A federal agency is accepting comments on an environmental impact statement for a power line project that crosses the Mississippi River.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service is accepting comments on the draft EIS for the Cardinal– Hickory Creek power transmission line project, including a proposed new route through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.
A copy of the draft EIS is online at https://www. rd.usda.gov/resources/environmental- studies/impactstatement/ cardinal-hickorycreek- transmission-line-project- iowa-wisconsin. Copies also are available at the libraries in Cassville, Lancaster and Dodgeville.
Comments can be emailed to CardinaltoHickory-CreekEIS@usda.gov or left by voicemail to 202-692-1970. The deadline is Sept. 22.
While the project is nearly complete on either side of the Mississippi River, connecting the two sides has been held up because of litigation over the Mississippi crossing, The draft EIS includes a wildlife refuge land swap that was proposed two years ago and favored by the project builders to move the power line slightly in exchange for what the statement calls “higher quality, more desirable lands.”
The route would be moved 6.8 acres west of its original proposed location across the Mississippi to “reduce the impact to the Refuge by reducing the footprint of the transmission line” by about 9.9 acres, according to the draft EIS.
In July a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturned a federal district court ruling from earlier this year that the power line could not cross the Mississippi River.
The panel ruled that a judicial decision was “premature” because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had not made a final decision on whether the power line can cross the Upper Mississippi National Fish and Wildlife Refuge near Cassville, nor a proposed land swap in exchange for approval to cross the refuge.
That decision, which was expected one year ago, came after a Dane County circuit judge affirmed a 2019 state Public Service Commission decision to approve the power line project.
Circuit Judge Jacob Frost affirmed the PSC’s Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the 102mile project, whose costs have grown from the original $492 million to beyond $500 million due to growing materials prices and legal costs.
A joint news release Thursday from American Transmission Co., ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative said the three companies were “very pleased” in the federal decision and that they “prevailed on all key points.”
The statement also said the builders “look forward to working with the federal agencies so they can now move expeditiously to complete their decision making.”
U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled in March 2022 that the project could not be built through the Upper Mississippi National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, calling U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approval through the wildlife refuge was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Conley’s decision held up construction of the project across the Mississippi River while construction west and east of the river is nearly complete, according to the three utilities.
The appeals court decision reversed a ruling in which Conley said he would not allow the power line to be built in protected areas “simply because the transmission companies plowed ahead with ground-clearing without assurance that the fish and wildlife crossing will be approved.”
The state Supreme Court ruled 4–3 against an attempt by, among other plaintiffs, Iowa County and the Village of Montfort to invalidate the PSC’s unanimous 2019 approval of the power line project on the grounds of a conflict of interest of two PSC commissioners.
The majority opinion noted that CHC opponents tried to disqualify both former commissioner Michael Huebsch and PSC chair Rebecca Cameron Valcq because Huebsch previously worked for the Midwest Independent System Operator, which operates power transmission lines, and Valcq because she formerly worked for We Energies.
The PSC rejected the DALC’s claim of bias by Valcq and Huebsch, saying that “There is a presumption of honesty and integrity in those serving as adjudicators in state administrative proceedings” — a position the Supreme Court decision affirmed.
Construction has been continuing on the Iowa and Wisconsin sides of the 101-milelong project despite the ruling about the wildlife refuge. Neither the PSC nor the Iowa Utilities Board ordered work to be stopped, nor have courts in Wisconsin or Iowa.
ATC is building the eastern part of Cardinal–Hickory Creek from the Cardinal Substation in the Town of Middleton to the future Hill Valley Substation in Montfort. ITC Midwest is building the Grant County part of the project from the Hill Valley Substation to the Nelson Dewey Substation north of Cassville.
In Southwest Wisconsin, the project starts at the Nelson Dewey Substation on Grant County VV northwest of Cassville and goes near the U.S. 61/Wisconsin 81/Wisconsin 129 south intersection in Lancaster, heads northeast to the new substation in Montfort, then roughly follows U.S. 18 to Dodgeville and U.S. 18/151 around Mount Horeb before going northeast to the Cardinal substation.
Most of the project is along existing power line corridors.
The project was expected to be complete by the end of this year.
