Public gets chance to comment on new Idaho Power line west

The Bureau of Land Management has finally began moving the proposed Boardman to Hemingway transmission line review forward.

According to a published notice, the agency will hold public meetings on the 500-kilovolt line that Idaho Power seeks to build with PacifiCorp and the Bonneville Power Administration. The power line would run from Boardman, Ore., to the Hemingway Substation near Melba, thus the name, shortened to B2H.

The BLM and Idaho Power first put the project out for scoping in 2008, took comments, held meetings, changed routes and then went quiet. This month it released a draft environmental impact statement, the next step in getting to a final decision.

The public will have until March 19 to comment. Idaho Power and other partners who have joined since 2010 hope to begin construction in 2018 and finish by 2020. Most of the route is in Oregon and 67 percent is on private land. The other 33 percent is on public land.

“This draft document is a huge milestone for the B2H project, and the culmination of years of hard work by many at Idaho Power and the BLM,” said Stephanie McCurdy, a spokeswoman for Idaho Power.

The proposed route is approximately 300 miles long and crosses federal, state and private lands in six counties in Oregon and Idaho.

"We’re in the process of reviewing and evaluating this lengthy document," McCurdy said. "We will be submitting comments on the DEIS in the same way the public does.”

Meetings are scheduled Jan. 12 in Ontario and Jan. 13 in Marsing.

This story was originally published December 23, 2014 at 9:24 AM with the headline "Public gets chance to comment on new Idaho Power line west."