WELCOMEThis is an Open House mee ng

being held to collect comments for WAPA’s Environmental Assessment

for the Upper Badlands Wind DevelopmentProposed Project

Comment forms and Proposed Project informa onare available from any Proposed Project

Team Member.

Please take a moment to register and viewthe various informa onal boards.

Proposed Project team members areavailable to answer any ques ons.

TO THE WAPA OPEN HOUSE

ABOUT USABOUT US

Upper Badlands Wind Development, LLC (UBWD) is a single en ty developing the Proposed Project with funding from an outside investor. UBWD has signed several lease agreements with landowners within the Proposed Project footprint that allows for co-stewardship of the land. UBWD is working closely with Federal, State and Local agencies to comply with environ-mental and non-environmental laws, and UBWD has demon-strated a commitment to environmental stewardship.

ABOUT USABOUT US

WAPA is a Federal power marke ng agency within the Depart-ment of Energy that markets and delivers federal wholesale electric power to municipali es, rural electric coopera ves, public u li es, irriga on districts, Federal and State agencies, and Na ve American tribes in 15 Western and Central states. The Proposed Project would be located within WAPA’s Upper Great Plains Region, which operates in North and South Dakota, most of Montana, and por ons of Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. As a Federal agency, WAPA must comply with the provisions of the Na onal Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), U.S. Department of Energy NEPA Implemen ng Proce-dures, and the Council on Environmental Quality Regula ons for Implemen ng the NEPA.

EA PROCESS OVERVIEWEA PROCESS OVERVIEW

Agency &Public Notice

HOLDSCOPING MEETINGS

ASSESS IMPACTSCOMPARE ALTERNATIVES

ANALYZE PROPOSED PROJECT& NO ACTION

ISSUE DRAFT EA

ISSUE FINAL EA

PUBLIC COMMENT

PUBLIC COMMENT

PUBL

IC CO

MM

ENTS

ACCE

PTED

THRO

UGH

THES

E STE

PS

ISSUE FONSI

IDENTIFY CONCERNS

ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS

SHARP-TAIL GROUSE LEK SURVEYS May 2018

GENERAL BIOLOGICAL SURVEYS September 2018

CULTURAL RESOURCE & WETLAND SURVEYS Summer 2019

AVIAN SURVEYS October 2017 - October 2019Point counts for eagles and passerine birdsEagle nest surveys

PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTALPROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTALIMPACT STATEMENT (PEIS)IMPACT STATEMENT (PEIS)

The Programma c Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) was jointly prepared between WAPA and the United States Fish and Wildlife Ser-vice (USFWS). The PEIS was developed to address Federal Ac on of in-terconnec on request made to WAPA from wind energy projects or re-quests for placement of wind energy project components in areas managed by the USFWS as wetland or grassland conserva on ease-ment in the UGP Region. The UGP Region encompasses all or parts of the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.The PEIS assesses environmental impacts associated with wind energy facili es and iden fies Best Mangement Prac ces (BMP’s) that are common to the UGP region that avoid or minimize impacts from the Proposed Project to the environment. The PEIS allows developers that accept BMP’s, along with evalua on processes and conserva on mea-sures proposed in the PEIS, to complete an Environmental Assessment that ers off analysis in the PEIS.

PROPOSEDPROPOSEDPROJECT DESCRIPTIONPROJECT DESCRIPTION

Upper Badlands Wind Development, LLC (UBWD) proposes to construct the Upper Badlands Wind Development Proposed Project, a wind energy conversion system with a 320 mega-wa (MW) nameplate capacity in Dawson County, Montana. The Proposed Project consists of up to 95 turbines located on approximately 33,000 acres of privately owned land. The Pro-posed Project includes addi onal suppor ng facili es like access roads, a new collec on substa on, opera ons and maintenance facili es and transmission interconnec on facili-

es including a 230 kV transmission line and interconnec on switchyard.

PURPOSE and NEEDPURPOSE and NEEDWAPA’s purpose and need is to consider and respond to the Proposed Project’s interconnec on request in accordance with the SPP Tariff and the Federal Power Act. The interconnec on to WAPA’s transmission system is a Federal ac on under the Na onal Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Upper Badlands Wind Development, LLC (UBWD) will commis-sion an Environmental Assessment (EA) ered to the analysis conduct-ed in the Upper Great Plains (UGP) Wind Energy Final Programma c Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).

The EA will analyze two alterna ves, the Proposed Project Alterna ve and a No Ac on Alterna ve. WAPA will evaluate the EA to determine a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Proposed Project or not approve the interconnec on Agreement under the No Ac on Al-terna ve.

PROJECT SITING PRINCIPLESPROPOSED

TRANSMISSION LINE

TURBINESIden fy wind poten alResearch land availability and community supportMinimize impacts on exis ng roads, residences, and other encumbrancesAvoidance of sensi ve wetland, biological and cultural resourcesIden fy appropriate access condi onsEvaluate avia on compa bilityConsider regulatory needs

Minimize lengthMinimize angles and points of intersec onMinimize impacts to exis ng land useMinimize environmental impactsConsider regulatory needsConsider FAA height restric onsEvaluate right of way availabilityDescribe engineering feasibilityConsider access constraints

TYPICAL 230 kV H-FRAMETRANSMISSION STRUCTURE

STRUCTURE SPACING = 650’ TO 700’

TYPICAL 230 kV WOOD POLETRANSMISSION STRUCTURE

TYPICAL WIND TURBINE

Rotor Blade

Rotor Diameter 413 ft.

Tower

Ground Level6 ft.

6o

4o

Hub

Hei

ght

350

- 400

ft.