Idaho Power gains access for surveys, withdraws lawsuits

May 2—Idaho Power Company has withdrawn all of the 10 lawsuits it filed this winter against Baker County landowners seeking access to their property to do surveys related to the proposed Boardman-to-Hemingway transmission line project.

Attorneys for the company filed the civil petitions between mid December 2021 and early February 2022.

Idaho Power was asking a judge to order the landowners to allow access to their properties for a variety of surveys, including looking for certain wildlife and plant species.

The company sought to dismiss the lawsuits because "we were able to obtain rights-of-entry out of court from all of the Baker County landowners we requested it from," Sven Berg, an Idaho Power spokesman, wrote in an email to the Herald.

That was also the case with most of Idaho Power's lawsuits filed in other counties in Eastern Oregon, including Union, Umatilla and Morrow, Berg said.

In five cases, however, there were court hearings, he said. Four of those were in Union County, and one in Morrow County.

In two cases, a judge granted Idaho Power a default judgment granting the company access for surveys.

Three others went to trial, Berg said. In two cases the court granted Idaho Power access for surveys.

One case, in Union County, remains open. The landowner in that case is 516 Ranch Partnership.

Idaho Power has been working since 2007 on the Boardman-to-Hemingway project, a 293-mile, 500-kilovolt line that would run from near Boardman to Hemingway, near Murphy in Owyhee County, Idaho.

Although sections of the proposed route runs through public property — Idaho Power has received permission from the federal government to do so — the line, as proposed, would also cross several dozen parcels of private land in multiple counties, including Baker, Union, Wallowa and Morrow in Oregon.

Idaho Power would have to pay private landowners for an easement to build the power line across their property. This would be a one-time payment, not an annual lease, according to the boardmantohemingway.com website.

Berg said the line would affect about 30 private landowners in Baker County, who combined own about 60 separate parcels.

Berg said Idaho Power does not pay for access to private property to do pre-construction surveys.

In each petition filed in court, Idaho Power's attorneys, Timothy Helfrich and Zach Olson of the Yturri Rose firm in Ontario, state that either the company or its contractor, Cornerstone Energy Inc. 21, acting on the company's behalf, had "contacted the Respondent several times to request access to survey, test, and sample the Property. Respondent has not granted Idaho Power access to the Property."

"Because construction on the B2H project is scheduled to start as early as 2023, Idaho Power must begin surveying, testing, and sampling the Property in 2022," the petitions state.

Berg said Idaho Power typically sends three letters to each property owner before filing petitions in court.