Interior Didn’t Consult With Tribes for SunZia Line, Suit Says

Tribes and conservation groups are challenging the Interior Department’s approval of a high-voltage transmission line expected to cut through Arizona’s San Pedro Valley.

The SunZia Southwest Transmission Project will cause “serious, irreversible adverse effects on Tribal cultural sites and sacred areas,” the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Center for Biological Diversity, and others told the US District Court for the District of Arizona.

Construction and other ground-disturbing activities will negatively affect the plants, animals, and water resources that are sacred to the tribes, the complaint said.
The groups claimed Interior’s Bureau of Land Management ...