Along with Monday's press release, the morning meeting in Ontario, and a visit by IPCo representatives to the Argus following the meeting, Malheur County's Planning and Zoning office was paid a visit by Portland-based attorneys for Idaho Power. IPCo's Manager of Delivery Planning Dave Angell announced on radio that southern Idaho residents will be invited to comment on a possible route for a new transmission line. The Blitz is on!
Two articles of interest covering the Monday morning meeting:
Larry Meyer of the Argus Observer wrote the following:
Firm to launch outreach plan
http://argusobserver.com/articles/2009/03/10/news/doc49b69f2de9b64486087928.txt
ONTARIO — Idaho Power announced Monday it is launching a community advisory process regarding its Boardman to Hemingway transmission project, aimed to determine the route of a 500-kilovolt transmission line through Eastern Oregon and southwest Idaho.
The project has been steeped in controversy because preliminary blueprints showed the line going through prime farmland in Malheur County.
Idaho Power’s intention is to conduct a comprehensive and inclusive public process to identify proposed and alternative routes required for this project to proceed, Lisa Grow, Idaho Power’s vice president of delivery engineering and operations, said. “We will be meeting with cities and counties, land-use groups and state and federal agencies,” David Angell, Idaho Power’s delivery planning manager, said.
The purpose of the effort is to get a recommendation on a proposed route for the transmission line and any alternatives identified, which will be submitted to the United States Bureau of Land Management and the Oregon Energy Facilities Siting Council, both of which will be acting on Idaho Power’s proposal.
Three advisory teams will be formed, each representing a different region. The teams will have approximately 30 members, Angell said. One team will include people from Malheur, Owyhee, Canyon and Payette counties. The other two teams will represent Baker and Union counties and Umatilla and Morrow counties, respectively.“Representatives of the three teams will be picked for the coordinating team,” Angell said.Each advisory team will recommend a route and alternatives for their area, and the coordinating team will work to make sure the routes connect.
The advisory teams will have at least four meetings, Angell said, followed by open houses for the public to respond. The coordinating committee would have additional meetings. Idaho Power intends to complete the process sometime this year.
Echo Chadwick, Idaho Power corporate communications, said the selected route would be submitted to the BLM and the siting council so each agency can begin its review process. As for the maps identifying the preferred route, alternative routes or other routes considered, Chadwick said those proposals are still on the table for the teams to use as starting points, or they can discard those proposals.
“We are reaching out into the community,” Angell said, adding he will be contacting city and county leaders for recommendations of people to serve on the teams. The first meeting is scheduled for April. Chadwick said the power line project is needed because when Idaho Power’s system is operating at its peak, there is no additional capacity.
“I’m encouraged,” Roger Findley, chairman of Stop Idaho Power group, which has been working to keep the line away from farmland, said.
He said the organization will keep up its pressure and will participate on the advisory teams.
He also said, the Oregon Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. March 26 at the Four Rivers Cultural Center to receive comments on whether there is a need for the transmission line.
Also, Jim Johnson, land-use specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, was in Malheur County Monday to tour the area and meet with local producers about the proposed line. He said Monday night, at the Stop Idaho Power meeting, he will be looking at whether there are reliable alternatives to exclusive farm use routes and identifying possible impacts to farming practices from the transmission and how those impacts could be mitigated.
Idaho Power: All routes on the table
Baker City Herald's Mike Ferguson wrote the following:
http://www.bakercityherald.com/Local-News/Idaho-Power-All-routes-on-the-table
Idaho Power Co. is going back to square one as it seeks to build a 500-kilovolt transmission line through Baker County and four other counties in Oregon plus a handful in Idaho. . .
. . . the biggest announcement from Monday’s meeting might be that the company is erasing its existing slate of proposed routes to begin anew.
Well, not quite.
“We have a starting point (Hemingway, Idaho) and an ending point (Boardman). But we’re not going to toss any of the information we’ve put together,” said Dave Angell, Idaho Power’s delivery planning manager.
The company must also determine the route for the 298-mile project within the constraints already identified, Angell said, including wildlife habitat, river crossings, other landscape features, sage grouse habitat, the fact that the current transmission system is close to capacity — and, not insignificantly, cost. Each mile of the project will cost about $2 million, including substation construction, he said.
“Cost has to be a constraint,” Angell said. “We don’t have a blank check. (Cost) will be part of the siting criteria.”
It will be up to the citizens groups to determine which criteria are important to local residents.
“We will bring in folks to talk about the siting process so we are all educated,” Angell said. “We’ll talk about types of towers, tower heights, all their concerns.
“Then we’ll generate a list of criteria that will guide the routing. We’ll pull out the maps and let the committee members put tape to those maps, and let each member of the committee review and rank the routes.
“Then we’ll generate a proposed action, with proposed routes and alternatives.”
Idaho Power has used the citizens advisory process both with other siting processes and for its Integrated Resource Planning document, which spells out the region’s electricity needs for the coming years. . .
While Idaho Power relied on a contractor to come up with the route alternatives that have drawn protest, especially in Baker and Malheur counties, Angell said he personally will be “managing the process going forward.”
He also said the the company doesn’t have a preference for whether the transmission lines are sited on public or private property.
“When you get into public lands, you are dealing with the (Bureau of Land Management) and other agencies that manage the wildlife and habitat. As long as you mitigate habitat issues, there is no concern about being on public lands. If you look at our transmission lines today, a lot of them are on public lands.”
That’s what Nancy Peyron, founder of the citizens group Move Idaho Power, came to hear.
“We are going to stick with our mantra: If it’s for the public good, put it on public land,” Peyron said. “We just want them to hear our message, and we want people to get involved.”
Other Baker and Union County residents who attended Monday’s meeting expressed cautious optimism about the company’s new approach.
“Idaho Power acknowledged they had made a real mistake in policy, and it sounds to me like they are willing to go back to the beginning,” said Curt Martin, a North Powder rancher and member of Move Idaho Power.
Martin said one fear for local landowners is that a line through Baker Valley would complete a federal energy corridor and open the door for more electrical and natural gas lines to run through Baker County.
“We could be inundated with power lines,” he said. “I am concerned with ranching practices to a small degree, but mostly it’s the open space we all guard. It would never go back to what it was. You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it.”
“I visited with Idaho Power people after the meeting,” said Baker County Commission Chairman Fred Warner Jr. “They’re going to try to restart the process, but they’re finding out it’s a difficult process. I’m afraid their constraints are mightier than what they thought they were . . .
