Jul 12 - Arizona Daily Star

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which recently lifted its moratorium on applications for large solar projects in the Southwest, will host a hearing Tuesday in Tucson on the environmental impacts of solar farms on public lands.

The bureau was blasted by congressional members and solar enthusiasts for its short-lived moratorium, but environmentalists say caution is necessary in siting large solar projects.

BLM has already received 125 applications for solar energy development on 1 million acres of land it administers in the Southwest. Arizona has 27 applications for solar installations that would cover nearly 360,000 acres and generate more than 14,000 megawatts (14 billion watts) of power from the sun.

Most of the proposals are for low, flat deserts in the Phoenix area or along the lower Colorado River. The only application received for Southeastern Arizona is on BLM land 12 miles south of Eloy, said Deborah Stevens of the Phoenix BLM office.

You can generate power cleanly without trashing public lands, said Sandy Bahr, spokeswoman for the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club, who said her organization is "supportive of doing more with solar energy. We also want to make sure it's appropriately sited," she said.

"If something is cheap, as far as the land goes, it can invite all kinds of speculation and people looking to places where there may be other values that you want to protect," said Bahr.

"One of the issues is the water, and these facilities do use water," she said.

Water is one of several aspects that will be examined in the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, said Heather Feeney, spokeswoman in BLM's Washington, D.C., office. The bureau will consider visual impact and effects on species. It will also examine competing uses for the land, such as biking, hiking and livestock grazing.

With solar, said Feeney, "the land is pretty much usable for only that type of project."

IF YOU GO

What: Meeting about the impact of large-scale solar projects on public land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Pima Community College's Downtown Campus, 1255 N. Stone Ave.

Mail comments: Solar Energy PEIS Scoping, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Ave., EVS/900, Argonne, IL 60439.

Comment online: solareis.anl.gov/involve/pubschedule/index.cfm

* Contact reporter Tom Beal at 573-4158 or tbeal@azstarnet.com.

Originally published by TOM BEAL, ARIZONA DAILY STAR.

(c) 2008 Arizona Daily Star. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.