Think about how many acres of productive land Idaho Power's 250 foot easement over 30 miles of Malheur County has the potential to adversely affect:
30 miles * 5,280 feet = 158,400 feet in length x 250 ft wide
One acre = 207 ft * 207 feet
Every 200 feet of transmission line traverses one acre of ground
158,400/200 = 792 acres of easement Idaho Power wants from Malheur County.
To quote again: http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/rules/OARS_600/OAR_660/660_033.html
"(17) A power generation facility shall not preclude (exclude) more than 12 acres from use as a commercial agricultural enterprise unless an exception is taken pursuant to OAR chapter 660, division 4. "
Even if a tenth of this nearly 800 acres is farmland, it's still too much.
Malheur County isn't like Morrow or Umatilla Counties dry land farms; this ground is as intensively farmed and productive in its way as Willamette.
