Baker County residents again came away disappointed after a three-hour session in which Idaho Power Co. officials laid out plans for construction of a 500-kilovolt transmission line from Boardman to Hemingway, Idaho.
Idaho Power announced last month that its preferred route will travel about a mile east of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Earlier reports set the distance at a half-mile from the interpretive center.
Still, members of the Baker County group Move Idaho Power and other residents of Baker and Union counties told company officials they are not happy with the plan.
“You want to pass right through, pick up all you can that’s worth money and drive on down the road,” she said. We’re not happy about that.”
The Baker County session was one of a series of Project Advisory Team meetings scheduled by Idaho Power throughout the region to present the proposed route and to outline future steps in the process. The company next will submit its plan to the Bureau of Land Management to begin the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.
The advisory groups were established last spring after Idaho Power took its original plan, which was to build the line west of the interpretive center and into the view of Baker Valley, off the table because of community opposition. At that time, Idaho Power agreed to start fresh with Boardman and Hemingway as the only two points on the siting map.
During the past year, the company considered about 450 comments from members of the advisory groups in making its routing decision, Kent McCarthy, Idaho Power Co.’s community advisory process leader, told the Baker County audience.
The route was moved to accommodate Baker County concerns about its proximity to the interpretive center and its placement to the west of the center, McCarthy said. The newly proposed route crosses Highway 86 about a third of a mile east of the center’s entryway and angles north to within about a mile of the center, McCarthy said.
The company is required by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to maintain a two-mile buffer around identified sage grouse leks, he said. That prevents Idaho Power from moving the transmission line farther from the center.
“As of January, ODFW reclassified an old sage grouse lek and made it impossible,” McCarthy said. “We’d love to go another three miles.”
Timm told McCarthy to try harder to persuade ODFW of the need to move the proposed route.
“You argue with us and put it where we don’t want it,” she said. “Why don’t you argue with them for a while.”
Timm also suggested perhaps county residents could oppose Idaho Power Co.’s relicensing application for its operations on the Hells Canyon dams when it is next up for renewal if the company refuses to compromise further on the proposed route.
“There’s a thousand other places you could probably go — pick one,” Timm told the company representatives to the applause of many in the audience.
“And on public land,” came a shout from the crowd.
Jim Eidson agreed with Peyron and Timm about the company’s apparent lack of regard for input it has received from Baker County residents over the past year.
“We are pretty much asking you not to bring it to Baker County,” Eidson said. “It looks like this is the meeting to tell us what you’ve decided to do. You could have saved us 10 to 15 meetings by telling us a long time ago.”
David Angell, Idaho Power’s manager of delivery planning, reminded the audience that Idaho Power has no choice but to comply with environmental restrictions.
“It doesn’t mean that we stop there,” he said. “What we can do is work going forward to adjust the route to getting as close as we can to something doable. Sage grouse leks and other habitat ... those are things we would have to work with the agencies on.”
And Idaho Power will meet with every landowner affected by the proposal, before any construction begins, McCarthy told the crowd. Idaho Power will seek a 250-foot right of way to property crossed by the transmission line and proposes a lease of a minimum of 40 years and possibly twice that with property owners, Angell said.
Baker County Commission Chair Fred Warner Jr. said during Wednesday’s meeting that the county would receive additional property taxes of about $600,000 from the Idaho Power project.
In an interview Thursday, Warner said about $250,000 to $260,000 would go to the county budget and the remainder would be divided among the county’s special districts for services such as fire protection and libraries, he said.
Warner said he hopes the county can persuade ODFW to allow Idaho Power to move the line farther from the Interpretive Center.
“It’s too close,” Warner said. “From three miles it could be visible, but not very visible.”
Warner said he hopes to employ several strategies to achieve the best outcome for Baker County and its residents.
“Can it be done? I don’t know. But we’re sure gonna try,” he said.
Warner said he also hopes to ensure that Idaho Power Co. makes annual lease payments to landowners whose property is affected rather than a lump-sum payment. He has proposed that the company hire an ombudsman to work for Baker County to represent the landowners in lease negotiations.
“I don’t particularly want (the transmission line) in Baker County,” he said. “But our goal is the least impact on the viewshed and the people it affects.
“We’re just trying to make the best of what’s probably not a very good situation,” he said.
