Largest construction in county by preservation organization

Dear editor,

Traveling down highway 191, 6.5 miles past the DY junction you can see the large dirt spoil piles on the right-hand side of the road. On the left-hand side is a utility box. The power and phone to this utility box were trenched 6.5 miles from the DY junction, including 3 miles across Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. The actual recreation site is undoubtedly the largest construction project in Phillips County, having reshaped the area with thousands of cubic yards of dirt moved in the name of preservation.

The Environmental Assessment (EA) for the electrical and phone trenching was started by the BLM May 22, 2018, and completed by July 5, 2018. Livestock operators in Phillips County who have also asked for installing livestock water pipelines across BLM land have been told “NO, place your pipeline in the road ditch” as BLM doesn’t have time to perform an EA! Additionally, a cell tower, to be located near the DY junction has been found to interfere with sage-grouse, while a utility trench through their habitat was not.

Clearly, Lewis and Clark did not have electricity. These are clear examples of a federal agency providing special treatment for a non-profit. With over 1 million head of calves lost in March storms in Nebraska, these non-profits are a threat to our food security and thus our national security. Maybe they would like to help the thousands of agricultural producers who lost everything in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa instead of taking land out of agricultural production.

Deb Sjostrom

Malta