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Vantage to Pomona Heights Chapter 2 230 kV Transmission Line Project FEIS Proposed Action and Alternatives PAGE 2-71 2.4.2 Alternatives Analyzed 2.4.2.1 No Action Alternative If no action is taken, Pacific Power’s federal land ROWapplications submitted to BLM, JBLM YTC, and Reclamation for the proposed Project would not be granted and the proposed Project would not be constructed. The interconnection of the proposed Project to BPA’s Vantage Substation also would not occur. Pacific Power would not be able to address the reliability issues identified in the Northwest Power Pool (NWPP), Northwest Transmission Assessment Committee (NTAC) Mid-Columbia Transmission Study. Therefore, if an outage of the existing Pacific Power Pomona-Wanapum 230 kV Transmission Line were to occur, it could result in an overload of adjacent transmission systems and the failure of the regional transmission system. Additionally, Pacific Power would be required to develop and implement a remedial action scheme and would therefore not be compliant with Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission standards. This would also cause Pacific Power to be non-complaint with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards relating to the provision of reliable power. 2.4.2.2 NNR Alternative – Overhead Design Option (Agency Preferred Alternative) The FEIS Agency Preferred Alternative is the alternative the Lead Agency (BLM) selected to fulfill its statutory mission and responsibilities, giving consideration to economic, environmental, technical and other factors. Pursuant to 40 CFR § 1502.14(e), the FEIS must identify the Agency Preferred Alternative unless another law prohibits the expression of such a preference. The Agency Preferred Alternative may or may not be the same as the identified Environmentally Preferred Alternative. An Agency Preferred Alternative was identified in the DEIS (January 2013) as Alternative D. As a result of the comments received at public meetings and submitted in writing during the DEIS comment period, the BLM, Pacific Power and the JBLM YTC met and identified the NNR Alternative (see Chapter 1, Section 1.1.1 for more information on the development of the NNR Alternative). The NNR Alternative was developed and analyzed in the SDEIS. The DEIS Alternative D remained as the Agency Preferred Alternative in the SDEIS published in January of 2015. In BLM’s deliberations to select the Agency Preferred Alternative for the proposed Project’s FEIS, the decision-makers reviewed the DEIS and SDEIS documents, considered all of the Action Alternatives and their relative impacts on resources, preferences of the Cooperating Agencies and Tribal Representatives, and input received from the public via comments. The BLM has identified the NNR Alternative - Overhead Design Option as the Environmentally Preferred Alternative (see below) and has selected it as the Agency Preferred Alternative for the proposed Project’s FEIS. The NNR Alternative – Overhead Design Option consists of Route Segments 1a/NNR-1, NNR-2, NNR-3, NNR-4o, NNR-5, NNR-6o, NNR-7, and NNR-8, and is located primarily on federal lands. The NNR Alternative – Overhead Design Option is 40.5 miles in length, would cross JBLM YTC on its north side for a majority of its length, and would cross BLM managed land in the Yakima River Canyon Management Area and west of the Columbia River (proposed Huntzinger Road Area of Critical Environmental Concern). This NNR Alternative also crosses Reclamation, WSDOT, Grant County PUD- managed lands, and private lands and is located in Yakima, Kittitas, and Grant counties (refer to Table 2-1 for ownership distance crossed for each Action Alternative). SR-243 is crossed in one location south of the Wanapum Dam, and I-82 is crossed south of the Selah Creek Rest Area and near I-82 Exit 11. Identification of the Environmentally Preferred Alternative The Environmentally Preferred Alternative is the alternative or alternatives that best promotes Section 101 of NEPA and ordinarily causes the least damage to the biological and physical environment and best