Wyoming Infrastructure Authority

By MATT JOYCE - Associated Press writer | Posted: Tuesday, January 5, 2010 12:00 am

CHEYENNE — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday announced the routes it will analyze for a proposed power line from eastern Wyoming to western Idaho, setting aside some of the most contentious proposals.

The BLM’s draft environmental impact statement for the Gateway West Transmission Line Project will study routes proposed by Rocky Mountain Power and Idaho Power, along with possible alternatives. The document is to be released this summer.

The utilities plan to build a $2 billion, 1,150-mile line to carry wind and other power to their customers in Wyoming, Idaho and other Western states. They plan to construct new 230-kilovolt and 500-kilovolt lines, depending on the segment.

The proposed line would start near Glenrock, drop south to Interstate 80, and run across southern Wyoming and southern Idaho to a proposed substation near Melba, Idaho.

The companies hope to complete the project by 2014, but they delayed the siting process for several months this summer to address concerns raised by landowners and local governments along the route. Earlier proposals ran into opposition in Converse and Lincoln counties in Wyoming and in the Idaho counties of Power, Cassia, Ada and Owyhee.

“A lot of groups worked real hard with us to develop these alternatives,” said Walt George, project manager for the BLM. “We wanted to emphasize these routes because these are the routes that the public is going to see in detail.”

The Northern Laramie Range Alliance fought a proposed segment of the line that would have crossed the range and run along its eastern edge. The latest map includes several routes running west of the range.

“The alliance has been pleased that Rocky Mountain Power has been responsive to the concerns expressed by the nearly 800 citizens about routes that had earlier been proposed for segment 1,” said Kenneth G. Lay, a founder of the alliance.

In Lincoln County, developers ran up against conflicts with historic trails, as well as habitat for sage grouse and big game, George said.

Ryan Lance, deputy chief of staff to Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, said the governor’s office has supported siting the new transmission lines along the routes of existing lines.

“You have a convergence of private land issues with historic trails and viewsheds, and you have also a convergence with big game and sage grouse habitat out there, and so you’re going to have to find a way forward,” Lance said.

The governor’s office was pleased that Gateway West developers dropped the contentious eastern segment in the northern Laramie Range and routed the proposed line around the community of Fort Steele in south-central Wyoming, Lance said.

The public will get a chance to comment on the proposed routes when the BLM releases the draft environmental impact statement this summer.