Power company asks for corridor
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By JORDAN MUHLESTEIN
Standard-Examiner staff
OGDEN -- Rocky Mountain Power officials filed Wednesday for conditional-use permits for a proposed high-voltage power line corridor through Box Elder County.
The new power lines would carry large amounts of electricity to the Ben Lomond substation south of Willard Bay.
The power company also plans to build new lines through Weber and Davis counties to connect with a substation in Salt Lake County.
Much of the power used in this area is generated in Idaho and Wyoming, so it has to be brought to the area through large power lines, said Steve Rush, customer and community manager for Rocky Mountain Power.
The main reason behind the new lines is the rapid growth of the area, he said.
"We've been talking about the need for expanded transmission for years," said David Eskelsen, company spokesman. "This segment is one of the key pieces that needs to happen, and soon."
He said the Top of Utah section is part of an estimated $4 billion regional electrical transmission upgrade project.
The lines will be 345,000-volt lines, similar to the lines already running along Willard Bay in southern Box Elder County, Rush said.
Rocky Mountain Power began meeting with planners, cities and counties about a year ago, he said, and filing for conditional-use permits is the next step in the process.
"People ask why we don't add to the current lines, which are only one circuit," he said. "We are building a double circuit, and those lines were built 30 years ago. Now, we have new construction standards."
Another reason for the new corridor is the desire to separate the major lines as much as possible, Rush said, so that a natural disaster or other catastrophe does not affect multiple corridors.
"We don't want to put all our eggs in one basket," he said. "We're not going to be able to do that everywhere, but where we can, we're doing it."
Access to the lines for maintenance and repairs is important, Rush said, which is why the proposed route is near Interstate 15 and railroad tracks.
The company will be meeting with a group of Box Elder County mayors on Monday to discuss their proposed alternatives to the planned route, he said. If the alternatives meet company requirements, they will be considered, Rush said.
The Standard-Examiner previously reported the two alternatives provided so far. One would send the lines through Cache County on the east of the Wellsville Mountains, then down Ben Lomond Canyon. The other suggests following the west side of the Wellsville Range, then going west to Honeyville along an existing Rocky Mountain Power right of way past the Brigham City airport, then south to the Ben Lomond substation.
Eskelsen said the approval of permits for power line corridors is a local government decision, but utilities have eminent domain capabilities because they provide for a vital public need.
"We use it rarely and don't like to use it," he said of eminent domain.
The company would like to have as little negative effect on people's lives as possible with the new power corridor, Eskelsen said, adding that coming to an agreement is cheaper than using eminent domain proceedings, as well.
Rush said the current proposal only affects two homes throughout the whole Box Elder area, and one of those is still under construction. Some of the proposed alternatives impact more homes.
The company is under a time crunch, he said, because the project has to be done by June 2010.
"We don't have the luxury of dealing with this indefinitely," Rush said, "because we really have to deliver."
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