Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management say it looks unlikely that a major powerline proposed for parts of eastern Idaho will cut across agricultural lands near Carey.
The large 500-kilovolt transmission line is proposed by NorthWestern Energy, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based electricity and natural gas utility. As envisioned by the utility, the line would stretch from Townsend, Mont., to the Midpoint Substation just south of Shoshone on the east side of U.S. Highway 93.
The big question is how the powerline will get to the substation.
Dubbed the Mountain States Transmission Intertie, the $800-million-project would be made up of lattice steel towers and tubular steel towers ranging in height from 110 to 130 feet. The line would require a 220-foot-wide right-of-way.
During public meetings in Carey in late 2007 and 2008, local residents of the rural agricultural area vented their frustrations about the possibility that the project could cut through private and public lands nearby. Their fears were primarily concerned with an alternative identified by NorthWestern Energy that would route the line from Arco through Carey and on to Shoshone.
That route would hug the northwest boundary of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve outside of Carey. From Carey, the alternate transmission line would head southwest along U.S. Highway 26 to Shoshone.
That section would see 30 to 35 miles of power line pass through Blaine County.
But in an interview Tuesday, Mark Mackiewicz, national project manager for the BLM out of the agency's field office in Price, Utah, said issues have arisen with the Carey route that threaten to derail that alternative. At a meeting to discuss issues related to the routes under consideration, officials from the BLM and NorthWestern Energy discussed the benefits and downsides of each, Mackiewicz said.
He said issues raised during a public comment period by local officials and Carey residents opposed to the controversial route have placed doubt on the viability of the Carey alternative.
"They've provided some pretty good rationale," he said.
Mackiewicz said BLM officials have to weigh the benefits and constraints on projects like this as part of the environmental impact statement process required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
"We did not see that the (Carey) route provided a lot of benefits," he said. "It appears at this point that it might not go forward."
Another route BLM officials are considering would place the new transmission line alongside existing power line infrastructure stretching from the Idaho National Laboratory near Arco south to the Borah Substation west of Pocatello. From there, the line would head west to Shoshone.
Mackiewicz stressed that no final decision on the Carey alternative has been made. He said the BLM may highlight a preferred route for the transmission line when it releases its draft EIS, which could happen by October.
Documents from NorthWestern Energy state that the Mountain States Transmission Intertie is being built to meet the needs of new sources of electricity generation coming online in Montana, including wind and coal, and to relieve existing constraints on the high-voltage transmission system, or electric power grid, in the western United States.
Jason Kauffman: jkauffman@mtexpress.com
