Crimson Solar Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement And Environmental Impact Report And Draft Land Use Plan Amendment To The California Desert Conservation Area Plan PDF Download

This Environmental Impact Statement addresses the U.S. Bureau of Land Managements (BLM) consideration of issuance of a right-of-way grant to EDF Renewable Energy for the construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of a 150- megawatt photovoltaic solar energy facility and generation-intertie transmission line (gen-tie line). The project would be located in Riverside County, California, near the unincorporated community of Desert Center on land administered by the BLM. The Environmental Impact Statement analyzes seven solar facility alternatives and five gen-tie line alternatives. The solar facility alternatives are designated as follows: (1) No Action (No Plan Amend-ment), in which the application would be denied and current management of the site would be maintained; (2) the application would be denied and the CDCA Plan would be amended to declare the site suitable for solar energy development; (3) the application would be denied and the CDCA Plan would be amended to declare the site unsuitable for solar energy development; (4) BLM would grant the Applicant a right-of-way (ROW) for the project as proposed; (5) BLM would grant the Applicant a ROW for the project excluding the 47-acre portion of the site that is within the Palen-Ford Wildlife Habitat Management Area; (6) BLM would grant the Applicant a ROW for the project excluding the 155-acre southern parcel of the project and a 9-acre portion of the northern parcel that contains a sensitive plant species; (7) BLM would grant the Applicant a ROW as described under Alternative 6, but with taller solar panels. Gen-tie alternatives are designated as follows: (A) No Gen-Tie, in which the gen-tie line would not be constructed and current management of the site would be maintained; (B) The gen-tie line would be approved and would share transmission towers with the approved Desert Sunlight Solar Farm (DSSF); (C) The gen-tie line would be constructed on separate towers parallel to DSSF towers; (D) The gen-tie line would be constructed in a different, slightly shorter alignment; (E) The gen-tie line would be constructed in a different, slightly shorter alignment on a larger proportion of BLM land than Alternative D. Alternatives 4 through 7 and B through E would require an amendment to the CDCA Plan to find the project area suitable for solar development and allow a high-voltage transmission line outside of a federally designated utility corridor. The proposed project or any of the action alternatives is anticipated to result in substantial adverse effects to air resources from emissions of particulate matter (PM10), volatile organic compounds (VOC), carbon monoxide (CO), and oxides of nitrogen (NOx); substantial adverse effects to biological resources, including vegetation habitat, special-status plants, habitat fragmentation, and displacement of wildlife; adverse effects to historic properties; substantial adverse cumulative effects to lands and realty from large-scale land conversion; substantial adverse noise effects from an increase in traffic-related noise levels along Kaiser Road; and substantial adverse effects to visual resources and recreation, due to degradation of the visual character of the landscape.