Washington, D.C. (ACHP PRESS RELEASE) — The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) today announced it is terminating consultation on the development of a Section 106 agreement with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the Lava Ridge Wind Project in Jerome, Lincoln, and Minidoka counties, Idaho. Pursuant to its responsibilities under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the ACHP will prepare formal comments on the project and submit them to the BLM director. Once the BLM director considers and responds to the ACHP’s comments, the Section 106 review for this undertaking will be concluded.
The proposed undertaking includes the construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of the wind energy project by Magic Valley Energy, LLC, within a BLM right-of-way (ROW). As currently proposed, the undertaking will consist of 241 wind turbines across 104,000 acres along with new substations, transmission lines, access roads, and related infrastructure. The ACHP has been participating in consultation since April 2021, when BLM determined that the project may have substantial impacts on numerous known historic properties, including the Minidoka National Historic Site and Wilson Butte Cave, although BLM recognized that additional identification efforts would be needed to fully assess the project’s effects on historic properties. In consultation with the Idaho State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) and several consulting parties, BLM determined it would develop a programmatic agreement (PA) to allow for phased identification and evaluation, in addition to the development of a Historic Property Management Plan and site-specific Historic Property Treatment Plans.