Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, April 1, 2015
POWERS THAT BE
-Continued from PAGE ONE adding that he has seen
and aesthetics.
Of particular concern
to sfarm operations were
aerial spraying and safety
around the mammoth lines.
“We can’t aerial spray
(with these lines). We’d
have to ground spray and
that isn’t always the way
we can do it, especially in
the summer when it’s dry;
the dust kicked up from the
sprayer can adhere to the
plant and keep you from
getting a good spray job,”
says landowner Patty Ma-
theny of Lexington.
“An airplane will not
come within thousands of
feet of those towers. What
do we do with the weeds
under those towers and for
a thousand feet on each
side?” questions Luciani.
Another issue men-
tioned by multiple farmers
was the issue of conserva-
tion.
“We strive to be stew-
ards of our ground, and we
have taken our no-till to the
point where it makes our
soil mellow, keeps down
the flooding, keeps down
the wind erosion, because
we don’t disrupt it,” Pat-
ty Matheny says. “They
would come in there and
just rip up the ground.”
Several landowners
also say working under the
lines is a concern. Chris-
tensen says he has heard
from landowners with such
lines on their land who say
there is risk of electrical
shock from metal machin-
ery, and that the lines can
drain power from the bat-
teries of vehicles parked
near the lines.
“They (Idaho Power)
tell you if you farm under
these lines or if you are any-
where near these lines, you
better have all your equip-
ment grounded because you
could be electrocuted,” Lu-
ciani says, adding that the
proposed line passes over
not only fields but also farm
similar 500kv lines sited
less than a hundred feet
from houses. “To me that
seems unconscionable.”
The one aspect of the
project that seems to leave
landowners speechless is
the question of how the
B2H will benefit the county.
“That’s probably some-
thing that should be out in
the open—of what ben-
efit it would be to Morrow
County? It would be nice
to know what we would be
getting out of the deal. In
the end, if it would be of
great benefit to the county,
if it helps the schools, that
might change some of our
minds a little bit,” Miller
says.
It’s a question that even
McLane says is difficult to
answer, though she says she
believes the lines will prove
to be a benefit.
“If you were just to
look at it, you’d say we
don’t get a lot out of it at
all. You have to look at
the bigger picture to see
the benefit,” says McLane.
“How should the county
develop economically?
Should we have diversi-
fication in our industries?
Then how do you ensure
those industries have the
continued availability of
reasonably-priced, always
available, reliable power?”
McLane stressed that
“industries” doesn’t only
refer to the Port of Morrow.
“Ag producers who
may spend a lot of money
for power to see their land
irrigated will benefit from
that power being avail-
able,” she says. “Even those
of us who live in our houses
in Morrow County have a
benefit to see that power
is reliable and reasonably
priced.”
“When you look at the
integrated resource plan
for Idaho Power, what their
directive was, from a higher
authority, was to assure
roads. “You have to ground
every vehicle. I don’t know
how you could do that.”
Landowners who live
near the proposed lines also
say they are concerned for
their health and the health
of their families.
“I would never, ever
in this life put my family,
especially with little ones,
within several hundred feet
of these lines because there
are allegations of physical
harm to children, pregnant
women, virtually anyone
who lives around these
things,” says Christensen,
that the western grid con-
tinues to function. There’s
issues around reliability,
services, reasonability of
cost. Those are nebulous,
harder to quantify, but also
important,” adds McLane.
The issues that have
Morrow County landown-
ers up in arms also con-
cerned Umatilla landown-
ers, so much so that, after
holding a public meeting
Feb. 17, the Umatilla Coun-
ty Court drafted a comment
responding to the BLMs
draft EIS. Umatilla Coun-
ty’s request was that the
Bag sale Wednesday
The monthly bag sale will be held at the Neighbor-
hood Center in Heppner this Wednesday, April 1. Cost per
bag is $10; furniture and all merchandise on the tables
will be half price.
The Neighborhood Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. weekdays. Call 541-676-5024 for more information.
B2H be routed around the
county or, alternately, run
along the I-84 corridor. Lu-
ciani says he attended the
meeting and was heartened
by the neighboring county’s
response. When he ap-
proached McLane, though,
he says he felt stonewalled
when his request for a meet-
ing was denied.
