- This event has passed.
The Bureau of Land Management released the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Lava Ridge Wind Farm Project in January 2023. This lengthy document details five proposed alternatives to address the various conflicts and objections to the project.
The BLM is accepting public comment on the draft EIS related to how well the various alternatives address conflicts, their analysis of the project’s impacts, and any new information that would improve understanding of the impacts and that should be included in the final Environmental Impact Statement.
In order to help our community members make effective statements, the Japanese American Museum of Oregon is partnering with Friends of Minidoka and Preservation Idaho to host a webinar on Wednesday, February 15 at 5:30pm Pacific Time.
Because of the complicated nature of this process and the specific requirements for these comments, we highly recommend attending this webinar or reviewing the notes that will be posted afterwards before submitting anything to the BLM.
We will discuss how to respond to the draft EIS and the upcoming BLM open houses. The presentation will include:
• Review of the EIS process
• How to make effective comments and how to submit them
• Areas of concern in the draft Environmental Impact Statement
• What to expect at Portland and Seattle BLM Open Houses that are happening at the beginning of March
Friends of Minidoka will identify areas of concern in the DEIS.
The deadline to submit comments in response to the BLM is March 21, 2023.
In February and March, the Bureau of Land Management will hold open houses in Portland and Seattle (Mercer Island) to answer questions, talk directly to the public, and give an opportunity to submit written or oral comments. This will not be a public hearing but we do want to show the agency that our community has strong concerns and objections to this project. The Portland event will take place on Wednesday, March 1 from 3-7pm at the DoubleTree by Hilton, 1000 NE Multnomah Street Portland, OR 97232. We will have more information about how we will organize our community for this public event soon.
You can read more about the Lava Ridge Wind Project here.