Latest Updates

December 2022 Important Update!

The Bureau of Land Management will release the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Lava Ridge Wind Project on January 13, 2023. The DEIS will include alternatives to the proposed project based on community feedback over the past year.

Our community will have 60 days from the release of the DEIS to send comment emails and letters to the BLM. Friends of Minidoka will share our response with you a week or two after the DEIS is released. At that time, we will provide information on how to submit effective comments.

Fill out the BLM’s form to be added to the mailing list to receive the DEIS in January. Click HERE to go to the form.

The BLM will be holding community meetings in West Coast cities after the DEIS is released. We will update you as more information becomes available.

November 2021 Update

In August, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Biden Administration's decision to study a massive wind project, up to 400 wind turbines taller than the Washington National Monument, which would be located on the historic footprint of Minidoka and within two miles of the national park's new visitor center. If approved, the Lava Ridge Wind Project would significantly impair the park's ability to tell the story of Minidoka and to serve as a place for learning, healing, and celebrating our heritage for generations to come. Working closely with JACL chapters, the Friends of Minidoka and our organization, the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee helped Minidoka survivors, Japanese American organizations, and conservation partners submit more than 1,000 public comment letters to the BLM by the October 20 deadline.

Our Fight is Not Over

While the Bureau of Land Management is drafting an environmental impact statement, we need your help to stop Lava Ridge through partnerships, advocacy, media, fundraising, and technical expertise including expertise in electric power generation and transmission in the western United States to advise the Minidoka team on strategy. We also are looking for litigation counsel with expertise in the National Environmental Policy Act and related laws. If you have questions or would like to help, please reach out to info@minidoka.org and minidokapilgrimage@gmail.com or check www.minidoka.org and here for updates.

With your support, we can protect Minidoka's sacred ground for current and future generations! Renewable energy should not come at the cost of communities of color.

October 2021

Minidoka National Historic Site’s historic, natural, and cultural resources are currently being threatened. Magic Valley Energy has proposed the Lava Ridge Wind Project, a 400-unit wind turbine field on 73,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property adjacent to Minidoka, 25 miles northeast of Twin Falls, Idaho. If built, it will be one of the largest in the U.S. Several turbines are slated to be installed on the historic footprint of the camp, and almost all are completely visible from the WWII Japanese American incarceration site in Southern Idaho.

The proposed project includes up to 400 wind energy generating turbines, up to seven new substations, approximately 198 miles of 34.5 kilovolt (kV) collector lines, 34 miles of 230 kV transmission lines, 18 miles of 500 kV transmission lines, 381 miles of access roads, 47 miles of temporary crane walk paths, a battery energy storage system, three operations and maintenance facilities, five permanent met towers, and construction-related staging yards. Engineering is preliminary, but the turbines may have a maximum height (including the rotor) of up to 740 feet. View project map.

Read the full project plan of development, guidance on submitting public comment, the full timeline and planning process, and other BLM documents here:

https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2013782/540

Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is prepared for major federal actions that may have a significant effect on the environment. The purpose of an EIS is to identify potential issues related to the project, analyze the project impacts, disclose them to the public, and use the information developed to make informed decisions. The EIS is a public document, and the public is encouraged to provide input throughout the development of the EIS. The EIS is currently in the first stage, called public scoping, in which potential environmental issues, project modifications, and mitigation to be evaluated in the draft EIS are identified.