Idaho: Farmers Organize To Fight Power Lines

AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho -- A local group of farmers and concerned people is working to keep power lines out of the fields where they work. The Power County Gateway Citizens Task Force is worried that more power lines cropping up in their fields will cost them more than just money.

The Gateway Project and the Mountain States Intertie Project are both causing local farmers to stand up for themselves and ask the Bureau of Land Management and power companies to consider other routes.

Wade Povey pointed out the low-hanging power lines on the edge of his fields Tuesday afternoon. He said lines like that have killed six people. Crop duster planes need to fly at almost the same height. Some have nipped the wires and unfortunately, have gone down, he said.

He hopes the power companies and BLM will consider routes that do not cause him to lose more land than he already has.

"A private person shouldn't have to deal with this. There's no revenue that comes to us, and we just deal with what they put in after the fact," Povey said.

The particular power line Povey pointed out cuts at least 50 feet into his property. It costs him money, not just on lost crops that he could have planted there, but on man power, too, he said. He has to staff two men instead of one to run wheel lines. They have to take extra pipe off the end to get around the structures, and that job requires two people, instead of just one to move the lines, he said.

Povey and the task force think the MSTI line should do what they call, "shooting the gap" and skirt the Craters of the Moon National Monument instead of their farms. The MSTI coordinators have previously said that route is unfeasible and are unwilling to study it as a possibility. Povey said he feels frustrated and like his concerns are not being considered.

Povey wants the Gateway Project can go over the ridge near American Falls. At a public hearing Tuesday night, Idaho Power Spokeswoman Lynette Berriochoa said her company, Rocky Mountain Power and the BLM are considering several routes.

"We're really encouraging people to either come to these public meetings or go to the website, make comments, because we really do hear those comments. They go into the public report," Berriochoa said.

Povey inherited his land -- and his power lines -- from his father-in-law. He does not want to stick his sons with another set of lines.

"I don't want to see my posterity have to deal with something that I didn't have enough to try to stop," Povey said.

The Gateway Project has another public hearing at the Fort Hall Tribal Business Center on Wednesday night from 4 to 7 p.m. where people can view the project's 3,000 page environmental impact study.

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