FEDERAL PLAN TO CONSIDER SOLAR PROJECT NEXT TO SAND MOUNTAIN?

ACCEPTING SOLAR APPLICATIONS AT SAND MOUNTAIN?

 

EXPANDING SOLAR FACILITIES at OHV SITES? - With the April 18, 2024 deadline for public comments rapidly approaching, I continue reviewing BLM’s Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development in 11 Western States for potential impacts to OHV recreation.

Solar Farm Next to Sand Mountain?

The initial GOOD news is the agency has included “Recreation” as an important criteria or rationale for creating an “exclusion area”  where a recreation site (including an OHV area) is excluded from being considered for a solar project.  Another criterion is that a solar project must be within 10 miles of an existing or planned transmission corridor.  Both seem like good ideas.

 

However, the BAD news is that many high value developed and dispersed OHV recreation opportunities occur within 1-5 miles of a highway or road (along which transmission lines often parallel) have been identified in the preferred Alternative 3 map as shaded green “solar application areas” where development opportunities might be allowed including land adjacent to the BLM’s Sand Mountain Recreation Area near Fallon, NV.

BLM PEIS Alt. 3 Map

 Access too many quality backcountry ADV routes also appears to be at risk because ingress and egress to them often stems off of local, state, and federal roadways.   

 

I encourage those of you who love to ride in the high desert to please review this planning effort to see if your favorite riding area or trail has been shaded green as a potential solar project site.

 

FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICE

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/19/2024-00730/notice-of-availability-of-the-draft-programmatic-environmental-impact-statement-for-utility-scale

 

BLM SOLAR PROJECT WEBSITE

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022371/570

 

 

Thanks for your review of this planning effort.