Hearing set on controversial Tooele County electrical transmission line

TOOELE — Hundreds of residents are expected to attend a public hearing Wednesday on a controversial electrical transmission line planned to go through multiple towns in Tooele County.

The Mona-to-Oquirrh line is a planned part of a major expansion of PacifiCorp's transmission capacity in Utah and the other states. At 100 miles long, the line begins outside of Mona in Juab County and will affect multiple cities, including Cedar Fort, Eureka, Salt Lake City, Grantsville, Stockton and Tooele.

Each of the communities or local government entities has to sign off on a conditional-use permit, which is the focus of the 7 p.m. meeting hosted by the Tooele County Planning Commission.

A news release on the event, which will be held on the first floor of the Tooele County Building Auditorium, said hundreds are expected to attend, and overflow accommodations are being made.

Company spokesman Dave Eskelsen said that with any big project, there is typically big opposition.

"It's a very rare project that doesn't have some opposition," he said. "When it is this large and it crosses miles and miles of land, people think the route should be located somewhere else. The problem is the people who live in that somewhere-else area think it should be elsewhere, too."

The project began in late 2007 and is winding its way through the federal permitting process as well, because a portion of the line will impact Bureau of Land Management property. A final environmental impact statement is scheduled to be released later this year.

Eskelsen said the line is a critical component of the utility company's ability to meet growing demands for electricity, especially in northern Utah, which he said represents the fastest-growing area in Utah.

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