Bosque del Apache NWR and Power Lines

According to a front page article in the Washington Post today, Bosque del Apache NWR is right next to the path of the proposed 3,000 megawatt SunZia power tranmission line that would link sun and wind power from central New Mexico with cities in Arizona. The 460 mile line would avoid the need for several coal fired plants. The renewable energy project is a priority of the Obama administration. The SunZia project is the first to pose enviornmental impact issues such as the potential effect on Sand Hill Cranes versus the future benefits of major renewable energy developments. It should be interesting to see how these problems are worked out.

Its puzzling that we don't bury more power lines here in the US, like they do in Europe.

No power lines in the city I live in - all underground!

Burying distribution lines is one thing (still expensive, especially in retrofit), burying transmission lines is entirely different. It would probably be cheaper to fly rechargeable batteries to their destination in chartered aircraft than to bury a transmission line that would run from NM to AZ.

Damon, please clarify. Transmission lines are buried all the time, even lines up to 500 kilovolts. I never said bury the whole thing, but burying it where it would have a major impact on flight paths for Bosque is perfectly within the realm of possibility.

"burying it where it would have a major impact on flight paths for Bosque is perfectly within the realm of possibility."

Due to the types of poles and equipment typically utilized for projects like this there would likely be no impact on flight paths. At at cost that is roughly 5 or 6 times the cost of above-ground installation, it's going to be rough to get someone to pony up the capital to cover the expense of an underground installation... not to mention that even with advancing technologies in fault detection, maintenance is much more expensive on below ground equipment. Of course with the penchant the government has for printing money it may get funded but consider that a 20 mile stretch of underground transmission line would outshine the above-ground counterpart by roughly 120 million dollars. The realm of possibility gets pretty narrow with those numbers.

I guess I am curious where you get your facts from. How do you know what types of towers they would use, and that those towers won't have impacts on the flying birds? How do you know what it would cost to bury the lines? These are topics that are in heavy dispute; while the power industry presents one view, there are strongly differing views.

It's what I do for a living.

What is? Building transmission lines? Performing cost analyses or trade studies of such? I'm curious.

PM sent

Damon working in the power profession is right on for it costing much more to bury lines. Powerlines generate heat that must be dealt with, that heat can not only cause burn outs, but causes expansion and contractions which generate friction when burried; earth movement - not just due to quakes, but do to freezing grounds, etc. etc. all increase cost for burrying powerlines.

In my past, I worked with the Forest Service on major powerline easements and what is required to bury a powerline. IMHO public outcry to protect the visual experience is the only thing that will help proect Bosque. Bring up killing birds and the argument they have designs to reduce those will likely win. Get public support for protecting the natural experiences Bosqueoffers and there may be a chance to get critical portions burried.

I would think there might be one or a few local groups around Bosque that are striving to get portaions burried. Does anyone know of those groups and how the politics are shaping up??

The BLM is conducting an environmental impact study concerning the Sun Zia transmision project. You can keep updated and provide input from sites listed in the following article.
http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/more/l ... ssion.html

You guys might be interested in this case from California as well. Solargen want's to build the country's largest solar farm in the biologically rich and critical habitat of Panoche Valley in San Benito County. It is an important wintering area for Mtn Plover and lots of other species, it also has I think three federally listed endangered mammals/herps.

The controversy pits renewable energy development against the needs of wildlife in a similar fashion.

http://savepanochevalley.com/

Also the buried power lines vs bird mortality issue has been huge on Kaui, as federally endangered seabirds hit them by the thousands...

Hawaiian Utility Sued Over Seabird Deaths:Power Lines Contribute to 75-percent Decline in Shearwaters (http://www.enn.com/press_releases/3295)

Also:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/Dece ... -1375.html
http://thegardenisland.com/news/article ... 82cd6.html
http://www.kauai-seabirdhcp.info/backgr ... overy.html

Here's a bit more on this topic from a few years ago. I don't know the impact on Bosque because I don't care to read the whole report and the details right now. I haven't asked refuge personnel about it yet, but I will when I go down again. When I first started photographing at Bosque in 1989, there were power lines along the ditch that runs from the rookery to the fields at the north end of the refuge. That was along where the Willow and Coyote decks are located now. I have seen Sandhill Cranes that were killed when they flew into the lines. I'm glad they decided to bury them.

http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/more/l ... ssion.html

Joe