TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — The federal Bureau of Land Management’s preferred alternative for a proposed large-scale wind energy farm in southern Idaho would shrink its size by nearly half and move it farther from a national historic site. The proposed Lava Ridge wind farm has drawn opposition from government leaders, local ranchers, and people who have said, among other things, that the project endangers the Minidoka National Historic Site, where Japanese Americans, including many from Seattle, were incarcerated during World War II. The agency detailed its preferred alternative to the original plan in its final environmental review released last week.
It would decrease the number of wind turbines to 241 from 400 and cap the maximum height of the electricity-generating turbines at 660 feet, KTVB-TV reported. The plan also places the closest turbine to the historic site at 9 miles away. The agency said adjusting the corridor configuration aims to help “preserve the visitor experience of the remote nature of the former incarceration site.
” As proposed in 2020, it would have been built within about 2 miles of the visitor center for the historic site. Nonprofit organization Friends of Minidoka is one group that has been concerned the project could destroy the experience they want to preserve at the site. Robyn Achilles, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement that most of the detailed historical research provided by the group to the Biden administration .
