|
- Commissioners not happy with update on transmission line projects
|
By Rebecca Dopp
Times-News Correspondent
The county commissioners were not happy with news brought by Mike Gates, BLM-Fillmore Field Office Field Manager, that two transmission line projects that are proposed for Juab County are moving forward, despite opposition.
Gates said that the two projects, TransWest Express and Energy Gateway South, had been talked about before, and the commissioners had voiced their concerns over the proposed routes.
He said that a Record of Decision had been made on December 13 and that the routes had not changed.
"We received the notice last week that the Record of Decision had been granted," said Rick Carlton, commissioner.
Following eight years of comprehensive federal environmental review, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior has issued its Record of Decision approving the TransWest Express Transmission Project.
The TWE Project is a high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) electric transmission system being developed by TransWest Express LLC to directly and efficiently access diverse renewable energy supplies while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. This significant energy infrastructure will strengthen the resiliency and reliability of the western U.S. electric grid by adding 3,000 megawatts of "backbone" transmission capacity between the Desert Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions.
The BLM ROD approves issuing a right-of-way grant for the TWE Project on BLM-managed land, which represents about 60 percent of the 730-mile route. TransWest has committed to hundreds of project-specific mitigation measures, best management practices and conservation actions designed to avoid, minimize and mitigate potential impacts of this infrastructure project to the environment.
The TWE Project will extend from south-central Wyoming, to the site of a potential interconnection near Delta, Utah, and then to the Marketplace Hub near Hoover Dam in southern Nevada, which provides interconnections to the California, Nevada and Arizona grids.
According to Carlton, the county has always been opposed to the route that this transmission line will take down Salt Creek Canyon. The county has also been opposed to the proximity of the lines to each other. He said he had hoped the developers had listened to the concerns of the landowners on the placement of the lines.
Carlton said that he would like to see a shapefile, or a storage format that stores location, shape and attributes of geographic features, to show more detail of the placement of the lines. He said that there had been a discussion of how far apart the transmission lines would be, but that someone had taken it upon themselves to move them closer, against the commissioners' recommendation.
"We've already had one major fire up there," he said," now they're pushing these lines closer together. It looks like they are going contrary to the expert's opinion that these lines should be so many feet apart. In order to squeeze them into the canyon, they had to make an exception to put them closer. That fell on deaf ears."
Gates said that early on in the process they had discussed putting the lines 1,500 feet apart. Now it is proposed to be 350 feet apart.
Byron Woodland, commissioner, said that he couldn't tell from the maps that were presented if the lines had been moved to cut across a little section of Forest Service property. He said Congresswoman Mia Love's office had been working with the Forest Service to grant a right-of-way to get the lines off of private property.
"I can't tell from that [the map] whether that's happened or not," he said.
Woodland said that he wanted to know if the Forest Service had granted that right-of-way. Gates said he would look into it.
Carlton said that he would like to meet with a congresswoman and a senator and see if the routes could still be changed.
"Because until it's built, it's never too late," he said.
The Energy Gateway South Transmission Line Project proposes to construct, operate and maintain a 500 kV overhead, alternating current transmission line to cross public and private lands. When completed, the project would transmit about 1,500 megawatts of electricity generated from renewable and thermal sources at planned facilities in Wyoming.
Carlton said his biggest concern were the two power lines crossing over each other in two sections.
"If these two lines now cross each other coming out of that canyon, these are high voltage lines...I don't know how you permit that," he said. "I'm not looking at you, Mike. Whoever is permitting this...someones needs to come and explain that to us."
Gates said that the map he had presented was an older map, and that it may have been updated. They may have looked at that problem. The problem comes when the two lines arc and cause a fire.
"It's problematic, the whole design, with both these projects," Carlton said. "It's like the right arm is not talking with the left arm, and nobody's talking to us."
He said the TransWest project should have run more to the south than where it is proposed now. The two lines are proposed to cross right at Highway 132 in the canyon and he is worried about the safety of residents. He said he would like to see the data that went into approving that and who would be responsible if and when it failed. He did not want it to come back on the county.
Woodland said he wanted to express his appreciation for the fact that the TransWest lines would mostly impact BLM land and not very much private land.
"We did attempt to try to push it over into those areas, with the idea in mind that we needed to go around agriculture fields, not only in Juab but in Millard County," Gates said.
He said that the BLM Field Office, with the limited say they had over those areas with the most concern, was not very successful in making changes.
Gates said he would send the commission the shapefiles, talk with the Forest Service about the moving of the lines across their property, and follow up with the schematics and the plans for what happens if there is a line failure or it falls.
"I know that it has been a great concern to you, to the previous commissioners, and the landowners," Gates said.
He also brought to the attention of the commission a third transmission line that is in the early stages of planning. This transmission line, also a 500 kV line, will not run through Salt Creek Canyon but connect the Mona Substation to the Robinson Summit Substation in Ely, Nevada. It will have little impact on Juab County.
Gates said that this line would parallel the existing lines already in place. This line is also a Rocky Mountain Power line.
"Right now, it's early in the process and they have a lot of hurdles to jump through," Gates said. "Just so you are aware of another line going through Juab County."
Carlton said their main objection would be if this project would take away from the county's percentage of going through the sage grouse area because the county is only allotted so much of that for anything. The county has a disturbance cap on the sage grouse area.
He would like some more data about the proposed locations of the line. Gates said that the line would most likely follow the highway.
"As this moves along, we will get you more information and better maps," Gates said.
|
