Puerto Libertad - A Trio of Ambitious Endeavors
Regasification Plant, Liberty Cove Mega-Development, and Crude Oil Pipeline
There are three potentially destructive projects proposed for the Puerto Libertad area. The first is a natural gas regasification plant proposed by Houston-based DKRW Energy (some of the same folks from Enron) with a pipelines to the US as well as South to Guaymas. Second is the crude oil pipeline to Tacna, AZ and the proposed refinery there. Last I've heard AZ Clean Fuels hasn't secured crude oil from Mexico for the Tacna refinery and prefers a pipeline from the Pacific coast of Baja if their oil is going to come from a source other than Mexico. This info is not final as of the beginning of 2007. Third is a disturbingly large (esp. for such a remote area) development scheme called Liberty Cove being planned and promoted for the area (http://www.libertycove.com/).
With the new coastal highway being planned and now partially constructed in remote and lengthy coastline between Puerto Piñasco and Kino Bay there seems to be plenty of land speculation for possible tourist destinations and coastal retreat housing, which is primarily geared toward U.S. citizens. Sadly on top of Liberty Cove, detailed below, a huge 34,300 acre ranch encompassing prime bighorn habitat, the only mainland boojum trees, and apparently some of the best snorkeling in the gulf is being sold as an investment property. This ranch is just south of Puerto Libertad and is currently fairly well protected as a bighorn hunting ranch, but is being billed as a developers dream investment.
Report on environmental effects of these projects
6-20-06TucsonCitizen-PuertoLibertadDevelopment
5-10-05-AZDailyStar-LibertyCoveDevelopment
Liberty Cove Mega-Development
Liberty Cove is a disturbingly large development scheme being promoted for an amazingly remote and beautiful area. Currently the location, just North of Puerto Libertad, is a no-man's land and gets little to no real tourist visitation. This is really one of the more out of the way locations in Sonora, but Rockingham Asset Management, LLC (who purchased the land from notorious developer Don Diamond for $25 million) wants to cash in on tourism dollars by developing this area into a huge tourist destination, but it will rely heavily on the planned coastal highway to get California and Arizona tourists there. Currently it is at the end of a long and somewhat hard to navigate dirt road from Caborca or an out-of-the-way paved (sort of) road from the South near Kino Bay.
The scale of this development is shocking. It is planned to cover 72 square miles of the central gulf coast subdivision of Sonoran Desert. Some of the 'interesting' parts of the development include a marina, 18 hole golf course, water fountains, vineyard, winery, equestrian complex and Formula One track! The first phase calls for 500 oceanfront condominiums and 200 homes. Liberty Cove is approved and plans on building 60,000 housing units of various kinds. If you've ever been in the area the idea of such things seems completely absurd. Puerto Libertad is a fairly poor and sleepy fishing village with dirt streets. It's biggest claim to fame is a decent sized power plant. Liberty Cove would have to have it's own desalinization plant for water, likely it's own power plant, as well as a waste treatment plant.
See the plans from their own website -- http://www.libertycove.com/
People responsible at Rockingham Mngmnt.
Great article on Liberty Cove and other Gulf of CA development (PDF)
6-20-06TucsonCitizen-PuertoLibertadDevelopment
5-10-05-AZDailyStar-LibertyCoveDevelopment
