14.12.2012 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

3<br />

3-96<br />

Affected Environment, Environmental<br />

Consequences, and Mitigation<br />

� Provide regular maintenance of the access roads and fences within and leading to the<br />

corridor.<br />

Unavoidable Impacts Remaining after Mitigation<br />

The proposed transmission line would be a readily visible part of an existing Bonneville<br />

transmission line corridor for residents, travelers on SR 14 and the surrounding county<br />

roads and highways, agricultural workers, recreationists, and commercial workers.<br />

Depending on the viewer’s location in the viewscape, views of the proposed line and<br />

towers would be completely obstructed, partially obstructed, or unobstructed.<br />

Environmental Consequences—No Action Alternative<br />

Under the No Action Alternative, the visual quality and sensitivity of the viewers along<br />

the existing Bonneville corridor would not be influenced by the proposed project.<br />

Viewers would continue to see the existing transmission lines and towers in the existing<br />

Bonneville transmission line corridor.<br />

Socioeconomics, Public Services, and Utilities<br />

Affected Environment<br />

The study area for this section covers six counties, four of which are where the proposed<br />

project would be located. The other two counties, Franklin County in Washington and<br />

Wasco County in Oregon, are less likely to be affected, but were also included in the<br />

population, employment, and housing analyses because they could potentially provide<br />

and house part of the construction workforce.<br />

Population Growth<br />

In 2000, the six-county study area had a population of 307,256 people. Benton County,<br />

Washington, was the most populated with 142,475 people and Sherman County, Oregon,<br />

was the least populated with 1,934 people.<br />

Overall, the study area experienced a 2.3% average annual increase in population from<br />

1990 to 2000, somewhat greater than the average annual increases for Washington and<br />

Oregon (2.1% and 2.0%, respectively). The counties with the greatest increases in<br />

average annual growth for that period were Franklin County (3.2%) and Benton County<br />

(2.7%) in Washington, and Umatilla County (1.9%) in Oregon. Unlike the rest of the<br />

study area, Sherman County experienced virtually no population change (0.08%) from<br />

1990 to 2000.<br />

BPA <strong>McNary</strong>-<strong>John</strong> <strong>Day</strong> <strong>Transmission</strong> <strong>Project</strong><br />

<strong>Draft</strong> <strong>EIS</strong><br />

February 2002

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!