The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is holding additional public scoping meetings to seek input and discuss with the public a proposed study expansion area for the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project.
Three open-house public scoping meetings along the expanded study area will be held in the following New Mexico communities. All meetings will be from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
Las Cruces, October 26, 2009 – Court Youth Center, 402 West Court
Alamogordo, October 27, 2009 -First National Bank, 414 Tenth Street
Chaparral, October 28, 2009 -Chaparral High School, 800 County Line Drive
The project is a proposed 460 mile high capacity 500 kilovolt (kV) transmission line (or two parallel lines) across New Mexico and Arizona. The project proponent, SunZia Transmission LLC, is proposing to transport electricity generated by power generation resources, including primarily renewable resources, to western power markets and load centers. The BLM is the lead Federal agency which will oversee the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will identify environmental impacts and evaluate alternatives for the project.
Numerous comments during the initial public scoping meetings included requests to consider alternative routes. Suggested transmission line corridors for consideration in New Mexico are potential routes south of the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in Dona Ana County and along the eastern boundary of the WSMR in Otero and Lincoln counties. These corridors in the New Mexico area could provide alternative routes between the Midpoint Substation site near Deming, and the proposed SunZia-East Substation termination site in Lincoln County
A map of the proposed expansion area and more information regarding the project are available on BLM-SunZia Transmission Line Project website.