What’s it worth?
Readers analyze a power line’s impact on the animal and human life in its path
Power line will decimate migratory bird populations
SUNZIA, A PRIVATE corporation, is proposing a 520-mile long extra-high voltage power line originating at the wind farms in Corona and terminating in Arizona, where the power will be transmitted to California markets.
The latest route, among several that have been considered since 2008, will cross the Rio Grande at Escondida, the narrowest point in a cross-continental migration path for all kinds of birds . ...
Many of us have experienced the aweinspiring sight of tens of thousands of sandhill cranes leaving and returning to their roosts along the Rio Grande each day. The 10-story-high towers will decimate these majestic birds as they follow their twice-daily paths up and down the Rio Grande near the Escondida bridge in Socorro County, a feeding-roosting cycle they have followed for hundreds of years. Even when roosting at night on sandbars, cranes often fly up when predators approach. Because cranes have poor night vision, proposed mitigation to the lines will not prevent night kills.
Some think that sacrificing cranes is a small price to pay in the name of green power.
But SunZia does not have to, and probably cannot sell much, if any, green power to California. The California and Arizona permits do not require SunZia to use the lines primarily for green power. And there is such a glut of green power in California that it is paying other states to take energy that is overloading the grid.
None of the power is destined for New Mexico. The cranes will die for nothing, and once the lines are up, it will encourage the building of even more infrastructure.
The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District has yet to grant SunZia a permit to cross its lands along the Rio Grande. Please contact the district and voice your concerns about this project.
KAREN BAILEY-BOWMAN
Socorro