Tooele power-line battle goes before state board

TOOELE — Tooele County residents are calling a red card on Rocky Mountain Power, arguing that the power giant is playing dirty.

Armed with highlighted studies and pages of notes, residents pleaded with a state board Tuesday to not allow the power company to construct high-power transmission lines along Tooele's southeast bench.

"We know that this is a David-versus-Goliath-type scenario, but Goliath is not fighting fair," said Darrin Smith, a resident whose home would be under the power lines Rocky Mountain Power officials are proposing.

Smith's 7-year-old daughter, Vivian, has a pacemaker, and the manual for the device specifically warns against such lines. Although Smith has spoken at every public hearing on the matter, his comments have been left out of materials submitted to the Bureau of Land Management for an environmental impact study.

"If you'll refer to the 17 public comments in the final EIS, you'll find I'm nowhere to be find," he said. "I don't exist … according to Rocky Mountain Power."

Other residents had similar concerns, saying the BLM left hundreds of affected houses out of their study. Others contend that Rocky Mountain Power has not contacted them about putting lines on their property and say the power company has downplayed the number of residents against the line.

Tooele Mayor Patrick Dunlavy said Rocky Mountain Power officials claimed they were working with residents for three months on finding a less-intrusive alternate route for the lines, but "it became very apparent halfway through the process that Rocky Mountain Power had no intent in changing their route."

Dunlavy said he's most concerned about the open-space property the city has spent millions to preserve on the east bench. The city plans to take Rocky Mountain Power to court if the company attempts to build on the land through eminent domain.

Close to 200 people attended the hearing by the Utah Facility Review Board on Tuesday, including 24 people who offered three hours' worth of testimony and 60-plus more submitting written comments.

Rocky Mountain Power has proposed to build 100 miles of 354-kilovaolt and 500-kilovolt lines through the rural county as part of the Mona to Oquirrh Transmission Corridor. Both the Tooele Planning Commission and County Commission denied the company a permit in March.

Since then, Rocky Mountain Power appealed to the state Public Utilities Commission and is in the middle of a three-day hearing with the five-member review board.