Arapahoe County approves Xcel permit for Power Pathway segment, amends wildlife conditions

Arapahoe County commissioners on June 23 conditionally approved Xcel Energy’s 1041 permit for the county segment of Colorado’s Power Pathway, a 345-kV transmission line planned along East Quincy Avenue and East County Line Road, according to the county’s meeting record.

The board approved permit ASI25-001 with amended conditions F, G and H, covering wildlife-related construction limits and surveys. A county summary report in the meeting packet says staff renegotiated those conditions with Colorado Parks and Wildlife after a May 22 meeting.

Under amended condition F, Xcel must make reasonable efforts to keep construction-related human activity in pronghorn winter concentration areas outside Jan. 1 through April 30. Amended condition G applies the same framework to mule deer severe winter range from Dec. 1 through April 30. Amended condition H requires a pre-construction survey before vegetation clearing that disturbs ground between March 15 and Oct. 31 to determine whether burrowing owls are present, with results sent to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and coordination on buffers or monitoring if owls are found, the packet says.

Commissioners also focused on condition L, covering bird diverters. County staff said Colorado Parks and Wildlife opposed removing that condition because diverters reduce the risk of bird collisions and electrocution, according to the board report.

During the hearing, commissioners tied that issue to wildfire risk. The county’s emergency management director said a previous bird-and-power-line fire in the county spread about 1,200 acres in roughly three hours, but he did not describe the new line itself as a major fire-risk red flag, according to the meeting record.

Xcel told commissioners the line is planned overhead rather than underground because burying a 345-kV transmission line over a long distance would be far more expensive, more technically difficult and slower to repair after an outage, according to the hearing. The company said it is designing the line for 30.5 feet of ground clearance at maximum sag over agricultural areas, a five-foot buffer above code minimums.

The approved segment begins at Harvest Mile Substation and runs through Arapahoe County before continuing east toward Elbert County. Xcel said about two-thirds of the corridor is co-located with existing roads or transmission corridors, and that the route was shifted east in part to avoid conflicts with Colorado National Guard helicopter training near Box Elder Creek, .