Western scopes for EPTP comments

by Randy Wilkerson

To scope out public comments on the much anticipated project,  Western recently hosted public meetings for the Eastern Plains Transmission Project in 10 communities in eastern Colorado and western Kansas.

Because you can't know what someone is thinking unless you ask them, a team of experts took their show on the road from Aug. 18 through Sept. 14 stopping in Aurora, Burlington, Brush, Fountain, Lamar, Limon, Pueblo and Wray, Colo., and Lakin and Sharon Springs, Kan.

Western and its project partner, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., set out to accomplish two goals with the meetings—to share information about the proposed project and to elicit comments from the public. "At the public meetings, we are able to answer questions about the project, show landowners detailed maps of the proposed route alternatives and hear their issues and concerns," said Jim Hartman, Rocky Mountain Region Environmental manager.

Open-house format sets tone for meetings

EPTP Project Manager Craig Knoell explained how he organized the meetings. "We chose the open-house format for the meetings," he said. "An open house allows people to come when it's convenient for them, rather than forcing them to come to a presentation at a scheduled time. We were available from 3 to 8 p.m., at each of the meetings. People seemed to appreciate the flexibility. We had people arrive as early as 2:30 p.m. for some meetings and as late as 8 p.m., for others."

Hartman said, "We wanted to be sure as many people knew about the open-house meetings as possible. In addition to news releases and advertising in local media, Western's Lands staff identified landowners within three miles of the proposed alternative routes. Each landowner received the EPTP Newsletter announcing the locations, dates and times of the open-house meetings." The newsletter also provided information about the project and the National Environmental Policy Act process. Tri-State announced the meetings to local area residents through inserts in more than 70,000 utility billing statements from its local member cooperatives.

Wealth of information available

Western and Tri-State made a variety of handouts available at the sign-in table, including an Engineering Fact Sheet, which provided basic information about transmission systems, design and construction and electrical characteristics; a Siting and Environment Fact Sheet describing how the preliminary alternatives were developed, the process for refining the alternative routes and the environmental issues already identified; and a Project Overview Fact Sheet. In addition, people could pick up a brochure describing how Western works with landowners to acquire rights of way for the transmission lines.

Six, large—seven-by-nine-foot—display boards circled the meeting space. After learning about the project at the Project Overview board, attendees could move on to find out more about:

• Environmental issues
• Transmission system design, construction and electrical characteristics
• Siting transmission lines and the NEPA process
• How Western acquires rights of way

"The most popular display board proved to be the Preliminary Alternative Corridors map," explained Knoell. "This map provided the first opportunity for most landowners to see where the potential corridors were in relation to their property."

Detailed maps provide focal point

The center of the room was the focal point of each meeting, with detailed maps of the proposed corridor alternatives laid out on several tables. The four-by-six-foot, laminated maps started with an aerial image at a scale of 1:24,000. This level of detail showed houses and structures as well as roads. Highlighted areas indicated the proposed one-mile wide corridor for each alternative route and colored lines identified the centerline of each proposed corridor.

Knoell described, "As people came into the meeting, most of them wanted to get right to the detailed maps. We had sets of maps covering each of the line segments with several alternatives identified. We often took people to the large overview map to identify the general area they were interested in. Then we helped them find the detailed map which showed that area."

In addition to the maps and display boards, we had an area set up where people had the opportunity to ask questions and learn about electric and magnetic fields and see a demonstration using several small electrical appliances and a gaussmeter.

Public helps address EIS scope

As part of the process for the EPTP environmental analysis, the meetings allowed Western to ask the public to help identify the scope of the environmental analysis. What alternatives should be evaluated? What potential environmental impacts should be considered? What issues should be addressed?

"The open-house format provides an ideal opportunity for us to hear directly from people interested in the project. We made comment forms available at each meeting. Visitors could complete the form with their comments and turn it in at the meeting. For those who wanted to deliberate a little longer about their comments, they could mail it back to us at Western's expense," Hartman said.

Hartman added, "The detailed aerial maps of the proposed alternative corridors were probably the most valuable part of the meetings—both for us and for the public. They could see precisely where their property is in relation to the proposed alternatives. At the same time, we were able to incorporate their comments directly onto the maps with permanent markers while we were talking. We could locate residences, areas of concern like irrigated fields, feed lots or other significant areas, and mark them on the maps. Those maps will be a valuable resource for us as we move forward through this process."

More involvement follows scoping

Knoell described the next steps in the process by saying, "The public comment period for scoping ended Sept. 30, but that in no way marks the end of opportunities for the public to be involved in the project. Based on the input we've received during scoping, we'll begin to refine the proposed alternative corridors. We plan to hold another series of meetings in the same areas in December to share what we heard during scoping with the public and give them an opportunity to see and comment on the revised and refined alternatives.

"Following the corridor refinement meetings, we will prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which is scheduled to be completed in summer 2007. The public will then have another opportunity to provide input and comments on the draft EIS."

"We've received really valuable input from the people who attended the scoping meetings. We've learned about some issues with land-use compatibility that we only would have discovered much later in the process without this kind of public involvement. We appreciate the time people are taking to provide us with their comments. We'll have a better project because of that involvement," Hartman concluded.