State of Utah to decide fate of Tooele County power lines

TOOELE — The winner of a battle between Tooele County and Rocky Mountain Power over high-power electric lines ultimately will be decided by the state.

After a three-day hearing May 10-12, the state's Utility Facility Review Board will review the case and render a written decision within 45 days.

The public comment portion of the hearing will be at the Deseret Peak Complex, 2930 W. Highway 112 in Tooele, from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 11. A big crowd is expected, as hearings in the county have each yielded 100-plus people and lengthy public comment periods.

"We'll hear a lot of the same things I think we've heard before, but I think it's helpful that the board actually hears from the (residents) themselves," said Doug Hogan, Tooele County attorney. "It's not sanitized when you hear it from a resident in an affected area."

Both the Tooele County Commission and Planning Commission voted in March to deny the company a conditional-use permit to build a new 500-kilovolt line. Health concerns, damage to the environment, proximity to homes and seepage in the culinary water supply were major concerns.

The line would pass through developments in Tooele, Grantsville, Stockton, Rush Valley, Stansbury Park and Twelve Miles Pass, Middle Canyon, Mormon Trail Corridor and Settlement Canyon Reservoir.

"They're basically rejecting it on the way it looks. They don't want to see it. But that's not a reason it shouldn't be permitted," said Dave Eskelsen, a spokesman with Rocky Mountain Power, a division of PacifiCorp. "At some point, the lines have to come into the populated areas, because that's where the transmission lines are needed. It's just fact."

The new line is needed for increasing demand on Rocky Mountain Power's electric system. It would connect with the Oquirrh substation, benefiting Tooele residents as well.

Residents want an alternate line that would be less intrusive to their homes and forestland. The problem is that the county has never officially presented a new route to the power company. General route directions have been pitched, but not a specific proposal, and even then "we found that there's not really a consensus route that everyone likes," Eskelsen said.

The 100-mile Mona-to-Oquirrh route is the second segment in the massive Energy Gateway project Rocky Mountain Power is constructing. The lines would start at Mona in Juab County and fork off to West Jordan and Salt Lake City. Eventually, the project would cut through Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and Oregon.