On February 5, 2024, attorneys for the Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity, Archaeology Southwest, and citizen-intervenor Peter Else filed a formal complaint before the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) regarding SunZia’s violation of conditions in their state permit that require SunZia to complete a cultural landscape study and a historic properties treatment plan prior to commencing construction. SunZia has admitted that these two documents have not been completed. However, SunZia has already initiated construction in Arizona.
SunZia, the holder of Certificate of Environmental Compatibility No. 171 (“CEC”), has unlawfully begun construction of its transmission lines. The CEC obliges SunZia to submit two substantive documents to the Commission prior to commencement of construction: a cultural landscape study and a historic properties treatment plan. SunZia has submitted an incomplete historic properties treatment plan and has not conducted a cultural landscape study. The Commission is requested to (1) enforce the CEC by ordering SunZia to cease construction until the conditions of the CEC are complied with, and (2) advise SunZia that failing to do so will result in suspension of the CEC until SunZia complies with the CEC’s conditions.
The parties represented in this Complaint are asking the ACC to (1) enforce the state permit by ordering SunZia to cease construction until these cultural resource requirements in the state permit are complied with, and (2) advise SunZia that failing to do so will result in suspension of the state permit until SunZia complies with these cultural resource requirements.