass through it, 70% of whom were American citizens,” Hirai Olen said. “I think it’s something that all communities need to consider. Because the evacuation basically denied that they had any value. And I think that the Lava Ridge Project denigrates our whole history.

“I think it’s important for … my generation to make sure the value of Minidoka is perpetuated. Because otherwise, my parents and grandparents’ struggles are being defined as worthless.”

“I think the Lava Ridge project denegrates our whole history here,” said Karen Hirai Olen, who was born to Japanese American parents at Minidoka. “I think it’s important for sanseis, my generation, to make sure the value of Minidoka is perpetuated.” Lava Ridge is a proposed wind farm that would place as many as 400, 740-foot tall wind turbines in the skyline nearby Minidoka National Historical Site in Jerome, where about 13,000 Japanese Americans were relocated during World War II.

Papez said that Magic Valley Energy is listening to the concerns surrounding the wind farm construction and wants to work with organizations like Friends of Minidoka to come to a solution.

“They have a very important site that is worthy of protection. We’re hoping we can work with them with this project to help tell their story even better,” Papez said. “This is just the draft EIS that shows, ‘here’s what the issues are, how they could be avoided, minimized, or mitigated.’ And it’s at this point where they start to weigh all those items and get further feedback. So there are ways to avoid impact to that historic boundary.”

It’s not just Hirai Olen who understands the pain of what life was like living in incarceration camps. Achilles and Keegan also had family incarcerated at camps — Minidoka was one of 10 camps in the United States.

Whenever Keegan drives down Hunt Road, she said, she can’t help but think how difficult it would have been for her ancestors to live in such a harsh environment. According to Leonard Arrington’s book “History of Idaho,” the flimsy barracks were made from tar paper, and mud around the camp would get so thick in the winter that children and small adults would often sink up to their knees.

Achilles says she thinks about the pain it caused many families, including her own.

“I feel like if they go ahead and push forward with this project, it has similar, in my mind, lines as when they forced removal of the Japanese American community,” Keegan said. “It’s not the appropriate place for a project like this.”
How to get involved

Time is running out for those who want to provide feedback to the BLM on the project near Minidoka. The bureau has tentatively scheduled the final EIS to publish in the late summer and a Record of Decision on whether the project will go ahead in the fall.

Assuming there are no delays, Keegan fears that Magic Valley Energy could begin planning the wind farm by the end of 2023. Papez told the Statesman that if BLM issues its Record of Decision in favor of Magic Valley Energy, construction would likely begin in 2024.

Keegan urges people to read the EIS thoroughly and to submit comments on why the Lava Ridge Wind Project would affect Minidoka and the surrounding area. She also said people can write to their local BLM office or representative, as well as to their legislators and county commissioners.

The Lava Ridge Wind Project would be built on land in Jerome, Lincoln and Minidoka counties.

“Obviously, Friends of Minidoka supports renewable energy,” Achilles said. “And we know we’re in a climate crisis, but we really need to be thoughtful about the full impacts and consequences of these projects on our environment.”