Public input begins for new LANL power line

By T.S. Last/Journal North Editor
Published: Monday, April 19th, 2021 at 9:02pm
Updated: Tuesday, April 20th, 2021 at 9:39am

Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal

Los Alamos National Laboratory has proposed a new power line across the Rio Grande south of White Rock. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

The Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration plan to build a 115 Kilovolt electric transmission line through 12.5 miles of the Santa Fe National Forest south of White Rock as part of efforts to upgrade infrastructure at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The federal agencies and the national forest announced Monday that they will prepare an environmental assessment for the project. As part of that process, a 30-day public scoping period to allow for public comment will begin this week and end May 21.

“Concerned citizens, special interest groups, local governments and any other interested parties are invited to comment on the scope of the proposed EA,” the NNSA said in a news release. “Scoping will help ensure that a full range of issues related to this proposal are addressed in the EA, and also help identify significant or potentially significant impacts that may result from the proposed project.”

The NNSA says that known cultural, biological and recreational resources, as well as visibility of the power line from residential areas, will be taken into consideration while applying for a special use permit.

An NNSA spokesperson said the estimated cost to build the transmission line is between $160 million and $300 million.

According to the NNSA’s website, LANL and Los Alamos County rely on two transmission lines to import power. But peak seasonal power demand is expected to exceed the capability of those lines in the next few years.

The NNSA says the purpose of the project is to “provide LANL with higher capacity electrical power that is reliable and redundant to meet LANL’s increasing power demand for current and future national security missions. An additional power line is required because the two existing electric power transmission lines are forecast to approach their physical capacity limit in the summer of 2021 and the calendar year 2026, respectively.”

LANL Director Thom Mason has recently said that significant upgrades to LANL’s infrastructure will be required for it to support its various missions in the future. That includes a multi-billion dollar mandate to increase production of plutonium pits, the triggering devices for nuclear warheads.

The proposed transmission line would be built alongside one of the existing transmission lines, which runs from the LANL switching station on DOE land, across the Rio Grande at Caja del Rio Plateau to Forest Road 24. Crossing the river would require new structural towers on each side of White Rock Canyon, the NNSA says.

The transmission line would then follow Forest Road 24 for a few miles before turning northeast and blazing a new trail through the forest to the Norton Substation, on Bureau of Land Management property. The proposal identifies two options for the last leg of that route – one a direct line to the Norton Substation, and another slightly longer route that bends farther south.

An amendment to the Santa Fe National Forest management plan would be required to make allowances for utility line placement.

To submit a comment by the May 21 deadline, send an email to epcuea@nnsa.doe.gov or through the project’s website, www.lanl.gov/environment/epcu/index.shtml.

An Environmental Assessment scoping meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. May 6 via Webex: https://tinyurl.com/EPCUEA.