The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS) and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), gives notice of the public comment period for the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) that evaluates an application for Right-of-Way (ROW) Grant and Special Use Permit (SUP) amendments from Public Service Company of Colorado doing business as Xcel Energy for the purpose of rebuilding an existing transmission line located in part of Chaffee and Lake Counties, Colorado.
The USFS, as lead agency, is seeking comment on the analysis presented in the EA which combines USFS and BLM information. The draft EA is available on this project webpage, and maps display the location of the approximately 8 miles of USFS and approximately 11 miles of BLM administered lands affected. Approximately 34 acres of permanent impacts will occur on USFS lands from structure work areas, pull sites, and access. On BLM land, approximately 50 acres of permanent impacts will occur from pull sites, structure work areas, and access. The documents are also posted on the BLM eplanning website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/
Comments on this proposed action will be accepted for 30 days beginning on the first day after the date of publication of this notice in the Pueblo Chieftain, the newspaper of record (scheduled for March 27th). If the comment period ends on a Saturday, Sunday or Federal holiday, comments will be accepted until the end of the next Federal working day. The date of the legal notice of opportunity to comment on this proposed action is the exclusive means for calculating the comment period.
All written comments received, including names and addresses of commenters, shall be placed in the project file and shall become a matter of public record for this proposed action. Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted and considered; however, anonymous comments will not provide the Agency with the ability to provide the commenter with subsequent environmental documents.
Starting March 27th, an electronic comment form will be available here.
Deborah Kill
