Search

This report presents the results of Class III cultural resources surveys conducted for the Palo Verde to Pinal West Transmission Line Project. The work was sponsored by Salt River Project (SRP) in support of two proposed 500 kV transmission lines that will connect the existing Hassayampa Switchyard, west of Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, and the proposed Pinal West Substation, western Pinal County, Arizona. The cultural resources studies described here include three previous archaeological surveys, which examined different portions of the transmission line corridor and the area of a proposed substation (Chapin-Pyritz and Hill 2002; Henderson 2005; Hill et al. 2003), and a fourth and final survey conducted by Desert Archaeology, Inc., of all remaining unsurveyed segments of the Palo Verde to Pinal West alignment and the proposed access road to Pinal West Substation. The surveys were undertaken to determine if significant cultural resources were present that might be adversely affected by construction of the proposed transmission lines and associated substation site. The effort was conducted to comply with the Arizona Antiquities Act of 1960 (as amended) and State Historic Preservation Act of 1982, as stipulated in conditions of a Certificate for Environmental Compatibility (Case No. 124, Docket No. L00000B-03-0124) issued by the Arizona Corporation Commission, and as required for right-of-way access across lands managed by the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD Right-of-Way Application No. 14-110986) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM EA No. AZ-020-2003-0045, Case File No. AZA-32057). In 2002, an initial Class III survey of the western portion of the proposed Palo Verde to Pinal West Transmission Line Project was completed by Chapin-Pyritz and Hill (2002). As a result of this work, 11 archaeological sites were documented within the transmission line corridor that ran from the Hassayampa Switchyard, south of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, to the Jojoba Substation. In the following year, a second cultural resources survey was completed that examined areas of the Palo Verde to Pinal West transmission line corridor located on Arizona State Trust and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands east of the Jojoba Substation (Hill et al. 2003). Seven sites were recorded during this survey. More recently, Desert Archaeology conducted a cultural resources inventory of a 60-acre parcel for the proposed Pinal West Substation (Henderson 2005). No archaeological sites or other significant cultural properties were located during the survey of the substation site.

Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP) plans to construct a new 500 kV transmission line between the existing Hassayampa Switchyard, west of Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona, and the proposed Pinal West Substation, western Pinal County, Arizona (Figure 1). Designated the Palo Verde to Pinal West (PV-PW) transmission line, this powerline is the first of two that SRP plans to eventually construct between the Hassayampa Switchyard and Pinal West Substation. Cultural resources surveys (Chapin- Pyritz and Hill 2002; Clark and Henderson 2007; Hill et al. 2003) for the current PV-PW transmission line identified 15 cultural properties within the project corridor that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in consultation with the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), has determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. There is also a sixteenth property whose eligibility cannot be determined on the basis of present evidence. BLM has further concurred with SRP recommendations that construction of the PV-PW transmission line could affect cultural resources at six of these properties.

APS proposes to construct (1) two parallel 500 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines within a 450-foot-wide right-of-way, (2) an 80-acre 500kV switchyard, and (3) a 230kV interconnection line in Maricopa County. The project will provide transmission interconnection for the Panda Gila River generating station to the Western Systems Coordinating Council transmission grid.