Delays look to be over after owls fly the nest.
The implosion of the Mohave Generating Station boiler structures has been scheduled for June 8, according to Paul Phelan, manager of engineering and technical services for Southern California Edison, the facility’s operator. Phelan also serves as the plant’s decommissioning project manager.
Demolition scheduled for April 20 had been postponed when a Great Horned owl’s nest with two eggs was discovered on the flange of an I-beam of one of the boiler structures. The nest could not be disturbed because of the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
When the owl chicks hatched, the goal was to see if Phelan could get permission to move them. “We had planned to meet with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Nevada Fish and Game early Friday morning to provide them an opportunity to see the site and the nest location to better determine the best course of action to either relocate the chicks to another suitable nest, or transport them to a wildlife rehabilitator for release back into the wild when they are older,” Phelan told the Daily News in an email.
“However, Thursday morning about daybreak, when the crews arrived to start their shift, the owl chicks were observed on the ground underneath the structures about 100 feet northwest of the where the nest is located. It’s also about 65 feet down to the ground. The owl chicks were in a demolition area where active work going on. We had one of the demo crew go up to confirm if the nest is empty; it is empty,” Phelan said.
“After consulting with our biologists, the on site personnel gathered them into a box and moved them to a safe, cool area to prevent the chicks from being harmed or getting trapped under equipment, or the possibility of the ravens or coyotes preying on them,” he said.
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