“I felt like we were
insignificant, farmers and
our grounds, like it doesn’t
matter whose land it goes
through or whose lives it
disrupts,” says Luciani.
“We should have another
open forum. They have
meetings but no one seems
to know about them.”
McLane says the deci-
sion not to hold a public
meeting had nothing to do
with leaving landowners
without a voice but a lot
to do with timing. For one
thing, a public meeting had
been held at the Port of
Morrow Feb. 11.
“It would have been
a repeat of something that
had already been done,”
says Morrow County Com-
missioner Don Russell.
“There was a public hearing
where anyone who wanted
to speak was able to do that.
There probably would have
been no new comment or
new participants.”
Also, says McLane,
the EIS March 19 com-
ment deadline was looming
large, leaving the county
having to juggle priorities.
“We’ve had multiple
discussions about it,” says
McLane. “We were ap-
proaching the comment
deadline and part of the
decision-making process
(on the public meeting) was
whether to expend the en-
ergy to have another meet-
ing or to make the county’s
comments. We have limited
resources and were trying
our best to decide how
those resources should be
deployed.”
More than anything,
though, McLane says coun-
ty involvement at this point
is a moot point.
Contrary to
what many
people think,
she says, the
county has no
say in wheth-
er the project
goes through,
or even where
it might go.
“ T h e
county will
advocate for
more public
process, but
we’re not a decision mak-
er. At the end of the day,
the BLM is the decision
maker,” McLane says. “Are
we working to advocate on
(the landowners’) behalf?
We are. The advocacy we
took at this point was to
limit the impact to the most
highly-productive agricul-
tural land.”
In fact, McLane’s frus-
tration seems to echo that
of the landowners when it
comes to dealing with the
BLM process.
“It’s a frustrating pro-
cess. Oftentimes it’s an
incredibly secretive pro-
cess,” says McLane, add-
ing that there have been
several times when the
county has not been given
information or the ability
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to provide input. “We have
some status that the general
public doesn’t have but, as
a cooperating agency, I’ve
been incredibly frustrated
with the BLM. We would
hope that the BLM would
come back and have more
discussion.”
“Nobody wants to see
power lines go across their
land but there’s a lot less im-
pact going across a dryland
field than across irrigated
ground,” says Russell. “The
county is trying to look
further than the B2H line if
we’re going to do a power
corridor through Morrow
County, because there’s
potential for more wind
projects. We need to take
that into consideration and
not just piecemeal this. We
need to do some long-range
planning and see where
these lines would have the
least impact on farmers in
Morrow County.”
All of this, though, does
little to offset the frustration
of landowners and farmers
who feel their hands are
tied. Klinger, who attended
the Feb. 11 meeting at the
Port, says he believes there
is room for more public
meetings.
“A lot of my landlords
went through this in the 40s
when they took the Bomb-
ing Range,” he recalls. “I
know sometimes unpopular
things have to be done but
it seems they’re not listen-
ing to people out in the
country.”
“I think it would be
nice if the commissioners
met with possibly affected
landowners as they did in
Umatilla County. I think
Umatilla County set a prec-
edent there,” says Miller.
“Those who are concerned
need to be engaged now,
before it’s too late.”
And the idea of being
“too late” may be at the
center of the issue. Land-
owners like Christensen
and Patty Matheny express
concern over the power of
the entities behind the B2H,
as well as fear that strate-
gies like eminent domain
may come into play should
counties and farmers push
back too hard.
“In one crop year we
can make from $600-700
an acre on this ground but
these people are threatening
to eminent domain these
things for $250-300 an
acre,” says Christensen. “If
someone offered a thousand
dollars an acre I wouldn’t
take it. I’ve been here 25
years and I’ve taken a lot
of risk and I don’t intend
to give it away for $250 an
acre.”
“We’re a fourth gen-
eration farm, and it’s very
unsettling for a company to
come in and dictate to you
how they’re going to use
your land,” Patty Matheny
adds.
Unfortunately, McLane
and Russell can say little to
offset that fear.
“The transmission line
could come and we could
not have a lot of say in it,”
says Russell.
“This line is going to
happen,” says McLane.
