Published January 17, 2014, 09:05 AM

Tribal members speak out against power line plan near Killdeer Mountain Battle site

WATFORD CITY, N.D. – Members of North Dakota Native American tribes spoke in opposition Thursday to a proposed transmission line that would run through the Killdeer Mountain Battle site and urged that it at least be postponed until the battlefield can be studied.

By: Amy Dalrymple, Forum News Service

• LaDonna Brave Bull Allard speaks in opposition to proposed transmission line

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, speaks Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014, in opposition to a proposed transmission line that would run through the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield area. She spoke during a hearing in Watford City, N.D. Amy Dalrymple/Forum News Service

WATFORD CITY, N.D. – Members of North Dakota Native American tribes spoke in opposition Thursday to a proposed transmission line that would run through the Killdeer Mountain Battle site and urged that it at least be postponed until the battlefield can be studied.

But representatives of local electric cooperatives said delaying Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s proposal could mean turning out the lights for growing communities and oil and gas development projected to require more electricity.

About 15 people participated in a public hearing in Watford City to accept comments on a draft environmental impact statement on the project, hosted by Rural Utilities Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is considering funding the project.

The 345-kilovolt transmission line would start at the Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, head west through Killdeer, north through Williston and end at a substation near Tioga.

The environmental impact process considers three slightly different alternatives, but all three would affect an eight-mile area in the heart of the Killdeer Mountain Battle area, said Rob Sand, a spokesman for the Killdeer Mountain Alliance.

“The project must be sent back to the drawing board,” Sand said.

Basin Electric’s preferred route runs along U.S. Highway 85 and could be seen from up to 30 percent of the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, said Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor. The other two alternatives would not affect the park, but all three would affect the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, she said.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe whose relatives fought in the Killdeer Mountain Battle and are buried there, said the project should wait for a North Dakota State University study to define the boundaries of the battle area.

“I’m not saying stop it, I’m saying do better planning,” she said.

Sara Jumping Eagle of Bismarck said she and other Native Americans consider Killdeer Mountain a sacred area for prayer, similar to a church.

“I don’t think that many people really understand the significance of that,” Jumping Eagle said. “If we tried to run pipelines and transmission lines through your church, I’m sure you’d have something to say about that.”

The battlefield area is primarily privately owned land. Craig Dvirnak, who owns the property that has been designated as the state’s historic marker for the battle, said he and all but one of his neighbors who live in the battlefield study area support the project. Dvirnak said Watford City needs the power for development such as new grocery stores, a proposed new school and a new hospital.

John Skurupey, general manager of McKenzie Electric Cooperative, said without the proposed transmission line, the cooperative will not be able to provide reliable electricity to meet the needs of residents and commercial development in the rapidly growing area. The cooperative will be forced to refuse service to current and future customers, Skurupey said.

“This is not a futuristic prediction but rather the road we’re traveling,” Skurupey said.

Claire Vigesaa, general manager for Upper Missouri G&T in Sidney, Mont., said project delays would lead to severe transmission limitations that would affect farmers, ranchers and residents in the region.

Several participants said they had little notice about Thursday’s meeting and that more would have attended if it had been advertised better. The Dakota Resource Council had called for the meeting to be delayed.

Curt Pearson, a spokesman for Basin Electric, said the meeting was advertised twice in newspapers along the route of the proposal at the end of December and beginning of January.

The project needs several permits to move forward, including the approval of the North Dakota Public Service Commission.

The U.S. Forest Service would have to grant a special use permit for the route that runs along Highway 85 because it affects public land, said District Ranger Jay Frederick.

“We don’t know which way we’re going to go just yet,” Frederick said.

The public comment period ends Feb. 3. Written comments on the scope of the environmental impact statement should be sent to dennis.rankin@wdc.usda.gov or Dennis Rankin, Environmental Protection Specialist, USDA, Rural Utilities Service, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Stop 1571, Washington, DC 20250-1571.

The supplemental draft environmental statement is available at www.rurdev.usda.gov/UWP-AVS-Neset.html.

- See more at: http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/17451/#sthash.fmVDJUld.dpuf
http://www.bakkentoday.com/event/article/id/36041/

Basin lists alternate routes for power lines

3

Print Email

January 16, 2014 10:13 pm  •  By Lauren Donovan

This map shows the routes Basin Electric Power Cooperative prefers for getting electricity from its plant near Beulah to the oil patch. However, it does have alternative routes, both of which follow the yellow line, for getting the power to the same place.

Enlarge Photo

WATFORD CITY — A power company went back to the drawing board and came up with two alternate routes for a massive new transmission line. It solves some issues, but not the primary one of crossing the Killdeer Mountain battlefield.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative plans to send nearly 700 kilovolts of much-needed electricity to the Bakken oil patch from its power plant near Beulah.

On Thursday, Basin unveiled two new routes for getting there along with one the public has already seen.

A supplemental draft environmental impact statement was released at a public hearing in Watford City. It’s required because so many federal agencies are involved and the two alternatives are new.

The public can comment on it until Feb. 3.

All three alternatives will still cross eight miles of the Killdeer Mountains foothills west of the town of Killdeer. The path tracks through an area short-listed by the American Battlefield Protection Program as the most at-risk of all Civil War-era Indian battlefields. It is under study by a North Dakota State University heritage group to detail its history and condition.

