DOE/EIS-0332; McNary-John Day Transmission Line Project Draft ...

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Affected Environment, Environmental
Consequences, and Mitigation
For this segment, viewers include travelers on SR 14, agricultural workers and industrial
workers, recreationists at Crow Butte State Park, tribal members at the Crow Butte
CRTFAS, and residents near structures 22/3, 29/3, and 30/1.
Environmental Consequences—Proposed Action
Potential visual impacts include temporary visual changes during construction and the
overall permanent visual changes caused by the presence of the towers and the
transmission lines. Visual quality and viewer sensitivity are combined to determine
visual impacts. The most visually sensitive viewers are residents in the towns of
Plymouth, Paterson, and North and West Roosevelt in Washington and Umatilla City and
Rufus in Oregon, as well as individual houses/farm complexes along the project corridor.
Overall, because of the existing transmission lines, the development of the new line
would add humanmade elements to the corridor but would not substantially change the
current visual quality.
Impacts During Construction and Operation and Maintenance
Impacts during construction and operations and maintenance have been combined
because they would be relatively the same, except during construction when equipment
would also be part of the viewscape. Construction activities would occur over a 1-year
period, mostly during daylight hours (between dawn and dusk). During construction of
the proposed transmission facility, construction equipment (cranes, trackhoes, excavators,
supply trucks, boom trucks, log trucks, and lines trucks) and sky-crane helicopters would
be used to install and transport facility components. Construction crews would be
working in localized areas of the corridor, so views of the construction sites would be
dependent on the topography of the surrounding areas.
Construction sites would be visible from a distance in Benton County, Washington from
I-82 through corridor mile 13. As the line moves further away from SR 14 and as the
topography changes to hills and canyons, views would be intermittent and sites would not
likely be seen from a distance due to the topography. Installation of the towers by skycrane
helicopters would likely be visible from a distance regardless of the location in the
corridor. Temporary staging areas, which are often located in empty parking lots or
already developed sites, would be located along or near the line for construction crews to
store materials and trucks and would be visible to those in the immediate vicinity
The proposed towers and transmission lines, which would be located in an existing
Bonneville transmission line corridor and would be spaced to match the existing spans
and towers in the corridor where possible, would be visible for some distance. The
galvanized steel towers would appear shiny for 2 to 4 years before they dull with the
weather, and the transmission line wires would be treated to reduce the shininess of the
metal. Because of the existing transmission lines in the corridor, and several existing
humanmade elements in the viewscape, including buildings, fences, and other power
BPA McNary-John Day Transmission Project
Draft EIS
February 2002