The Programmatic Agreement (PA) will need to be revised, based on the new routes changes in New Mexico. The PA will have to be sent out to Consulting Parties for review and comment, also because the new routes in New Mexico now crosses Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) jurisdictional lands (Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge), the FWS will have to be a signatory to the PA and have detailed input into the revised PA. Also, the ACHP will need to weigh in on the revised PA. BLM's Section 106 Project Lead feels we should allow more time for all this to be conducted and not be held to a tight timeframe. The Project Sponsor has been consulted on the proposed change to the Sec.106 Consultation Fast-41 milestone date and has no issues with and supports the milestone change. The Executive Director has been advised of the request for an additional 90 days for the milestone date for the Section 106 Consultation Concluded.
Milestones:
PROJECT WEBSITE: SunZia Project Website
All dates below are specific to the schedule of the Environmental Review and Permitting processes for this project.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PERMITTING STATUS
IN PROGRESS
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PERMITTING
08/24/2023
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PERMITTING PROCESSES
COMPLETED
SECTOR
Electricity Transmission
CATEGORY
Project Category
FAST-41 Covered Projects
LEAD AGENCY
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management
View FAST-41 Postings by Agencies
Other Agencies with Actions or Authorizations:
Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service
Department of the Army, US Army Corps of Engineers - Regulatory
Description:
The SunZia Project includes two nominal 500-kV transmission lines located on federal, state, and private lands between central New Mexico and central Arizona. The approximately 550-mile-long transmission line route originates at the planned SunZia East Substation in Torrance County, New Mexico, and terminates near the existing Saguaro substation and the existing Pinal Central Substation, both in Pinal County, Arizona. The SunZia Project is located in Socorro, Sierra, Luna, Grant, Hidalgo, and Torrance counties in New Mexico and Graham, Greenlee, Cochise, Pinal, and Pima counties in Arizona.
The SunZia Project will be constructed in two phases and ultimately include two, new, single-circuit, 500 kV transmission lines with the intent of locating both within a single 400-foot-wide right-of-way, where possible. Only one of the two 500-kV circuits will be constructed in Phase 1 and the planned in-service date for the first transmission line is 2025. The first transmission line would be a direct-current (DC) line and the second transmission line would be an alternating-current (AC) line.
Update:
The Executive Director granted a BLM's request to extend the Section 106 consultation "Section 106 Review" completion date because route changes for the Project require modifications to the programmatic agreement needed to conclude the Section 106 consultation. The Executive Director determination is posted here.
The Executive Director granted a BLM's request to extend the Endangered Species Act "Endangered Species Act (ESA)," completion date because because, FWS asked BLM to submit additional information to ensure a complete consultation package that would enable FWS to complete formal consultation under the ESA. The Executive Director determination is posted here.
Original Target Date: 08/30/2022
Milestone: Section 106 consultation concluded (Agency Action)
Requested extensions greater than 30 days for this Action are shown below:
Section 106 consultation concluded (Agency Action) extended by 92
From: 11/30/2022
To: 11/30/2022