LAKE ELSINORE -- A glossy flier that purports to share the latest news on the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District's hydroelectric power-plant project is being ripped to shreds by some district ratepayers.

The ratepayers, including a united group that attended last week's district board meeting, are saying the flier is a puff piece that misrepresents the power plant's alleged benefits.

District spokesman Greg Morrison defended the flier Thursday, saying it had been fully analyzed by the district's legal staff before it was sent out.

The district has been working for more than a decade with Vista-based energy investors to gain federal and state approval to build the plant on the western edge of Lake Elsinore.

The plant would generate electricity by pumping water into a reservoir in the mountains when demand for power is low and running the water through turbines when demand is high. Power lines would connect the plant with the power grids in San Diego and Los Angeles.

The project's backers are trying to link the plant with a wind power generating facility, which generates most of its net power at night, to provide electricity for pumping the water into the reservoir.

The flier that was recently mailed to the district's ratepayers details the project's design and talks about the regulatory process the project must go through.

The controversial aspect of the flier lists the project's anticipated benefits, including $100 million in new wages, salaries and contract spending injected into Riverside County's economy. The flier also states the project will help stabilize the lake's water level and help the state meet its power needs in the future.

A former member of the district's board of directors, Chris Hyland, called the flier's contents "a bunch of lies" and she said the directors who knew of its contents should start "kneeling in a confessional."

Critics of the power plant project contend the economics of the electricity market have changed since the plant was first proposed more than 20 years ago, making the project unviable. The critics also contend the district has been wasting ratepayer money by paying millions to help move the project through a maze of regulatory red tape.

Hyland was particularly miffed by the quotes in the flier attributed to Philippe Auclair and Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley.

Auclair, listed as an expert on energy policy and economics, estimates the power plant and transmission lines could produce $178 million in annual quantified benefits, according to the flier.

Ashley is quoted as saying the plant would help satisfy the region's power needs and help stabilize the lake.

Hyland said the brochure sounds as if Auclair, a former analyst for the California Energy Commission, was paid by the district and she said Ashley shouldn't be weighing in on a project that's not in his supervisorial district.

Pete Weber, Lake Elsinore's city treasurer and another opponent of the power plant project, said the flier was a "spin" job that didn't tell the whole story.

And he broke down some of the claims he felt were misleading in an e-mail to The Californian.

- "Nothing has been finalized with Nevada Hydro (the Vista investors) as to how and if they will repay $6 million (the water district) has already sunk into the project and who will pay to keep the lake full."

The district estimates it has spent about half that amount and the district says the plant will allow both the district and the city of Lake Elsinore to save $750,000 a year that is paid to the Metropolitan Water District to keep the lake's water level stabilized.

- "The final environmental impact report has yet to determine whether the lake environment will be damaged by (the plant) and not enhanced as the brochure claims."

That environmental impact report will be completed later this year, project backers have said.

- "The claim that it will reduce forest fires is erroneous; the wires will increase the threat of fires and keep firemen from fighting the fires."

The flier states that the reservoir can be used as a water source for firefighting helicopters and the edges of the reservoir could be used as a staging area for firefighters.

- "Siemens is not a partner in the project but a contractor, we have yet to see the contract that Morgan Stanley signed to support (the power plant), and every time we ask to see it we never get it."

A Morgan Stanley representative sent The Californian an e-mail that says Morgan Stanley, which has a division dedicated to bankrolling energy projects, is committed to funding the permitting process "to the extent they determine to be appropriate."

Siemens is listed as a partner that will provide all of the technology and support needed to construct each component of the $1.1 billion "world-class" hydroelectric facility, according to the flier.

Regarding Weber's contention that nothing is finalized with Nevada Hydro, Morrison said the district signed a contract with Nevada Hydro in 1997 that he called a development agreement.

The agreement was somewhat general in nature because the project was pretty much in the conceptual design stage at that point, he said.

The district has been working on a new agreement that will detail how it will be reimbursed for its investment to date and compensated annually in the future.

Contact staff writer Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.