The Proposed ITC Oneida–Sabine Lake 345 kV Transmission Line
An independent route and environmental analysis, route-wide and per-jurisdiction — prepared for the townships and residents of the Oneida–Sabine Lake corridor.
Preliminary draft · June 8, 2026
Independent Route & Environmental Analysis (30 pages)
ITC's seven published Phase-3 routes retrieved directly from its ArcGIS services, scored on the Act 30 factors, stress-tested across a million alternative weightings, and resolved township by township — with every data layer hashed and inventoried, and full reproduction steps in the appendices.
7 routes
ITC's published Phase-3 alternatives, scored on the Act 30 factors
15 townships
Across 3 counties — every metric resolved per jurisdiction
4,729
Occupied dwellings in the corridor, from property-class parcels
1,000,000
Alternative factor weightings tested; the recommendation never ranks last
Executive Summary
ITC has proposed a 345 kV transmission line running roughly fifty miles from the Oneida substation in Eaton County to a new Sabine Lake substation in Livingston County, as part of MISO's Long Range Transmission Planning portfolio. For Phase-3 public comment, ITC narrowed its candidate network to seven named route alternatives — Blue, Orange, Green, Purple, Yellow, Red, and Pink.
This analysis retrieves those seven published routes directly from ITC's ArcGIS services, scores each on the factors the Michigan Public Service Commission weighs under Act 30 — environmental impact, residential proximity, and use of existing rights-of-way — ranks them, and resolves the impact township by township, including Meridian and Williamstown. Every input is public and provenance-tracked; the data sources are enumerated with content hashes and the exact reproduction steps are in the appendices. It is offered as a neutral baseline that any affected party can use, and against which the applicant's eventual filing can be compared.
The bottom line
On the Act 30 factors as weighted here, the Orange Route is the best fit among ITC's seven published alternatives (58.0 miles, 1,364 acres of environmental impact in the 200-foot corridor, and the fewest residences within 500 feet), and the Blue Route is the worst. The result is robust: across a million alternative weightings the Orange Route ranks first in roughly two-thirds of draws and in the top three 95% of the time, never last. Where ITC's eventual preferred route differs, the environmental, residential, and co-location trade-offs should be made explicit on the record.
Principal Findings
Finding 1
Of ITC's seven published routes, the Orange Route fits the Act 30 factors best.
Scored on a transparent, configurable composite of the factors the Michigan Public Service Commission weighs under Act 30 — environmental impact (wetlands, hydric soils, floodplain, protected areas) and residential proximity as penalties, co-location with existing rights-of-way as a reward — the Orange Route ranks first (58.0 miles, 1,364 acres of environmental impact in the 200-foot corridor) and the Blue Route ranks last. Notably, the recommended route parallels existing transmission the least: at these weights, environmental footprint and residential proximity govern the ranking, not corridor reuse.
Finding 2
The residential factor is decision-relevant — and complete across all three counties.
The objective includes the count of residences within 500 feet — the factor the MPSC weights most heavily — built from Michigan property-class parcels across Eaton, Ingham, and Livingston counties (4,729 occupied dwellings in the corridor). Adding the factor changed the route ordering, confirming it matters; completing Livingston coverage did not change it — every route gained comparable residences, and the recommended route still has the fewest.
Finding 3
The ranking is robust across a million alternative weightings.
Across one million weightings spanning every factor from one-eighth to eight times its Act 30 value, the Orange Route ranks first in roughly two-thirds of draws, sits in the top three 95% of the time, and never ranks last. The Purple Route is the principal alternative, overtaking only where existing-corridor co-location — the one factor the MPSC has called important but not controlling — is weighted most heavily. The environmentally heaviest routes never win.
Finding 4
Every impact resolves township by township.
Because impacts and accountability are local, the analysis reports every metric per jurisdiction — the corridor crosses roughly 15 townships in three counties, including Meridian and Williamstown — so each board can see exactly how many miles, how many affected residences, and how much constrained land fall inside its boundaries.
Recommendations
- 1
Treat the ranking as a transparent, reproducible baseline for comparing ITC's seven published alternatives on the Act 30 factors — not a substitute for the Commission's weighing. Where ITC's preferred route is not the objective-preferred one, the difference in environmental, residential, and co-location terms should be made explicit on the record.
- 2
Test any preferred route against alternative weightings before relying on the ordering — the configurable objective supports re-derivation without recomputing the spatial metrics, and the appendix documents how each route's standing shifts.
Reliance and disclaimer
This document is a desk study based on publicly available data, applying standard public-domain geospatial and route-optimization methods to public regulatory datasets (ITC's own published route layers, FEMA, USFWS/USGS, Michigan EGLE, and the U.S. Census Bureau). Nothing here constitutes engineering design, professional engineering certification, legal advice, or a stamped siting study. Bommarito Consulting LLC prepared this report at its own expense, without commission, contract, or grant from ITC, Burns & McDonnell, the MPSC, any landowner, or any party supporting or opposing the project.
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