Olympic Peninsula Transmission Line Reinforcement Project: Preliminary Environmental Assessment

摘要

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal agency, owns and operates more than 15,000 circuit miles of electric transmission lines . The lines carry most of the Northwests high-voltage (115-kilovolt (kV) and above) capacity from the resources of the Federal Columbia River Power System and other interconnected private and federal power generating facilities. Besides moving power throughout the Northwest, BPAs transmission system delivers power as needed to and from nearby regions (e.g., south to California and Arizona and north to Canada). BPAs transmission customers include public utility districts, municipalities, and investor-owned utilities, as well as independent power producers and a few direct service industries. The utility customers, in turn, provide electricity to homes, businesses, and farms. This environmental assessment (EA) was prepared by BPA pursuant to regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (42 USC 4321 et seq.), which requires federal agencies to assess the impacts their actions may have on the environment. Major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment must be evaluated in an environmental impact statement (EIS). BPA prepared this EA to determine if the Proposed Action would cause effects that would warrant preparing an EIS.