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Solar Millennium-Ridgecrest Solar Power Project
Solar Millennium, LLC, has applied for a right-of-way (ROW) authorization to construct and operate a parabolic trough, solar thermal, generating facility with a capacity of 250 megawatts. The project would connect to the existing Southern California Edison 230-kilovolt (kV) Inyokern/Kramer Junction transmission line. About a mile long portion of this 230 kV transmission line and about a mile long portion of a 115 kV line would be realigned to avoid the project area.
The approximately 3,920-acre proposed ROW would contain two solar fields, a power block, construction areas, a dry-cooling tower, steel transmission towers with associated transmission lines, access roads, three covered water tanks, an underground water pipeline, a water treatment facility, an electrical switchyard, a land treatment unit for bioremediation of any soil that may be contaminated by heat transfer fluid, an office, a warehouse, a parking lot, and facility perimeter fencing.
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The majority of the project is located on public lands administered by the U. S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
A right of way permit must be granted by BLM for the project. Compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) is required to determine the impacts of the proposed project on the human environment.
- If a federal agency determines that the impacts of a proposal are significant, it must prepare the highest level of disclosure documentation referred to as an environmental impact statement (EIS) and make the decision-making process open to the public prior to final agency action.
- In 1978, after extensive public review, CEQ promulgated federal regulations to further clarify some of the intent of NEPA.
Section 1500.1 (b) states: "NEPA procedures must insure that environmental information is available to public officials and citizens before decisions are made and before actions are taken. The information must be of high quality. Accurate scientific analysis, expert agency comments, and public scrutiny are essential to implementing NEPA. Most important, NEPA documents must concentrate on the issues that are truly significant to the action in question, rather than amassing needless detail."
- Section 1500.1 (c) states: Ultimately, of course, it is not better documents but better decisions that count. NEPA's purpose is not to generate paperwork--even excellent paperwork--but to foster excellent action. The NEPA process is intended to help public officials make decisions that are based on understanding of environmental consequences, and take actions that protect, restore, and enhance the environment. These regulations provide the direction to achieve this purpose.
- NPLNEWS NEPA Tool Kit Page
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