The piece through the battlefield area can’t be avoided because Basin has to connect to a major substation called Charlie Creek near U.S. Highway 85 to the west, said Cris Miller, the co-op’s senior environmental manager.

Two strong voices of opposition were from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which was engaged by the U.S. military in the 1864 battle.

LaDonna Allard, the tribe historian whose ancestors were engaged with Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully in 1864, said she wants the project postponed until the battlefield boundaries are defined by the study.

She called the environmental document “appalling” for its lack of knowledge.

“This is a Civil War battlefield,” she said. “Why doesn’t North Dakota know its own history?”

She said Sioux burials remain there, including those of her relatives.

“We know where they are,” she said.

“Are we going to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle in the middle of this development?” she asked.

Sioux historic preservation officer Waste’ Win Young called the environmental study biased and incomplete.

“How can you in one document dispute the boundaries of the battlefield and then say, ‘Oh, this is where they buried their (war) dead?’” she said.

Heading north

The difference in the alternatives is how to move the power north and across Lake Sakakawea.

Basin wants to build two new power lines and load 345 kilovolts on each one — one traveling north along U.S. 85 from the substation and another backfeeding and then going north along N.D. Highway 22.

In two other alternatives, new in this study, it would use the backfeed route and either build two parallel lines along N.D. 22, or one that’s double-circuited on one support structure.

Each of the alternatives eventually would cross the Little Missouri River, on to Williston and then east toward Tioga.

Miller said Basin prefers two routes because of reliability. The miles between them could prevent both being involved in an outage at the same time, he said.

But Basin may not get what it wants.

The U.S. Forest Service, the Western Area Power Administration and the Rural Utilities Service all have to approve the project in separate records of decision.

The route Basin wants — the one with two distinct lines — would cross eight miles of U.S. Forest Service land and head past the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where it would be visible, but only with binoculars.

Jay Frederick, local ranger for the Forest Service, said the new alternatives changed the discussion for his agency.

The one Basin prefers would affect the agency’s Lone Butte roadless area and the national park. The other two don’t, he said.

The two new alternatives cross much more private land, financially benefiting individuals rather than the government — and the project’s bottom line. Frederick said his agency could decide whether it would issue a permit in as soon as a month.

“If we say ‘no,’ they have to go to the other routes,” he said.

Basin will spend about $500 million to construct the lines, Miller said. The electricity would add to about 270 megawatts of recently constructed power from three gas-fired turbines in the oil patch.

The company is trying to meet a demand for electricity that has doubled in recent projections.

Theodore Roosevelt Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor said industrial development is cumulative and she cautioned against too much.

“You reach a tipping point where you’ve changed the landscape so much, you’ve lost the value of it,” Naylor said

She said she’s glad to see alternatives that don’t visually impact the park, but said she’d prefer a project that didn’t affect the battlefield area.

The American Battlefield Protection Program is a National Park Service program.

Jan Swenson, director of the Badlands Conservation Alliance, represented her group at the sparsely attended hearing.

“I’m delighted to see two alternatives that avoid going past the national park,” she said.

As for the battlefield route remaining in play, she said: “One step at a time.”

Miller said Basin hopes to have a decision by mid-year. It is also awaiting a permit from the Public Service Commission. He said the PSC hasn’t seen the new alternatives and the co-op would have to make another route application for those.

Reach Lauren Donovan at 701-220-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.

http://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/basin-lists-alternate-routes-for-power-lines/article_c50f0648-7f2d-11e3-af96-001a4bcf887a.html

Antelope Valley Station to Neset Transmission Project: Draft EIS Volume I and Volume 2

This environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA),Rural Utilities Service (RUS) provides information about the potential environmental
impacts of the proposed Antelope Valley Station (AVS) to Neset Transmission Project. This
project, proposed by Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric), would include a new
345-kilovolt (kV)transmission line connecting the existing AVS, Charlie Creek, Williston, and
Neset substations and the newly proposed Judson and Tande 345-kV substations. In addition to
the approximately 190 miles of new 345-kV transmission line, the project would also construct
two new 345 kV substations (Judson Substation west of Williston and Tande Substation
southeast of Tioga), and several miles of 230-kV transmission line to connect the 345-kV
transmission line into the existing area system.
In addition to complying with all applicable federal regulations, several permits and approvals
must be granted by the state of North Dakota prior to construction. The North Dakota Public
Service Commission (NDPSC) must grant a Certificate of Corridor Compatibility and a Route
Permit in accordance with North Dakota Century Code.
Basin Electric has requested financial assistance from RUS to construct the project. RUS has
determined that its decision about whether to finance the project would constitute a major federal
action that may have a significant impact on the environment, within the context of the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). RUS serves as the lead federal agency for the
NEPA environmental review of the project.
Basin Electric, RUS, and Western held public scoping meetings on November 15 and 16, 2011.
These meetings were held in Williston and Killdeer, North Dakota.
Basin Electric and RUS will hold public hearings on the Draft EIS. These meetings will occur in
Killdeer and Williston, North Dakota on January 15 and 16, 2013. The public is encouraged to
provide oral comments at the public meetings and to submit written comments to RUS by
January 21, 2013. This Draft EIS evaluates the environmental consequences that may result
from the proposed action along two route alternatives. In addition, the EIS also analyzes the noaction alternative, under which RUS would not approve financial assistance for the project.

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/SupportDocuments/uwpdraftEISVol1.pdf

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/SupportDocuments/uwpdraftEISVol2.pdf