August 17 – A group opposing a proposed 14-mile power line through the ecologically significant Caja del Rio Plateau recently sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service urging them to reject the project.

A recent letter sent to the Forest Service represents the latest attempt by the Caja del Rio coalition to block construction of a proposed transmission line to boost power to Los Alamos National Laboratory, which federal officials say is needed because the two lines that currently supply power to the lab are overloaded and will reach capacity by 2027.

“It’s a bit like sounding the alarm,” said Reyes DeVore, a member of the Jemez Pueblo.

The transmission line would include power poles and a 100-foot-wide strip as it travels from the lab through White Rock Canyon, south across the Caja del Rio plateau, and then east through the Santa Fe National Forest to a substation.

DeVore, program director for the Pueblo Action Alliance, is among those who signed the letter to the Forest Service urging the agency to persuade the National Nuclear Security Administration to withdraw the proposal.

“We also have a strong feeling that perhaps part of the reason they are not communicating what the next steps are is because they may be ignoring all of the opposition that is coming from tribal leaders, community stakeholders, communities that are also impacted by LANL’s harmful legacy,” DeVore said.

The letter quotes Tesuque Pueblo Governor Milton Herrera as saying, “We oppose the proposal and will always oppose it.”

Toni Chiri, a public affairs specialist at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos field office, wrote in an email that “most of the proposed new transmission line would encompass existing transmission corridors or roads, minimizing impacts to the landscape” and that “there would be no impacts to private property or tribal lands.”

But some environmentalists, civil society groups and indigenous rights advocates argue otherwise: maintaining them would damage culturally and ecologically important land.

“The proposed … project will cut a massive new electrical corridor through the heart of the Caja del Rio and create a new swath of destruction through undeveloped parts of the Caja, including the Caja del Rio Cultural and Wildlife Special Management Area (the Santa Fe National Forest),” the letter states. “Heavy trucks and machinery from this project will threaten western burrowing owls, pinyon jays, the Tesuque elk herd, and other sensitive wildlife species.”

The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Safety Administration, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management were all involved in planning the route and mitigating impacts. The Energy Department released a 207-page draft environmental impact assessment of the project in November.

The Caja del Rio coalition said it had collected 23,215 public comments against the planned transmission line.

“There have been several intensive public engagements, beginning with the public planning for the EA in May 2021. We have paid particular attention to engaging local pueblos. We value the input we received through these processes and have adapted our approach accordingly,” Chiri wrote.

“Los Alamos National Laboratory is home to world-class supercomputers and other advanced technologies that enable the laboratory’s national security mission and advance cutting-edge scientific research,” Chiri continued.

According to the LANL website, the Department of Energy and NNSA, along with several other agencies, are preparing a final environmental impact assessment, which will include public comment.

“NNSA’s review of the final environmental impact assessment is ongoing. When the review is complete, NNSA will announce its decision in early 2025 whether to issue a finding of no significant environmental impact or prepare an environmental impact statement,” Chiri wrote. “We will consider objections raised during the Forest Service’s appeal period in making our decision.”

The coalition’s letter was signed by three local officials: Santa Fe County Commissioners Anna Hansen and Hank Hughes, and former Santa Fe City Councilman Carmichael Dominguez. At a town hall meeting at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder in July, Hansen called the proposal “unworkable.”

Numerous speakers at the town hall sharply criticized the proposal for the power line and received great applause. Several dozen people also spoke out against the project at a public meeting in January.

“It’s a little disappointing to hear just silence after the town hall meeting,” DeVore said. “We didn’t receive an immediate response from the NNSA regarding the required environmental impact assessment.”