Environmental Data Task Force (EDTF) Fact Sheet
December, 2014
Purpose and History of the Environmental Data Task Force (EDTF)
The WECC Scenario Planning Steering Group (SPSG) formed the Environmental Data Task Force (EDTF)
in June 2010 to identify available sources of data on land, wildlife, cultural, historical, archaeological,
and water resources and to explore ways to transform that data into a form usable in WECC’s
transmission planning models. Since 2010, the EDTF has developed publicly-available products and
processes that help decision-makers, transmission planners, and others to understand and potentially
avoid environmental and cultural resource risks associated with transmission development early in the
transmission planning process.
WECC’s environmental and cultural resource products—which include a Data Viewer of spatiallyexplicit preferred environmental and cultural data sets, a risk classification system for understanding
the degree of risks associated with those data sets, and a methodology for comparing transmission
alternatives—provide information about risks at a planning (not siting) scale. WECC’s use of these
products in its regional transmission planning process allows the transmission options in those plans to
be evaluated based on environmental and cultural risk in addition to capital cost, reliability, and
engineering information.
EDTF Membership and Approach
Members of EDTF represent the electric industry, state and federal government, consumers, tribes,
and environmental interests. The EDTF has utilized a rigorous data-driven and consensus-seeking
process to lend credibility and validity to its development of planning-scale products.
Neither WECC nor the EDTF make recommendations about use of specific parcels of land or
development of specific transmission projects and do not carry any regulatory authority for
transmission project approval. WECC’s products are intended to be a resource for all stakeholders
interested and involved with transmission planning.
Benefits of EDTF Products and Processes
The EDTF’s work provides multiple benefits to WECC and its stakeholders. WECC’s preferred
environmental and cultural data sets provide access to environmental and cultural data for use in
planning, and come with the assurance that the data meet standards for quality. WECC’s land
classification system identifies areas at higher and lower risk areas, providing the opportunity to avoid
or mitigate risks at the planning level. The transmission alternative comparison methodology provides
a consistent method for evaluating environmental and cultural risks from transmission planning, and
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includes a process for engaging stakeholders at multiple levels. The WECC Data Viewer enables all
stakeholders to access these data sets and risk classifications.
Many transmission planning stakeholders believe that if key environmental and cultural aspects are
addressed upfront, many of the conflicts can be avoided thus saving companies, consumers, and
stakeholders time and money. The use of spatially explicit (GIS) environmental and cultural data sets to
identify, early on, areas with high likelihood for environmental or cultural challenges not only increases
initial awareness of potential difficulties during subsequent siting, permitting, and construction, but
may also be used to identify alternate route opportunities. Furthermore, state, regional, and federal
agencies and planning efforts are now able to use the EDTF products to better understand the
intersection between transmission and environmental and cultural resources at a planning scale.
WECC Environmental Resource Planning Products
WECC’s first report, entitled “Environmental Recommendations for Transmission Planning,” was
approved by the SPSG in May 2011 and was included as an appendix to both the WECC 2011 10-Year
Regional Transmission Plan and the 2013 WECC Interconnection-wide Transmission Plan. It explains
the rationale and basis for WECC’s approach to identifying potential environmental and cultural
resource risks and includes the initial EDTF inventory of preferred data sets for the Western
Interconnection, classified according to relative risk so that planners can better understand potential
impacts of transmission alternatives.
Additionally, the EDTF has completed several other items available on the WECC website:
1. A Data Viewer that portrays the spatially-explicit WECC environmental and cultural resource
data sets along with their relative degrees of risk, and includes Western Governors’
Association’s Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT) information;
2. A Comparison Process that compares different transmission alternatives based on WECC’s
environmental and cultural data sets;
3. Various processes to continually improve and update the environmental and cultural data sets,
including a Data Quality Protocol, a Data Update and Review Process , and an Open Biennial
Process to solicit relevant data sets from stakeholders;
4. A Mitigation Cost Study (produced by SWCA) to estimate environmental mitigation costs for
transmission lines across the Western Interconnection. These data are incorporated into
WECC’s transmission capital costs, ensuring that potential mitigation expenses for transmission
at the planning level are included in the planning process.
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Your Participation
All EDTF meetings are publicized on the WECC Calendar and are open to the public; all meetings
include a webinar/conference call component to encourage participation by those who cannot attend
in person. Byron Woertz (WECC) and Carl Zichella (EDTF Chair) are available as resources to answer
questions about EDTF products and processes.
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