A federal judge will decide in February whether to stop construction of a $492-million Iowa-to-Wisconsin transmission line, after issuing an opinion in mid-January “declaring” that federal rules preclude the 102-mile Cardinal-Hickory Creek project from crossing the 261-mile Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge by right-of-way or land transfer.
Four local environmental groups sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the refuge manager for approving the line’s Mississippi River crossing through the refuge.