Grantsville City Council member Tom Tripp listens to an answer during a presentation given by Rocky Mountain Power Wednesday night. The power company was invited to speak at the council meeting by Mayor Brent Marshall on its proposed Mona-to-Oquirrh Transmission Corridor Project.
- photography / Maegan Burr
- photography / Maegan Burr
RMP Community Manager for Tooele County Martie Leo spent approximately 20 minutes giving a description of the project to council members at the request of Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall.
“We haven’t been able to attend some of the county meetings,” said council member James Vera. “The mayor wanted us to get specific briefings so we have it right from the source.”
The project will begin in Mona in Juab County, where RMP will build an additional substation near the Mona Substation. The 500/345kv transmission line will transverse Juab and Utah counties, passing through Tooele County at Twelve Mile Pass and turning northwest to the Tooele Army Depot. It would run south of Tooele, across Middle Canyon and cross the Oquirrh Mountains before moving into the Salt Lake Valley.
A subsequent phase of the project would include the construction of the Limber Substation, near the northwest side of the Army depot. From the proposed Limber Substation, one line would run eastward across Tooele’s southeast benches before crossing over Pass Canyon on to Kennecott Utah Copper property and down to the Oquirrh Substation in West Jordan. A conditional use permit for that line was denied by the Tooele County Planning Commission on March 3 — a decision the company will appeal to the Tooele County Commission on March 30.
This line doesn’t currently cross into Grantsville City limits.
A second line from the Limber Substation — for which RMP is not currently seeking permitting — would impact Grantsville residents even more, since it would run northward to I-80 before skirting around the Stansburys and linking up with the Terminal Substation in Salt Lake City.
Council members questioned the location of the Limber Substation and the northward line.
“Why would you not put a substation for economic development closer to Tooele or closer to Grantsville or down closer to the I-80 corridor where that would help economic development?” Tripp asked. “This Limber station is out in the middle of nowhere and won’t help economic development.”
Marshall asked why the substation couldn’t be moved toward the I-80 corridor, to which Leo answered that soils weren’t right for construction there and additional labor — because substations require 200 or more concrete foundations — would be needed for maintenance work on potentially corroded equipment.
“You’re saying by having the substation there [along the I-80 corridor] that would cause you guys additional extensive labor,” Marshall said. “But you’re already going to have that if you’ve got it [the line] going down that way. Why couldn’t you move that substation to the I-80 corridor, since you’ve already got the impact with the labor because of the conditions of the soil and proximity to the lake?”
Tripp added that the proposed area where the power line would traverse along I-80 had a pre-existing line in 1985 that was knocked down by a heavy flow of ice on the Great Salt Lake.
“Why would you put that there?” Tripp said. “There was a line there in 1985 that serviced the magnesium company [US Magnesium]. I think you lost five poles right on that location. Why would you go back there with this?”
Vera believes that the northward line will destroy some of Grantsville’s most scenic views of the Stansbury Mountains and Deseret Peak.
“That mountain range is one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in all of Utah,” Vera said. “So I think as a legacy for all who come after us, it would be a shame for us to not do everything we can to preserve the beauty of that mountain range.”
Tripp raised questions on the need to route the project through the Tooele Valley at all.
“My biggest concern, as I look at the first map you passed out and use my pen as a ruler and your scale, is why don’t you go straight from Mona up to the Salt Lake Valley and save 40 miles?” asked Tripp.
Leo explained that due to four 345kv lines already in that corridor, the company would effectively be putting all its eggs in one basket, running the risk of a major outage in the event of a natural disaster.
“Even if you could run 1,000 megawatts through one circuit — I’m not saying that’s what you can, but if you could — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could come back to us and say we could only run half that,” Leo said. “We have to find another [route] to run that power.”
Tripp also questioned the additional cost of routing through the Tooele Valley.
“I’m suspecting [it will cost] millions of dollars,” Tripp said. “So if we’re adding an extra 40 miles, times millions of dollars, who’s going to pay for the extra money? Us, the rate payers? It seems to me the rate payers are protecting real estate in Salt Lake Valley by this kind of routing. It’s cheaper to run it out 40 extra miles rather than fight the political battle in the other valley.”
No public comment period was held during the meeting. However, Marshall said the council would listen to public comments on the project at its next meeting on March 31.
Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com
Post a Comment
