EIS-0336: Draft Environmental Impact Statement

Tucson Electric Power Company Sahuarita-Nogales Transmission Line

On August 17, 2000, TEP applied to DOE/FE for a Presidential Permit to construct a double-circuit 345,000 volt (345 kV) electric transmission line that would begin south of Tucson, Arizona, in the vicinity of Sahuarita, cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and continue into the Sonoran region of northern Mexico to Santa Ana.FE has prepared this Draft EIS to address the environmental impacts of the proposed action and reasonable alternatives, including the “No Action” alternative. In addition, because the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. International Boundary Water Commission (USIBWC) must act, and because their actions are interrelated, they have agreed to cooperate in preparing this Draft EIS. The Final EIS will be used by DOE and the cooperating agency officials to ensure that they have the information needed for purposes of informed decision-making. The decisions themselves will be issued subsequent to the Final EIS, in the form of a Record of Decision for each agency, or as a letter of concurrence in the case of the USIBWC.