BOUSE UPGRADE PROJECT, DOE/EA-2106

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

​​​​Western Area Power Administration’s (WAPA) is proposing to re-build, upgrade, and decommission components of the existing Parker-Davis Transmission system to improve overall system reliability, safety, and to better meet future transmission needs. The existing Parker-Headgate Rock and Parker-Bouse 161-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines, located along the Colorado River in La Paz County, Arizona and San Bernardino County, California, are part of the Parker-Davis Transmission System. The transmission lines were installed in the 1950s with wood pole H-frame structures, and many of the structures are in poor condition and difficult to access.​ This proposed Project consists of four phases and are described below:

  1. Constructing an approximately 18-mile-long, new, double-circuited, 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission line from WAPA’s existing Parker-Liberty #2 Transmission Line to WAPA’s existing Bouse Substation; (see map, depicted in yellow)
  2. Expanding WAPA’s existing Bouse Substation by adding breakers, switches, a 230/160-kV transformer, and two 230-kV bays; (see map​, depicted in yellow)
  3. Connecting WAPA’s existing Parker-Bouse 161-kV and Parker-Headgate Rock 161-kV transmission lines with a short, new transmission line segment called a jumper, which would complete a 161-kV circuit from Bouse Substation to the Headgate Rock Substation​; (see map, location of this phase is circled in green)
  4. Decommissioning and removing approximately 10- to 13-mile-long segments of the existing Parker-Bouse and Parker-Headgate Rock 161-kV transmission lines.​ (see map​, same location as Phase 3 above with 7 jumper alternative locations)

​PROJECT LOCATION​

​The project’s components are located within 16 miles of Parker, Arizona and occur within La Paz County, Arizona and San Bernardino County, California.

 

WAPA’s Parker-Liberty #2 Transmission Line runs adjacent to the Hayden Rhodes Aqueduct as it crosses the Buckskin Mountains.  The proposed new transmission line would closely parallel portions of Osborne Road.  WAPA’s Bouse Substation is located in the Parker Annex near the junction of State Routes 72 and 95.  WAPA’s proposed jumper locations​ would occur near the Parker area.  WAPA’s Parker-Bouse and Parker-Headgate Rock 161-kV transmission line segments to be decommissioned and removed start at Parker Dam, span the Colorado River, and cross a residential and commercial area known as the Parker Strip.  The project’s components occur on Arizona State Trust Land, Bureau of Land Management land, Bureau of Indian Affairs land, private land, and WAPA-owned land.​

 

​​CURRENT STATUS

WAPA released the Final Environmental Assessment (EA) in June 2022 and a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) in April 2023. The project design process is underway.

CONTACT INFORMATION​

For questions about the project’s design and schedule, please contact:
 
Jason Groendyk, Project Manager
CD&E on contract to Western Area Power Administration, DSW
Phone: (602) 717-2317
 
For questions about the environmental review process please contact:
 
Natalie Ortega, Environmental Manager
Western Area Power Administration, DSW
Phone: (480) 341-0233

​​​PROJECT DOCUMENTS

FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
SCOPING

OLDER PROJECT DOCUMENTS

​PROGRAM INFORMATION

  • ​​This project is part of the Desert Southwest Region’s 10 Year Capital Program, and those documents can be found at.

Last modified on September 14th, 2023