Hunt Power, a Dalla-based company owned by a family that deals in oil and gas production, is seeking to build a $60 to $80 million 345-kilowatt transmission line across northern Santa Fe County and southern Rio Arriba County. The 33-mile project, the last uncompleted section of a loop that runs from the Four Corners area to Albuquerque and back, would go through the pueblos of Pojoaque, Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh and cross the Rio Grande. Hunt has negotiated a right-of-way agreement with those pueblos but the Pueblo of San Ildefonso has refused; and so the line would go around that pueblo, near the populated are of Jacona. About on third of the route is on federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land.

Many non-pueblo residents in the Espanola and Pojoaque valleys have expressed opposition to the 55- to 130- ft. towers, citing health concerns, effect on property values, critical to wildlife habitat and impacts on landscapes that attract tourists and film productions. The Taos field office of the BLM has labeled the area “a High-Priority Visual Corridor.” There have been calls for the line to be buried, a suggestion the company has adamantly rejected.

The company says the line would strenghthen PNM’s electrical grid, improve reliability and expand capacity to transport power generated by coal, natural gas and renewable sources.

The project has not yet received a permit from Santa Fe County. It will likely be discussed by the County Commission on Dec. 13. The next BLM public meeting is Dec. 12 in Pojoaque. The BLM will continue taking public comment through Jan. 5. It will probably be two years before a final decision is made whether to approve some version of the line on public land.