The US Bureau of Reclamation Upper Colorado Regional Director Brent Rhees and Reclamation Lower Colorado Regional Director Terrance J. Fulp have signed a Record of Decision (ROD) for the TransWest Express Transmission Project, giving nod for the issuance of rights-of-use (ROU) for the Project on Reclamation lands in Utah and Nevada.
The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), released by the lead Federal agencies Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Western Area Power Administration (Western) in May, 2015, analyzed environmental impacts associated with the construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of a 728-mile 600-kV transmission line that would begin in Wyoming and terminate at the Marketplace hub in Eldorado Valley, Nevada, where power would be available to Nevada, California, and Arizona.
The BLM and Western issued their RODs for the Project in December, 2016, and January, 2017, respectively. Reclamation was a cooperating agency in the preparation of the FEIS.
Reclamation’s decision is to issue 30 year ROU authorizations to TransWest Express for 250-foot-wide ROWs on 0.08 miles of Upper Colorado Region-administered lands in Duchesne County, Utah and 7 miles of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Region-administered lands in Clark County, Nevada along the 728-mile total distance of the Selected Alternative from the FEIS.
The Selected Alternative is the same as the Agency Preferred Alternative identified in the FEIS with modifications of the Tuttle Micro-siting Option 4 in Colorado and Halfway Wash-Virgin River ground electrode system siting in Nevada.
The FEIS and ROD were prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.