Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power are currently preparing to conduct studies and surveys to better understand conditions along the various corridors. The companies’ contractors are conducting land surveys, documented cultural and environmental conditions and collected soil borings. The information collected in these surveys will help the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) assess the alternatives and inform environmental analysis.

Letters requesting right of entry are being mailed to landowners along the study corridor. These letters are going out to landowners along segments of the route as the corridor is studied. Please note that permission to enter private property for surveying and information gathering does not constitute a grant of future easement or that a transmission line will be constructed across the property, it is simply an allowance to conduct the studies. These studies do not mean a decision has been made on where to locate the transmission line.

The preliminary corridors were developed and modified based on studies of the area, comments from federal agencies and landowners, topography, access and other factors. As the proposed and alternate corridors are studied, developed and refined, our overall goals are to:

• increase the transmission system’s capacity to deliver electricity needed by customers
• connect existing and planned substations
• develop a corridor that meets engineering and construction requirements in a fiscally responsible manner
• avoid or minimize impacts to the environment and communities
• encourage public comment and implement suggestions, where possible

The preferred transmission corridors were developed by evaluating constraints and opportunities, which are defined as follows:

• Constraint - a resource or condition that potentially limits transmission line routes and can include areas that are closed by regulations (e.g., Saylor Creek Bombing Range, municipal airports, etc.) or where impacts would be very difficult or impossible to mitigate.
• Opportunity - a resource or condition that can accommodate a transmission line route.

To initially define these corridors, the routing team evaluated the opportunities and constraints using geographic information systems (GIS), conducted field reconnaissance and met with staff from federal and state agencies, and community leaders.

Proposed and established utility corridors, such as the West-Wide Energy Corridor (WWEC), helped characterize the resources present in areas and to determine if using these corridors would result in significant environmental effects. In several cases, new routes deviating away from the existing or planned corridors were proposed because of adjacent environmental constraints such as sage grouse leks, raptor nests, oil and gas wells, etc.

Where no existing or planned corridors existed, a Linear Routing Tool (LRT) was used to identify initial corridors for further evaluation. Refinements of corridors identified by the LRT were made after reviewing aerial photography and topographic maps, or on the basis of important input received from stakeholders, field reconnaissance and other sources.

Through this process the proposed preliminary and alternate routes were developed and presented to the public during Bureau of Land Management scoping meetings held in June 2008. Rocky Mountain Power and Idaho Power landowner meetings began in December 2008 and will continue.

Using scoping information, public comments and additional route analysis, the BLM is determining which alternatives will be carried forward into detailed analysis. This analysis will be presented for public comment in the draft EIS (expected in fall 2010) which will also contain rationale for alternative routes not analyzed in detail.