Idaho Power plan would interfere with ag operations
Mitch Lies, Capital Press http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=618&ArticleID=50575&TM=48511.75
SALEM - Two dozen Eastern Oregon landowners rode eight hours on a bus to Salem to oppose building Idaho Power transmission towers on farm land.
The towers put Malheur County's famed onion industry in jeopardy, said Bruce Corn, a Malheur County landowner.
"Our issue is not stop Idaho Power," Corn said Thursday, April 9. "It's stop Idaho Power from being on farm ground."
Idaho Power has proposed stringing a 500 kilovolt transmission line over mostly farm land between Boardman, Ore., and Hemingway, Idaho.
Farmers testified that plenty of public land is available for the route.Farmers in Malheur and Baker counties said the power line would restrict aerial applicators from applying pesticides, disrupt center pivot irrigation systems and restrict farming activity in other ways.
"It would hamper my ability to raise alfalfa seed," said Larry Price, Oregon wheat commissioner and a Malheur County farmer.
Idaho Power said it has pulled its original siting plans and is now working with landowners on a new route. But Oregon farmers said they still are concerned.
Price and Corn were among about a dozen farmers to testify before a House committee April 9 in support of a bill that would restrict the power company from putting the lines on farm land.
House Bill 3153 as amended would allow county courts to prohibit transmission towers higher than 50 feet on farm ground when aerial application is needed and in jeopardy. . .
