> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Watch Out for Pole Disputes, Environmental Permits, Experts say - URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/watch-out-for-pole-disputes-environmental-permits-experts-say/ - Published: 2026-08-13T17:37:59.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-04T21:47:18.000Z - Description: One engineer suggested outside consultants to support local permitting agencies - Author: Jake Neenan - Tags: Mountain Connect, mountain connect 2026, nick pexton, BEAD, Colorado, Illinois, shawna taets, allison terry, NEPA, Mark Vasconi, #with-siderail WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2026 – Pole attachment disputes and environmental reviews have the most potential to cause delays as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program gets underway, experts said at Mountain Connect this week. “Section 106 and the environmental — hands down that is going to be the lengthiest section of time that we have on these projects,” said **Nick Pexton**, founder of Reliance Engineering. “Historically with USDA Reconnect, or whatever the funding mechanism was, that’s significantly been the hold up.” [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/97/29976d9d-89ea-4c77-8c0b-0e8a0eafed35/content/images/2026/07/ai_and_congress_event_graphic_v4-jpg-4.jpg)](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/broadband-and-ai/) [***Learn about "Broadband and AI in the Next Congress" at the National Press Club on December 1, 2026**](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/broadband-and-ai/) [Broadband & AI in the Next Congress ](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/broadband-and-ai/) Projects funded by BEAD will have to get approval under Sections 106 of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), meaning its impact on the environment and any relevant historical sites will have to be considered. Pexton said states should emphasize the process. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is managing BEAD at the federal level, has been working to streamline the NEPA process, which can take months. The agency stood up an electronic processing system and expanded exemptions to get more kinds of projects cleared without a top-down review. It worked in Louisiana, according to the state’s broadband office, which was able to clear some projects in days. An official from Virginia said during a June Federal Communications Bar Association webinar the process was taking longer than expected. Some states have also hired NEPA consultants to expedite the work. Minnesota brought on an archaeologist with expertise in historical and environmental reviews. NEPA is only one piece of the permitting puzzle, with several local entities potentially also needing to clear any given project. A recent analysts from the New York Law School found that the median BEAD project will need about 11 permits from eight different permitting authorities. Pexton suggested offering to pay for an outside consultant to assist local permitting agencies with the review workload, if an ISP could afford it. Local permitting authorities tend to be understaffed and are often cited as roadblock to large deployments. “We’ve been doing that in the environmental world for years,” with Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service offices, he said. “The fact that we’re doing this from an environmental perspective, but we’re not doing it from a localized permit perspective, or railroad permit perspective, kind of doesn’t make sense.” **Shawna Taets**, broadband policy manager at the Illinois broadband office, said the state had only recently heard of the idea and was exploring it. An audience member said they offered something similar to Louisiana parishes for non-BEAD programs, and it had worked well ### *Poles* **Allison Terry**, the strategy officer at the Colorado Broadband Office, said pole attachment disputes were the most common cause of a grant-funded project in the state falling behind schedule. “Pole attachments are the single biggest challenge and delay in deployments,” she said. “At least the ones that the Colorado Broadband Office manages.” Projects funded by state grant programs, including some supported by federal pandemic funds, aren’t subject to NEPA. She said the state was starting to convene ISPs and pole owners, typically electric cooperatives in Colorado’s case, to try to iron out disputes before they started. Most co-ops in the state don’t have the staff to process large attachment requests quickly, she said, and were often concerned about outsourcing potentially dangerous preparation work to ISPs. But the biggest issue tended to be reconciling the two sides’ estimates for how much it would cost to replace or upgrade poles to support new communications gear. “The difference between those two things can sometimes be a really big gulf that even free money can’t support,” she said. Co-ops tend not to have the budgets for big unexpected costs, she said, and had a legitimate interest in not passing replacement costs on to their customers. **Mark Vasconi**, former head of Washington State’s broadband office, said he had seen some instances in which pole owners quoted prices in the tens of thousands per pole, which he said can effectively end the business case for a rural project. Some co-ops have been refusing BEAD awards they won because of the program’s rules. In January, the Trump administration instituted a rule that requires BEAD winners, if they own poles and aren’t already regulated, to subject themselves to federal pole attachment rules throughout any state in which they win funding. That in practice largely applies to co-ops, since federal rules target investor-owned utilities and many state laws mirror that framework. The federal rules set limits on how much can be charged to an ISP for pole replacements, and which poles are eligible.