Desert Harvest Solar Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Draft CA Desert Conservation

Desert Harvest Solar Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Draft CA Desert Conservation

Public Use Permit proposes to construct, operate, and maintain a 220 kilovolt (kV) electrical transmission line ("Gen Tie Line") in connection with a 150-megawatt solar photovoltaic solar energy-generating facility known as the "Desert Harvest Solar Project" ("Project") located approximately five miles north of Desert Center. The overall Project consists of two main components: (1) a solar array field and (2) the Gen- Tie Line. The majority of the Project, including the solar array field, where the power would be generated, consists of 1,208 acres of Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") administered public lands located immediately adjacent to the site of the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm project located approximately five miles north of Desert Center. The solar array field would consist of a generation including fifteen-foot tall PV arrays, a switchyard, inverters, overhead lines, and access roads; an operations and maintenance facility; an on-site substation and switchgear; and site security, fencing and lighting. The solar array field is not within the County's land use jurisdiction. A Record of Decision approving the Project was issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior in March 2013. The Gen-Tie Line will connect the electrical output of the solar array field to Southern California Edison's proposed Red Bluff Substation. The Gen-Tie Line is proposed to exit the northwest portion of the Project site, run south along the west side of Kaiser Road, turn east just north of Desert Center, and the run south across I-10 to the proposed substation. The majority of Gen-Tie Line is proposed to run under, along, across or upon the County of Riverside's Kaiser Road rights-of-way (a total distance of approximately 5.8 miles). Two portions of Gen-Tie Line (a total distance of approximately 1.1 miles) are proposed to cross land under jurisdiction of the County of Riverside, which requires the Applicant to obtain a Public Use Permit (PUP) pursuant to Riverside County Ordinance (RCO) No. 348, Section 18.29. These two portions are adjacent to APNs 8.7-171-005 and 808-161-001 and comprise a total area of approximately 22 acres under County jurisdiction. The Gen-Tie Line would either share steel monopoles with the approved Desert Sunlight Solar Farm project gen-tie line presently under construction or construct a separate, stand-alone Gen-Tie Line running parallel with the Desert Sunlight gen-tie line. Under RCO No. 499, encroaching permits will be required by the Transportation Department for all work for the electrical transmission line within the Kaiser Road rights-of-way (a total distance of approximately 5.8 miles). RCO No. 499 and Board of Supervisors Policy NO. B-29 provides that an encroachment permit may be issued if the applicant holds a current County franchise. A franchise agreement, set forth in proposed RCO No. 922, was negotiated between the Applicant and the County and introduced at the June 17, 2014 Board meeting with adoption set for July 1, 2014.

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