Scoping Report

Proposed Sun Valley to Morgan Transmission Line  

Arizona Public Service (APS) has filed an application for a right-of-way grant on public lands managed by the BLM to construct an above-ground electric transmission system, consisting of a single series of tower structures holding two high voltage circuits – a single-circuit 500 kilovolt (kV) transmission line and a single-circuit 230 kV line. 

The total project spans 38 miles and seeks to connect APS’s Sun Valley Substation near the northern reaches of the Town of Buckeye with the Morgan Substation near the City of Peoria. It would cross approximately 10 miles of Federal public lands in two separate locations.  Management decisions for these Federal public lands are subject to the 2010 Bradshaw-Harquahala Resource Management Plan (RMP). 

 The APS proposes to build the transmission line on about 3.5 miles of Federal public lands northwest of the White Tank Mountain Regional Park in an area that is designated for utilities and consistent with the RMP. However, the request to use an additional seven miles of Federal public lands near Peoria along State Route 74, where there is no utility corridor, is deemed to be inconsistent and not allowed under the recently completed RMP. Therefore, the BLM has initiated a public process to make two separate decisions: (1) whether to amend its land use plan to create a utility corridor in the vicinity of SR 74; and, (2) whether to approve the APS application and any adjustments to the proposed transmission location or design. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, these decisions are analyzed with public input in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and must include the assessment of multiple route alternatives.     

Call the Project Information Hotline: 1-800-578-4133.

Call or e-mail Joe Incardine, National Project Manager, at 801-524-3833 or joe_incardine@blm.gov.

Send an e-mail to SunValley-Morgan@blm.gov

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