As New Mexicans are preparing for the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, a public comment period for a proposed electrical transmission line in Northern New Mexico is gathering heat from environmentalists, who claim the 30-day deadline is too short.
Nestled between Los Alamos and the capital of Santa Fe, the Caja del Rio is 107,000 acres of diverse lands with millennia-old petroglyphs, cultural resources, and traditional Spanish land grant communities.
The area also serves as a crucial wildlife corridor, thanks to a wide array of habitats for many plants and animals.
The draft Los Alamos National Laboratory Electrical Power CapacityUpgrade Project would cut through 14 miles of the Caja del Rio plateau by connecting a 115 kV electrical transmission line from the Public Service Company of New Mexico-owned Norton Substation to the labs.
Among other changes, it would also amend the Santa Fe National Forest Land Management Plan for a utility corridor through public land.
As required, a public comment period for the project opened on Tuesday and will last through January 17th – though, environmentalists want that extended.
“We're asking for 90 days so that people have the time past the holidays, especially to really evaluate this and provide some thoughtful comments and constructive criticism,” said Andrew Black, the public lands field director for the National Wildlife Federation.
In a letter to New Mexico’s Congressional Delegation, Black and others from a coalition in the Caja del Rio said the extra 60 days are needed to gather meaningful input, especially from the area’s Indigenous and land grant communities.
“It's a very spiritual landscape that has connections to so many different communities and traditions,” Black said. “To hold this comment period, over the middle of many of those traditions and sacred holidays, is really shameful and frustrating.”
In an emailed statement, National Nuclear Security Administration Los Alamos Field Office Public Affairs Specialist Toni Chiri said: "NNSA just received the request for an extension of the comment period and we are working with the U.S. Forest Service to determine an agreeable path forward."
In the finalized draft plan, LANL claims this project will create a “reliable and redundant” electrical power supply to meet existing mission requirements for the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration.
