Last Day For Public Comment On Proposed Arizona Power Grid Improvements

Published: Monday, May 9, 2016 - 11:43am

It's the last day for public comment on the latest push to improve Arizona’s power grid.

The proposed project, which stretches mostly across federal lands, has encountered considerable resistance.   

The 114-mile long strand of transmission lines would start in Tonopah and span out west all the way to Blythe, California. Eighty-three miles of it is on property maintained by the Bureau of Land Management, which is closing a public comment period on the project.

Joe Incardine is managing the proposed ‘Ten West Link’ for BLM.

“Native American tribes are very concerned, especially the Colorado River Indian tribes. They have a reservation very close to the proposed action,” he said.

Incardine says a variety of other complaints have come in as well, ranging from concerns over the impact on wildlife, to the Department of Defense worried about its encroaching on the Yuma proving grounds, to ATV users upset that their paths may be cut off.