Idaho Power group convenes
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:07 AM PST
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| A large crowd of area residents filled a room at Four Rivers Cultural Center Monday night as the legal counsel for the Stop Idaho Power group gave a presentation. The group wants Idaho Power to reconsider the route of a proposed power line set to run through Malheur County. |
ONTARIO — Stay focused.
Be united.
Those two sentiments proved to be key pillars in a speech by the legal counsel for a local civic action group opposed to the route of a planned 500-kilovolt transmission line Monday night at Four Rivers Culture Center.
Tom Nelson, the legal counsel for the Stop Idaho Power group, spoke to about 300 people. Nelson, whose practice has been utility law, also met with leaders of the Stop Idaho Power earlier in the day.
Stop Idaho Power wants the Gem State utility company to use a new route for the firm’s planned 500 kilovolt transmission line. The line is designed to run from Boardman in north central Oregon next to the Columbia River to southwest Idaho.
Nelson told the packed crowd Monday night the Stop Idaho Power group was doing all the right things to achieve its goals.
“We are at the very early stage of the process,” Nelson said. “What you have done is excellent.”
Nelson also told the crowd Idaho Power is a good company with a history of listening to customer concerns.
The group’s relationship with Malheur County-elected and appointed leadership is very good, Nelson said. He had met with county officials and noted the actions they took to support the effort to reroute the line away from private land to public land.
Malheur County Judge Dan Joyce and county planners attended Monday’s meeting and commissioner’s Jim Nakano and Louis Wettstein have attended other meetings.
Members of the County Court have also sent letters to the state Energy Facility Site Council and the United States Bureau of Land Management, who are conducting a separate approval process for the proposed route.
Also monitoring the events is Wayne Kinney, representing U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden in Eastern Oregon.
State Sen. Ted Ferrioli was in Malheur County Friday to learn about the issue and congratulated the group on its efforts, according to members of the executive committee.
Ferrioli appointed a staff member to keep up on the issue as things proceed.
“Our ultimate purposed is not to kill the transmission line,” Nelson said. It will be needed at some point, he said.
Among the audience were people from Canyon, Owyhee and Baker counties, which are also proposed hosts to the nearly 300-mile transmission line that is to run from southwest Idaho, near Melba, to northeast Oregon, near Boardman.
They also are organizing groups to oppose the route and also expressed interest in working with the Malheur County group.
Whether or not they are able to combine officially, Nelson said, they should be communicating with each other and cooperating to provide a stronger voice.
The proposed route in Owyhee County also crosses irrigated farmland, and in Parma, the proposed route, where it crosses the Snake River from the Adrian area up to Sand Hollow, goes through the city’s urban growth zone and near an emergency communication installation.
A meeting is scheduled at 6:30 tonight at the community hall in Parma.
