The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has extended until Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, the public comment period for the Draft Regional Mitigation Strategy for the 25,069-acre Dry Lake Valley North Solar Energy Zone (SEZ) in Lincoln County, Nevada. The BLM extended the 30-day comment period to provide the public an additional 14 days to review and provide comments on the draft strategy, which can be found on the Dry Lake Valley North Project Website at http://on.doi.gov/1frnwSM.
The draft strategy builds on the success of the Dry Lake SEZ regional mitigation strategy pilot project, which provided developers with certainty regarding the cost of mitigation and ensured that residual impacts of solar projects in the SEZ would be addressed through offsite mitigation. The projects are expected to generate between 440 MW of solar power and create up to 1,900 jobs.
Each of the 19 SEZs established by BLM is required to have a compensatory mitigation strategy, according to the Record of Decision for the Western Solar Plan. The Dry Lake Valley North SEZ is the largest of the 5 SEZs in Nevada and, when fully built, could produce up to 4,000 MW of renewable energy. It is located about 15 miles west of Pioche and 15 miles northwest of Caliente. The SEZ is framed by the North Pahroc Range to the west, and the West Range, Bristol Range, Highland Range, Ely Springs Range, Black Canyon Range, and Burnt Springs Range to the east.
Written comments may be submitted to the BLM Ely District Office, HC 33 Box 33500, Ely, NV, 89301, Attn: Dan Netcher or via email to dnetcher@blm.gov.
For more information, contact Dan Netcher, BLM project manager, at (775-289-1872) dnetcher@blm.gov.
