West Jordan's site plan for substation denied

A five-member panel has sided with PacifiCorp in a 3-year-old dispute involving the site for an electrical substation in West Jordan.

In a ruling this week, the Electrical Facility Review Board rejected the city's position that the substation could be located outside a preferred target area — between 2700 West and 3300 West and 6900 South and 7200 South.

The board includes the Utah Public Service Commission's three members and two at-large members.

Portland-based PacifiCorp, which operates in Utah as Utah Power, had pushed to locate the substation at 3200 W. 7000 South. Local residents resisted, mainly because the area is an established neighborhood near two elementary schools, a park and a church.

The city had argued that construction of the substation outside the target area was "technically feasible."

But the board disagreed, saying "the evidence shows detrimental impact for each of the specific sites identified by the city."

"The city's suggested sites will require miles of additional transmission and distribution facilities," the order said, "compared with such facilities that result from construction at the preferred site or a site located within the target area."

At a hearing in November, Steve Mecham, an attorney representing the city, said there were other possible sites in which to locate a substation, particularly at 3200 West and 7800 South, a point, he said, that fell within PacifiCorp's "critical load area."

"That was on PacifiCorp's list at

some point," Mecham said in November. "But no one today can tell me why that was eliminated. I think that might be a site that has some possibility that the city might be willing to consider."

City attorneys could not be reached for comment Friday.

The board said that because PacifiCorp has indicated that the preferred site at 3200 W. 7000 South is not the only location within the target area that it will accept, "we need not rule that the preferred site is the only possibility."

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