Hearings conclude with outpouring of local testimony, final arguments by attorneys

The clock is ticking for the Utah Utility Facility Review Board to make a decision on the location of high-voltage transmission lines in Tooele County.

Yesterday marked the conclusion of three days of hearings regarding Rocky Mountain Power’s petition against Tooele County’s denial of a conditional use permit for a transmission line on Tooele’s southeast bench. The board said it will issue a written decision on the matter by June 21, if not prior to that date.

In closing legal arguments Wednesday, attorneys for the county and RMP made their cases for why the Mona-to-Oquirrh line should or should not be built where RMP has currently proposed.

Matt Moskon, of the law firm Stoel Rives, opened his closing arguments on behalf of RMP by saying the Mona-to-Oquirrh Transmission Corridor Project is a vital link in the company’s massive, six-state Energy Gateway project, which he called the backbone of RMP’s entire power system. He said the company has worked hard to design the system, which includes 146 miles of new power lines, to best serve its customers in the region.

“The local concerns about the views of approximately 3 miles of line are now risking this entire project, which is desperately needed for electric consumers across the state and for the economic development of Tooele itself,” he said.

Moskon said a northern route running northward of Grantsville that Tooele County has proposed will not provide adequate separation of lines in case of natural and other disasters (the company has plans for its Limber to Terminal lines to run in that area), and doesn’t meet RMP’s system and siting criteria. He added that regardless of where the lines are located, someone will object to them.

“Although there were public meetings held around the conditional use permit that my client applied for that talked about the south bench route, there were not these public hearings about routing this line around Grantsville or if they were to cut across Stansbury or go through Erda,” Moskon said. “What about the citizens of those towns?”

He rhetorically asked how many of the 58,000 Tooele County residents would be opposed to the northern route around Grantsville or other routes proposed.

“I would suggest to you probably just as many,” he said.

Moskon said there was no single route that would please everyone.

“Some group — people in Grantsville, Erda, Tooele, Stansbury — someone will be impacted and someone will be upset. What that means is the board can’t base its decision by trying to look at the popularity or who speaks the loudest or who objects the loudest. The board has to focus on what is the best route for the state as a whole.”

He added, “There’s a saying among litigators that the Supreme Court is not last because they’re right, they’re right because they’re last. What that means is the buck stops there. And that’s the view I have of this board now. Tooele County as a political body had the opportunity to push off to this board this very tough decision but this board does not have that luxury. It has to make the decision. It has to ask itself what evidence it has heard to support the decision that Tooele wants it to make.”

He said evidence presented by Mona-to-Oquirrh project manager Brandon Smith shows the northern routes would impact 10 times more residences, and that Darrell Gerrard, vice president for transmission and system planning for PacifiCorp, RMP’s parent company, proved by his testimony that the line would be 60 percent less efficient in supplying electricity.

“We heard that the cost, depending on where you put the line, would be between $40 to $60 million more for an inferior route that has greater environmental impacts and impacts on more residents,” Moskon said, adding the board should not hesitate to require Tooele County to issue the conditional use permit.

Hogan opened his closing legal arguments by saying Tooele County agrees with RMP on some issues, including the need for the project.

“The dispute in this matter lies entirely with how to get more power to the people that need it,” Hogan said. “How does Rocky Mountain Power solve this problem? What exactly is Tooele County’s role in determining the placement of this line?”

Hogan said RMP’s argument that the county planning commission should have approved an alternate route after being unwilling to approve the southeast bench route is not accurate. He said the commission could approve the permit as requested, approve it with conditions, or deny it.

“Rocky Mountain Power would have this board believe that the planning and zoning commission could have approved an entirely different alternative route if they chose to. They could not,” Hogan said. “This argument is really an attempt to shift the siting burden from Rocky Mountain Power to Tooele County.”

Hogan said there are also concerns about potential costs associated with the board’s decision.

“There’s a reason why Tooele County didn’t draw a line, there’s a reason why Grantsville didn’t intervene and there’s a reason why Tooele City hasn’t intervened in this process,” Hogan said. “They’re petrified of the cost factor. Had we, early on, approved a route different than what the company had asked for, this board would be absolutely proper in coming back to the county and saying, ‘You’re responsible for the excess cost, you’ve required this.’ That’s why we haven’t drawn a route and required it. But we’ve suggested it until we’re blue in the face, hoping that they would see the merits and benefits of our suggestions.”

The southeast bench route, in comparison to the I-80 corridor, has only one factor in its favor, and that is construction cost, Hogan said, adding it isn’t the only criteria the board is supposed to look at.

Hogan also said that the criteria RMP provided the BLM with to compile the Environmental Impact Statement leaves no other possible working route other than the southeast bench route.

“I‘m not implying that there’s gaming going on here with the EIS,” he said. “I’m flat out stating it. Under the criteria with the constraints provided by Mr. Gerrard, there is no other route that works.”

Hogan said Tooele County lacks the financial resources and ability to compete with the experts RMP provided, and he believes state law doesn’t mandate any community go toe-to-toe, in legal terms, with a corporation the size of RMP.

“This statute covers any local entity from as large as Salt Lake County down to as small as Ophir, Utah, if a permit were to be required,” he said. “I don’t think this board would expect Ophir or Vernon or Daggett County — in this case I’m saying Tooele County — to be able to come here and go toe to toe, expert for expert, punch for punch, and jab for jab with Rocky Mountain Power on this issue.”

As part of the three-day process, the board heard public comments Tuesday evening at the convention center at Deseret Peak Complex. Nearly 25 people spoke at the meeting, with roughly 200 people in attendance at its highest point.

Nearly all the comments given were in opposition to the southeast bench route, citing reasons ranging from concerns about the viewshed, watershed, International Smelter superfund site, health impacts of electric and magnetic fields, fire dangers, decreased property values, the THS ‘T’, Settlement Canyon reservoir impacts, and wildlife and grazing concerns.

Those who spoke could give unsworn or sworn testimony under oath. Ted Boyer, chairman of the Public Service Commission and the Utility Facility Review Board, said if someone wanted their testimony to be considered by the board in reaching a decision on the merits of the case, the testimony must be sworn. However, giving sworn testimony, he added, opened that person up to the possibility that lawyers on both sides could cross-examine them.

Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy said the power lines are proposed to go across Tooele City property and the city plans to fight to maintain that land.

“We believe that the only way that they would be able to acquire the property to take the power line across our property is through eminent domain,” Dunlavy said. “We have done some due diligence as far as the legal aspects of that and feel very strongly we would prevail in a court over that issue.”

Tooele City Councilman Scott Wardle expanded on Dunlavy’s comments, saying if RMP sues the city for condemnation, the city will force a court to decide whether power or the city’s watershed and water resources on the southeast bench are most important.

“We will take it, if we lose at the district court level, to the supreme court level,” he added.

One Tooele City resident, Ross Hudson, who also works for the state Division of Public Utilities but was speaking for himself, said a person’s quality of life doesn’t change because of a few power poles.

“Why is it that Tooele County, Tooele City and the planning and zoning need a step-by-step procedure of what they deem needs to be mitigated?” he said. “Do they really think PacifiCorp and Rocky Mountain Power are not concerned with these same issues and will do all in their power so that these issues don’t become a concern to Tooele citizens?”

Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, said power lines recently came through Box Elder County, where she lives. She said Tooele County has united in a way Box Elder County was unable to do.

“We had split factions there and I think that impacted our ability to be affective in working with Rocky Mountain Power,” she said. “But Tooele County is not doing that. Look at the great way that they’re coming together with one voice, speaking in favor of looking at alternative routes.”

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com