Environmental Assessment of the Gering-Stegall 115-kV Transmission Line Consolidation Project, Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska

The Department of Energy (DOE), Western Area Power Administration (Western) proposes to consolidate segments of two transmission lines near the Gering Substation in Gering, Nebraska. The transmission lines are both located in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska. The transmission lines are both located in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, within the city of Gering. Presently, there are three parallel 115-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines on separate rights-of-way (ROW) that terminate at the Gering Substation. The project would include dismantling the Archer-Gering wood-pole transmission line and rebuilding the remaining two lines on single-pole steel double circuit structures. The project would consolidate the Gering-Stegall North and Gering-Stegall South 115-kV transmission lines on to one ROW for a 1.33-mile segment between the Gering Substation and a point west of the Gering Landfill. All existing wood-pole H-frame structures would be removed, and the Gering-Stegall North and South ROWs abandoned. Western is responsible for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the line. Western prepared an environmental assessment (EA) that analyzed the potential environmental impacts of the proposed construction, operation, and maintenance of the 115-kV transmission line consolidation. Based on the analyses in the EA, the DOE finds that the proposed action is not a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA)