Power Lines Draw More Fire

By Mike Sievers
SOCORRO – The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has extended its comment period regarding the proposed and alternate routes of alternative-energy transmission lines that would run across the Rio Grande near San Antonio, N.M.
The deadline is now Aug. 28 for comments to be considered as part of the BLM’s Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed SunZia Southwest Transmission Project; people can send comments to NMSunZiaProject@blm.gov.
The Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge have expressed disapproval of the proposed route, saying the lines would disrupt flight patterns of sandhill cranes, a major tourist draw to Socorro County. The Friends’ board of directors on Friday released a response to the proposed route of the project, which is scheduled to be complete in 2014.
The Socorro County Board of Commissioners also has expressed disapproval, citing aesthetics and environmental concerns, including the flight paths of birds that fly to the refuge. The Socorro City Council will consider a resolution supporting an alternate route.
John Ryan with SunZia has said the company itself prefers an alternate route that would border the White Sands Missile Range.
It is still very early in the process. The BLM is preparing its Environmental Impact Statement, which is needed to issue a right-of-way permit. SunZia needs that permit to proceed, and the company is working with a number of other agencies with land that would be affected by the project as well. The BLM is the lead government agency on the project because the project will affect more of its land than that of other agencies.
The BLM recently had a scoping meeting at New Mexico Tech to gather input from the public about the proposed route and the project overall. San Antonio resident Margi Lucena said she felt the meeting and the proposal were not adequately publicized, saying many residents had no knowledge of the project whatsoever.

The Friends’ response

Members of the Friends of the Bosque were asked in a mass e-mail the week before July 13 to submit their own response to BLM. In a letter on behalf of the Friends of the Bosque to the BLM, the group’s executive director, Leigh Ann Vradenburg, expressed opposition to the route that has been proposed by SunZia.
“Following the public meeting in Socorro and the subsequent meeting with Bosque del Apache staff, it is obvious that there are many unanswered questions as to the effect that these power lines will have on migratory birds, specifically the sandhill cranes,” Vradenburg wrote.
“As a former resident of the San Luis Valley, I have witnessed the devastation that power lines can cause to flocks of cranes under adverse weather conditions and how they hastened the demise of the reintroduced whooping crane population,” she continued. “Running two 500kV lines (and countless ones to follow) perpendicular to the daily flight path of many over-wintering cranes is further complicating an already obstructed path for this struggling population.”
Vradenburg suggested alternative routes.
“There are alternate routes to the south that appear to be better for this purpose since they do not intersect a daily flight path and may be in a location where many birds are flying higher on a longer migration jump,” she wrote. “However, there is not enough data or time at this point to determine the best route.”
Vradenburg said the Friends want SunZia to consider avoiding the Wilderness Study Areas on the alternate routes by gaining access on White Sands Missile Range in the far northwest corner of the range.
“This minimal use of military lands would be the most environmentally sensitive to the refuge, the Wilderness Study Areas and the local Rio Grande wildlife corridor, and preferred by the community of San Antonio,” she wrote.
Ryan with SunZia said in a July 15 interview with the Mountain Mail that White Sands Missile Range’s commander was adamant about not wanting the transmission lines going through or bordering the range.

Two possible routes

Ryan presented SunZia’s plans to the Socorro City Council on Monday, July 20.
“I wanted to brief you before it appeared in the paper, but obviously that didn’t happen,” Ryan said. “SunZia is planning two 500-kilovolt transmission lines as part of a five-partner group formed primarily to capture renewable energy in New Mexico. The lines will be larger than any other transmission lines in the state. The largest existing line is 350 kilovolts.”
The towers carrying the transmission lines would stand about 150 feet tall, Ryan said. He said the new Aug. 28 deadline for comments will allow plenty of time for the public to review the plans.
“At this point, we’re looking at two possible routes. One that would be in the San Antonio area is not the best route. We prefer to have a route to cross I-25 at Arrey-Derry.”
Arrey Derry is about 20 miles north of Hatch on Interstate 25.
Councilor Chuck Zimmerly said he would support a resolution to back a route that would not go through San Antonio.
Ryan said residents in San Antonio have made it clear they want us to use the Arrey Derry route.
“We will present it to the county commission July 28,” Ryan said.

Impact on ecotourism

In her letter to the BLM, Vradenburg noted the economic impact of the Festival of the Cranes, which she said has an estimated impact of $4.3 million for the region.
“Ecotourism for the county is directly linked to the refuge, and anything that harms the wildlife or mars the view of this rural setting is going to have a negative impact on visitation. Since there is no obvious economic benefit of this project to the area, there is no excuse to compromise our community with this project,” Vradenburg wrote.
She said the Friends have a membership of about 1,000.
“Undoubtedly, you (the BLM) have heard from many of our members following my urgent e-mail to a subset of them after the public meeting. Many more Friends, as well as the largely uninformed citizens of San Antonio and Socorro, would oppose this route if they only knew about it,” she wrote.
Vradenburg said the way to choose the best route is to give adequate time to involve biologists and the White Sands Missile Range in the process.

John Larson contributed to this story.

Power Lines Draw More Fire