SEATTLE – The Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee issued the following statement on June 6.

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Today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) approving the proposed Lava Ridge Wind Project in the viewshed of the Minidoka National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System.

The BLM’s preferred alternatives would desecrate sacred ground and reverse nearly 50 years of efforts to tell the story of the incarceration of Japanese Americands and Alaska Natives during World War II.

The Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee is a Seattle-based volunteer-run organization of survivors and descendants of the Japanese American incarceration, as well as allies. Our guiding mission is to honor and provide healing for the generations of our families and community members who were imprisoned during World War II in one of 75 American prison camps.

We also strive to educate the general public and fight efforts to erase our history. The U.S. government unconstitutionally imprisoned more than 13,000 Japanese Americans and Alaska Natives at Minidoka.

Less than a month from today, hundreds of pilgrims will converge on Twin Falls, Idaho and the Minidoka National Historic Site for our annual pilgrimage from July 4-July 7 for three days of education, reflection, healing and reunion.

The construction of a wind farm consisting of hundreds wind turbines standing as high as 660 feet tall will damage the setting and feeling of the site as our forebears lived it.

Minidoka descendant and a leader of the Pilgrimage Committee Erin Shigaki says: “It is unconscionable to build an incredibly visible symbol of America’s corporate greed right in front of us – as we try to commune with our ancestors, as we try to bring our last few survivors there to make peace with what befell them, and as we try to engage our youth and others in this erased American history in a deep and personal way.”

We appreciate Congress’s bipartisan leadership to pass legislation in 2024 to direct BLM to engage with stakeholders. However, on the eve of our 2024 pilgrimage, we are disappointed and saddened with the FEIS. We urge the Biden Administration to live up to principles of racial and environmental justice by adopting NO ACTION-Alternative A in the Record of Decision later this summer.

We ask it to adopt permanent protections for Minidoka to preserve this sacred site that honors the courage and sacrifice of Japanese Americans, including nearly 1,000 service members and 73 who gave their lives to defend freedom.

“BLM is taking an historic site, held in public trust, and selling it to a private equity company; stealing the future experiences of all descendants and visitors of Minidoka. This is a sacred and irreplaceable site for our families,” said Gloria Shigeno, a survivor of the Minidoka concentration camp. “Haven’t we been harmed enough by our own government?”

BLM Statement

Following is the BLM’s statement on the wind project.

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At almost half of the project’s originally proposed size, the BLM’s preferred alternative was shaped by public input and meetings, listening sessions, and significant engagement with local landowners and ranchers, Tribal Nations, federal, state and county elected leaders, interested organizations, the BLM’s Resource Advisory Council for the area, and the National Park Service.

The preferred alternative reduces the area disturbed from the initial proposal by 50%, lowers the number of turbines from 400 to 241 to remove the most sensitive locations, and imposes maximum height limits of 660 feet for turbines.

Images to indicate the scale of the original proposal, as well as preferred alternative, as viewed from the Minidoka National Historic Site can be found here: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2013782/510

The BLM will continue to work closely with the company, stakeholders and the community to ensure a final decision minimizes impacts and protects sensitive resources, including through consideration of additional, broader compensatory mitigation measures. Government-to-government consultation with tribes is also ongoing.

The preferred alternative adjusts the corridor configuration such that the closest turbine to the Minidoka National Historic Site would be nine miles away, helping to preserve the visitor experience of the remote nature of the former incarceration site for Japanese Americans during WWII.

The preferred alternative also reduces potential impacts to sage grouse, large wildlife migration routes and winter concentration areas, cultural resources, Jerome County Airport and agricultural aviation uses, public land ranchers, and adjacent private landowners.

Preferred alternative requirements to reduce impacts include seasonal restrictions during construction, private property setbacks, and ensuring the developer coordinates activities with the ranching community.

Pursuant to the direction in section 441 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 (P.L. 118-42), the BLM has and will continue to engage with Native American tribes, state and local government officials, cooperating agencies, stakeholders and interested parties. The feedback from these meetings was carefully considered and helped shape the preferred alternative.

In addition, the BLM is responding to a nomination for protection of the landscape’s importance to the Minidoka National Historic Site by putting in place interim measures to protect the cultural resources found in the former Minidoka War Relocation Center on approximately 15,000 acres of public lands surrounding the national historic site. The measures will stay in place until the area is considered for designation as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern during a formal planning process.

The project — proposed by Magic Valley Energy, LLC, an affiliate of LS Power — would create up to 700 jobs during its three-year construction and 20 permanent jobs once it becomes operational. Under the preferred alternative if selected, the project’s construction is estimated to generate $21.9 million in annual tax revenue and contribute $138.9 million in total economic output to local and regional economies. Once in operation, the labor, materials, and taxes are estimated to have a minimum economic output of $7.5 million annually.

The BLM published the Draft EIS in January 2023 for a 90-day comment period. The FEIS will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, followed by a Record of Decision.

Recently, the Department of the Interior announced the BLM had achieved the major milestone of permitting 25 gigawatts of clean energy projects, including solar, wind, geothermal, and gen-ties (transmission lines that cross public lands to connect renewable energy projects on private lands to the grid). The BLM is currently processing 67 utility-scale onshore clean energy projects proposed on public lands in the western United States, which have the combined potential to add more than 31,000 megawatts of renewable energy to the western electric grid.

BLM is also undertaking the preliminary review of nearly 190 applications for solar and wind development, as well as 88 applications for wind and solar energy testing.

The BLM manages vast stretches of public lands with the potential to make significant contributions to the nation’s renewable energy portfolio and provides sites for environmentally sound renewable energy projects. Efficient deployment of renewable energy from our nation’s public lands is crucial in achieving the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.

The associated documents are available on the BLM National NEPA Register. For more information, please contact Project Manager Kasey Prestwich at [email protected] or (208) 732-7204.

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