Gaining momentum
Area effort against powerline gathering steam as state, local officials take notice
By LARRY MEYER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:34 AM PST
ONTARIO — Members of a grass-roots community action group are making headway in the effort to spread the message they want a 500-kilovolt transmission line rerouted away from the valley areas of Malheur County.
The effort by Stop Idaho Power has already attracted notice from a growing number of state officials, including the minority leader in the Oregon Senate, and people from neighboring counties.
The major grass-roots effort, which involves more than 200 people, opposes Idaho Power’s preferred route for the line, which crosses farmland in the county at three different locations.
Stop Idaho Power’s efforts have focused on a major letter writing campaign to the federal and state agencies involved in the siting process, proposing alternatives routes over mostly public land be evaluated.
Letters have also been sent to state and federal officials, some of whom are planning visits to the area.
State Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, will be in Malheur County Friday to tour Idaho Power’s preferred route for its transmission line — which the company asserts is needed to increase power capacity for future demand — and talk with people who could be affected. Following the tour and dinner with Stop Idaho Power leaders and county officials, Ferrioli will conduct a townhall meeting at 6:30 p.m. that day at the Boulevard Grange Hall to discuss the issue with the public.
“It was his initiative that he come over,” Roger Findley, chairman of the Stop Idaho Power executive committee, said of Ferrioli.
Stop Idaho Power’s January general citizen meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, at the Four River Cultural Center, and on the agenda, besides updates about the group’s activities, will be Tom Nelson, legal counsel for Stop Idaho Power.
“Parma is forming a citizen’s committee,” Findley said.
Some people in that community are concerned about the route the line would take to a planned substation in the Sand Hollow area, Findley said, and are supporting one of the proposed alternative routes, which would confine the transmission line mostly to public land.
There are people in Owyhee County who are also concerned about the preferred route over farmland, Findley said, and he has also met with and heard from people in Baker County.
Wednesday, Bruce Corn, acting on behalf of the Malheur County citizen’s group, approached the Malheur County Court to ask if they could be included in a monthly conference call among public agencies, including the county officials, Idaho Power and its consultants, to discuss the ongoing siting process for the transmission line.
No decision was made.
