CASTLE ROCK — The so-called Pearl route through Oregon won’t be resurrected as a possible alternative route for a proposed new high-voltage transmission line along Interstate 5, Bonneville Power Administration officials said in Castle Rock on Monday night.
The overhead towers would need to be at least 400 feet high and a hazard to aircraft to cross the Columbia River west of Longview. A new line would be too close to an existing BPA line, making both lines vulnerable to outages. Also, the towers would be located near sensitive wildlife habitats and be visible to more people, BPA officials said.
“Adding another option, such as a route to Pearl … would only delay the project and add to the number of people that are in limbo,” project manager Mark Korsness told a group of about 200 people at Castle Rock Elementary School.
The BPA held the first of four public meetings Monday night about its proposal to build a new 500-kilovolt line from Castle Rock to Troutdale, Ore. BPA, the Pacific Northwest’s largest power marketer, plans to build two new substations at both ends of the line, which would run almost exclusively through Cowlitz and Clark counties.
BPA officials dropped the Pearl route in 2009 and never introduced it as an alternative. Now, Cowlitz and Clark county commissioners are urging the federal agency to reconsider the western route, or at least hold a public meeting devoted to the reasons why not.
“You can’t adequately explain the administrative decision” in a few minutes, Cowlitz County Commissioner Axel Swanson said after the meeting Monday. “You need some dedicated meetings to it.”
‘Dog-and-pony show’
Groups protesting the lines added that the BPA needs to make a better effort to give property owners a voice. The agency has already held a public comment period, which ended this spring.
“This is a dog-and-pony show, a PR stunt,” said Richard van Dijk of Hockinson, a member of two opposition groups, Another Way for BPA and Stop the Towers Now.
BPA officials say they need to build the new line to beef up the transmission system in Southwest Washington and send power from Canada to California.
The project would prevent potential blackouts in Southwest Washington and allow Clark and Cowlitz PUDs a stable line to sell excess power to help keep down rates, said Larry Bekkedahl, BPA vice president of engineering and technical services.
The Monday gathering was the first since BPA modified its existing map to include two new possible sites for substations north of Castle Rock and a possible route farther east through Weyerhaeuser Co. and Longview Timber forestland. About 300 to 400 new property owners are along that route.
Terry Reams, who lives on the 7400 block of Old Pacific Highway North near Castle Rock, said he fears he would have to move if BPA builds a line through his land.
As a private contractor working on emergency communications systems for the state Department of Emergency Management and other agencies, Reams has 24 antennae systems and two radio towers on his property that likely wouldn’t work under a power line, he said.
“That would put me out of business,” Reams said.
Brian and Regina Agren own a horse-riding academy on the 5400 block of West Side Highway, which they say they would need to move if a power line is built over their 6-acre property.
The Agrens say they worry that the electromagnetic field emitted from the lines could hurt their horses. BPA officials say they don’t have conclusive evidence that the lines are dangerous to people or animals, and they are studying the matter.
That’s not good enough for Regina Agren, who worries about the danger the line poses to her own health.
“Even if they say it’s not affecting me, I know it is,” she said.
The BPA plans three more meetings, all from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. They are today at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Sept. 8 at Amboy Middle School and Sept. 12 at Union High School in east Vancouver.
The BPA plans to develop a final map of possible routes and decide whether to build the line in 2012. If the BPA moves forward with the plan, a new line could power up in 2015.
