FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 27, 2017
CONTACTS:
WAPA: Jen Neville, 720-962-7411, mediarelations@wapa.gov
SMUD: Chris Capra, 916-732-5591, media@smud.org
LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Due to potential impacts from the regional flooding, Western Area Power Administration and SMUD will now be accepting comments on the proposed Colusa-Sutter Transmission Line past the Tuesday, March 7 deadline up through Tuesday, March 21.
The agencies held six public scoping meetings in January and early February of this year to update citizens and community leaders on information about the proposed CoSu line, answer questions about the environmental review process and provide an opportunity to comment on the scope of the project's environmental review.
"The local community is dealing with a lot right now because of flooding within the region and we want pause a moment and allow time for everyone to safely recover from these weather events," said Andrew Montaño, National Environmental Policy Act document manager.
Those interested in providing input on the scope of the environmental impact statement and environmental impact report (EIS/EIR) are encouraged to examine the scoping materials and send comments to comments@cosuline.com by March 21. The input will help WAPA and SMUD identify alternatives within the project study areas to be analyzed in the draft EIS/EIR and identify the potential environmental effects of the proposed project.
"We want the scoping effort to be as comprehensive as possible," said Kim Crawford, SMUD's California Environmental Quality Act project manager. "That will ensure the draft EIS/EIR is thorough and robust."
The proposed project is needed to enhance the reliability and capacity of the local area's power grid and increase SMUD's ability to import clean power from and export power to other energy markets, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
Next steps
After scoping closes, all comments collected during the initial scoping period in late 2015 and early 2016, and the 2017 scoping period will be assembled in a Scoping Report and made available to the public on the CoSuLine.com website, under the Project Documents link. The agencies will then analyze the comments and develop a draft EIS/EIR that is anticipated to be ready for public comment in 2019. All relevant substantive comments received during the public scoping period will be considered in the preparation of the Draft EIS/EIR. Comments provided previously in response to the original notice about this project, will be considered in the Draft EIS/EIR and need not be repeated during this scoping period. No action will be taken on the project proposal until after the environmental review is completed in 2020.
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About CoSu Line: The proposed 500-kilovolt CoSu Line is needed to enhance the reliability of the Northern California power grid and increase SMUD's ability to import clean power from, and export power to, other energy markets, particularly the Pacific Northwest. If built, the project will provide additional bi-directional transmission capacity to enhance SMUD's ability to participate in the California Independent System Operator's Energy Imbalance Market. A recent California Energy Commission study makes the case for projects like this that enhance transmission capability to import valuable out-of-state renewable resources for California to meet its 50 percent renewable energy goals by 2030.
Visit www.cosuline.com for more information about the project and environmental processes. The website also features details about the public meetings and opportunities to provide comments.
