The Army Corps of Engineers has a new timeline on when a draft version of its environmental study of the Surry-Skiffes Creek power line will be available for public review. The document is now expected this spring, months later than a previous projection.
The Corps is in the process of completing a court-ordered environmental impact statement for Dominion Energy’s 17-tower transmission line that runs across the James River from Surry County to near Skiffes Creek in James City County. The study will analyze the environmental effects of the power line in accordance with federal law and explore alternatives to the project that the Corps will weigh when it reconsiders the permit approval for the project it gave Dominion in 2017.
While the plan had been to have a draft study ready for public review before the end of last year, it now looks like the spring is when such a report will actually drop.
“We are reviewing public and agency input and currently re-assessing the proposed timeline. At this time we anticipate releasing for comment a Draft EIS later this spring,” Corps spokesman Patrick Bloodgood said in an email.
Public notice of the draft’s availability will be given once it’s ready and the Corps will solicit public comment on it. The Corps will respond to substantive commentary and include that in the final version of the study, according to the Corps website.
The power line has been a lightning rod of controversy for years. Dominion considers the project critical to provide reliable electricity to Peninsula communities. While Dominion officials have said they felt the initial study was sufficient, the energy company continues to strike a collaborative tone about the process and its desire to see it completed soon.
“Our focus is on working with the Army Corps of Engineers to complete the EIS in a timely manner and to continue to provide reliable electricity to the 600,000 people who live and work on the Virginia Peninsula,” Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton said in an email.
On the other side of the issue, preservationists and conservationists have opposed the line, saying it threatens local environmental and historic resources.
The extended timeline is a good thing because it allows the Corps more time to do its due diligence in its review, said Pam Goddard, Mid-Atlantic region senior program director at the National Parks Conservation Association. She continued that if done thoroughly, the review will yield a better alternative to the existing power line. The NPCA is one of several conservation groups arrayed against the power line project.
“We’re happy that the Corps is taking the time it needs,” she said, adding that it will be critical for the Corps to provide costs and construction timelines of the different alternatives to give the public a detailed sense of those factors.
“There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny on them,” she said.
The James River Association is likewise keeping an eye on the process, said Jamie Brunkow, James Riverkeeper and senior advocacy manager. He felt the initial timeline the Corps announced seemed too short, so that it will take more time to complete the draft is closer to his expectation, and likewise hoped the review will find an alternative to the current line of towers.
“We hope there’s a positive outcome from this process,” he said.
The ongoing study is basically a more exhaustive version of an environmental assessment the Corps conducted prior to its decision to award the project permit to Dominion in July 2017. In March, a federal judge ruled the Corps’ efforts were insufficient and ordered an environmental impact statement. The judge called the permit approval “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with the law.”
In November, another federal judge ruled the power line, which Dominion powered on last February, could continue to operate during the study. The National Environmental Policy Act requires a federal agency do a environmental impact statement for proposed major construction projects unless the agency determines there wouldn’t be significant effects.
The Corps already has a head start on the process thanks to its previous work, and the information gathered during the course of the previous environmental assessment will be factored into the the new study. During the environmental impact statement process, the Corps will review not only the more than 25 alternatives it considered previously, but also potentially new alternatives to the existing power line. Some options include the existing overhead line, underwater lines and demand-side management.
Jack Jacobs, 757-298-6007, jojacobs@vagazette.com, @jajacobs_
