Springerville residents organize against proposed Lava Run wind farm

Springerville opponents are fighting a 500-megawatt wind farm and 450-megawatt solar buildout that could thread a 27-mile transmission line to Tucson Electric Power’s Springerville substation, turning Apache County into the key battleground over what gets built, where and how fast.

A local group, AZ White Mountains Save Open Spaces, has launched a website arguing the Lava Run wind project would run for about 10 miles along AZ US 60 between Vernon at mile marker 370 and Springerville at mile marker 380. The site says the plan calls for 112-plus wind turbines and would put the White Mountains landscape, volcanic fields, grasslands, grazing land, hunting land and open woodlands at risk.

Repsol Renewables says the Lava Run Wind & Solar Projects would add 500 megawatts of wind power and 450 megawatts of solar in Apache County, enough electricity to power more than 190,000 Arizona homes annually. But Apache County Planning and Zoning minutes from Feb. 6, 2025 show county staff had already been in contact with Repsol representatives, and the company had pushed back the deadline for its conditional-use application to the end of the second quarter of 2025, likely June.

That county process matters because it is one of the places residents can still slow or reshape the project. The state side moved too. On Dec. 3, 2025, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted 5-0 to send the Lava Run Interconnection Project back to the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee for more input from Apache County and to better address public concerns. The interconnection case covers a 27-mile, 345-kilovolt alternating-current line that would link the wind project, the solar project and a 450-megawatt battery energy storage system to TEP’s Springerville 345 kV substation.

For Springerville, Apache County and the surrounding White Mountains, the fight is now about more than turbines. Opponents are warning about water use, property values, wildlife, wildfire risk and industrial development on rural state trust lands, while Repsol is presenting the project as an economic boost for Apache County. The next rounds of county planning and state siting will determine whether Lava Run advances as designed or gets narrowed, delayed or sent back for more changes.