Rocky Mountain Power is asking landowners for their input on the route of a major transmission line proposed to run across southern Wyoming from the Casper area to the Idaho border. Representatives of the Salt Lake City-based utility told the Carbon County Commission last week that it has identified a 2-mile-wide corridor for its proposed Gateway West transmission line, which would carry 500 kilovolts of electricity.
Rocky Mountain Power is asking landowners for their input on the route of a major transmission line proposed to run across southern Wyoming from the Casper area to the Idaho border. Representatives of the Salt Lake City-based utility told the Carbon County Commission last week that it has identified a 2-mile-wide corridor for its proposed Gateway West transmission line, which would carry 500 kilovolts of electricity.
Rocky Mountain Power is asking landowners for their input on the route of a major transmission line proposed to run across southern Wyoming from the Casper area to the Idaho border.
Representatives of the Salt Lake City-based utility told the Carbon County Commission last week that it has identified a 2-mile-wide corridor for its proposed Gateway West transmission line, which would carry 500 kilovolts of electricity.
The company is working to narrow the corridor to a 300-foot-wide right of way. Representatives say they want to consult with landowners on information about topography, soils and potential obstacles that could affect siting the power line.
"This transmission line is like a highway for electricity," Aaron Gibson of …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Rocky Mountain Power is asking landowners for their input on the route of a major transmission line proposed to run across southern Wyoming from the Casper area to the Idaho border.
Representatives of the Salt Lake City-based utility told the Carbon County Commission last week that it has identified a 2-mile-wide corridor for its proposed Gateway West transmission line, which would carry 500 kilovolts of electricity.
The company is working to narrow the corridor to a 300-foot-wide right of way. Representatives say they want to consult with landowners on information about topography, soils and potential obstacles that could affect siting the power line.
"This transmission line is like a highway for electricity," Aaron Gibson of Rocky Mountain Power told commissioners at a Tuesday meeting. He said the line is being built to move power out of Wyoming and other western states to areas that need it. The Bureau of Land Management is conducting a draft environmental impact statement on the project. It is expected to be issued next summer, company officials said.
Commissioners supported the idea of expanding power transmission but expressed some concern about the effects on the area's surging development.
"We're going to need all this power grid and then some," said Commissioner Jim Elliott. "But at the same time, we want to keep things the way they were."
The line is to run from the Windstar substation east of Casper to the Aeolus substation northeast of Medicine Bow, then west across Wyoming parallel to Interstate 80 and to Kemmerer. The line would enter Idaho near Montpelier and end at a substation south of Boise.
The line would carry power generated at several proposed wind farms in eastern Carbon County and a proposed gas-fired power plant north of Sinclair. Company officials said it might also take power from The Power Co. of Wyoming's proposed 1,000-turbine Chokecherry-Sierra Madre Wind Farm south of Rawlins.
"We've already received requests from people to tie into the line" after it's built, Gibson said.
Commission Chairman Terry Weickum asked company officials about the possible health effects that electromagnetic fields generated by power lines could have on people and animals in the area. He said the line should be kept away from human habitations.
Project Manager Walt Vering said there's little scientific evidence of any effects of electromagnetic fields.