By P.C. Staff
Following the Bureau of Land Management’s recent issuance of its Record of Decision authorizing LS Power to proceed with Idaho’s Lava Ridge Wind Project, the Japanese American Citizens League on Dec. 18 stated its disappointment with the decision.
The JACL had previously objected to the project, including the approval of the Final Environmental Impact Report last summer (June 21, 2024 Pacific Citizen) because of the negative effect the 241-turbine wind farm would have on the viewshed from the vantage of the Minidoka National Historic Site, formerly the Minidoka War Relocation Authority Center where more than 13,000 persons, mostly ethnic Japanese, the majority of whom were U.S. citizens, were unjustly incarcerated by the federal government during World War II.
Screenshot from the Bureau of Land Management’s website, https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2013782/510.
In its statement, JACL said that while it appreciated the reduction in the number of turbines from 400, as well as a cap on the allowable height (no more than 660 feet/201 meters), and an extension of the distance to nine miles for the closest turbines, a “significant number of turbines” will nevertheless remain in view from the site.
JACL also stated its appreciation that the ROD included a provision that prevented “the further development of wind and solar farms on over 200,000 acres of land surrounding Minidoka. We recognize that this will protect Minidoka from the development of similar projects that might further encroach on the site.”
The JACL had previously stated that the wind turbines would “permanently alter the sense of solemnity appropriate to the recognition and remembrance of the 13,000 people forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated there only because of their Japanese ancestry.”
To read the complete JACL statement visit this link.
