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

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3-8
Affected Environment, Environmental
Consequences, and Mitigation
In areas of crop or grazing lands, the heavy machinery could damage crops and compact
soils, causing a temporary loss of soil productivity. The damage would depend on the
type of crop (whether it was a vineyard, orchard or annuals), the season (during summer
growing season, harvest, or dormant winter), and if the land was in use or fallow.
Soil and vegetation disturbance can also encourage the establishment or spread of
noxious weeds. Noxious weeds can impact crops and grazing grasses by competing and
replacing them. See the Vegetation section for more discussion about noxious weeds.
Approximately 48 acres (12 acres in cropland and 35 acres in grazing land) would be
impacted during the construction of the new access roads and spur roads (based on a
25-foot-wide construction area). Approximately 93 acres (29 acres of cropland and
64 acres of grazing land) would be temporarily impacted during the construction of the
towers, based on an impact area of 0.25 acre per tower.
Approximately 25 acres of trees would need to be removed from the poplar tree farm
(structures 21/5 to 23/3) in the vicinity of Glade Creek. A total of 50 acres would be
removed from cottonwood production. Since the trees were grown to be harvested, the
impact of the line may be that the trees would need to be harvested earlier than
anticipated, thus losing some potential wood fiber. The tree farm would no longer be
able to farm poplar trees in this area, because the trees grow tall and would be a threat to
the safety and reliability of the line. (If a tree grows too close to power lines, electricity
could arc over and cause an outage of the line and/or a fire.) The farmland could be used
for low growing crops or orchards.
Conductor-tensioning sites, where the trucks pull the conductor to the correct tension,
would also impact land use, although temporarily. The sites would be located along the
project corridor every 2 to 3 miles, disturbing an area of about 1 acre. Total temporary
impacts from the conductor-tensioning sites would be approximately 40 acres if spaced
every 2 miles (14 acres in cropland and 26 acres in grazing land), or approximately
26 acres if every 3 miles (9 acres in cropland and 17 acres in grazing land).
During construction, livestock grazing, farming, and crop dusting in the corridor may
have to be temporarily restricted in some areas to avoid conflicts between livestock or
farm equipment and construction equipment. Potential impacts include cattle having to
be segregated to avoid getting out.
Temporary staging areas will be determined by the contractor. These areas will likely be
located in empty parking lots or on previously disturbed sites. In previously disturbed
areas there would be no impacts of staging areas. If staging areas are not on empty
parking lots, they would cause temporary vegetation and soil disturbance.
Recreation
None of the formal recreation facilities shown in Figure 3-1 would be disturbed during
construction. Access to some of the sites may be delayed by construction traffic. Since
BPA McNary-John Day Transmission Project
Draft EIS
February 2002