“The county wants to ad-
vocate that it gets cited
in the most responsible
way.” That she says, may
mean running along a road
- THREE
Comments from Idaho Power:
Editor’s note: Idaho Power was contacted for com-
ment but did not respond in time for comments to be
included in the article. Below is additional information
given to the G-T by IP Corporate Communications Spe-
cialist Stephanie McCurdy:
Is it on the table for Idaho Power to go down the
I-84 corridor with this line? Why or why not?
Earlier in the B2H routing process Idaho Power
evaluated a route that generally follows the I-84 corridor.
A siting study determined it wasn’t feasible for a number
of reasons. More of the population lives near the freeway
corridor, so that route would have had more impacts on
a greater number of smaller landowners. That route had
impacts to agricultural operations as well.
How would you respond to concerns about issues
like aerial spraying and the safety of working under
the lines?
A power line does have an impact that may require
changes to operations. However, irrigated agriculture
exists under power lines all over the west. A transmission
line may require crop dusters to adjust the manner in
which they spray. With respect to on the ground impacts,
as voltage increases, wire height from the ground does
as well. A transmission line will be much higher from the
ground than a lower voltage line that runs directly to a
home or business.
Other comments?
The B2H project would provide additional capacity
for exchanging energy between the Northwest and the
Intermountain West regions, depending on which region
is experiencing the highest demand. Electric load is grow-
ing in the region. B2H will improve the region’s ability
to transmit low-cost energy from a variety of generation
sources to serve residences, farms and businesses.
B2H is expected to be heavily used to import and ex-
port power to economically serve the energy needs of the
region. The ability to exchange energy makes the region
more efficient—it allows utilities to avoid the construc-
tion of power plants, which is good for the environment
and helps to keep electricity rates lower for all regional
utilities.
at the edge of a field in-
stead of cutting through a
dryland field or irrigated
circle. “Any decision we
(the county) make will be
laid out in front of us by the
BLM documents or the cit-
ing process documents. We
are trying to get advocacy
for our constituents in front
of decision makers.”
McLane says Morrow
County did not, as Umatilla
County did, advocate for
use of the I-84 corridor. If
the BLM picks up on that
idea as a viable alternative,
she says, it will change the
game in Morrow County;
how, she doesn’t yet know.
“I would suspect at
some point we would hear
something from BLM about
what these alternatives are.”
McLane says she
doesn’t expect to hear any-
thing from the BLM for
45-90 days, a period of time
that will be as silent and
frustrating for the county
government as for the land-
owners and other interested
parties. After that, the pro-
cess will continue to drag
on, continuing from the
BLM’s hands to those of
the Oregon Department of
Energy’s Energy Facility
Siting Council.
McLane says the real
kicker, though, is that,
should those agencies ap-
prove the siting of the line,
there will be little anyone
in Morrow County can
do about it. According to
McLane, once the citing
council/BLM decisions are
made, state law requires
the county to issue per-
mits without public input,
a process contrary to how
most planning commission
decisions are made.
“Idaho Power and the
other utilities involved have
the power of condemnation,
so we need to make it the
least intrusive possible and
accommodate everything,
and do some real long-
range planning so we can
accommodate all the power
needs in Morrow County,”
says Russell.
McLane says she is
not comfortable with the
process, nor does she have
much faith in the BLM.
“I don’t think the coun-
ty is opposed to having a
conversation with anyone
who wants to come in and
have a conversation about
this. My question would be,
what would the conversa-
tion be about?” she asks.
“The county has tried to
advocate for the best inter-
ests of the county, the entire
county. Until the BLM sorts
through this and they get
to a point where there is a
conversation to be had, I
just feel (a meeting) would
be a waste of everybody’s
time.”
Still, local landowners
insist that there has to be a
way around the tangle, es-
pecially when they believe
they see more priority being
given to other concerns, in-
cluding property owned by
the Navy and other govern-
ment entities.
“They could definitely
use the infrastructure in
place, use the 84 corridor
and go ahead and take care
of business, and not disrupt
people’s lives. They can do
this without destroying peo-
ple’s homes and their farms
and their families and their
pristine mountain ground,”
says Patty Matheny. “They
just need to leave us alone.”
“I think they could put
this power line down an
already existing corridor,”
stresses Klinger. “I’ve got
a nature conservatory over
here by me. The line can’t
go across conservatory
ground because of endan-
gered species but they can
come across my productive
land that I make a living on.
“We’re being put at the
bottom of the ladder below
the ground squirrel.”
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