Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Washington’s Energy Facilities Site Evaluation Council – EFSEC – met in Klickitat County Wednesday night for a public information meeting on a plan to run a high-voltage line from the Big Eddy substation outside The Dalles, to a PGE substation on the other side of Portland, by burying it in the silt at the bottom of the Columbia.
The only parts not in the river are buried underground, including the five miles from the Big Eddy substation on Highway 197 to the river near The Dalles, a seven mile stretch around Bonneville Dam buried in the right of way along SR 14 and where it emerges from the river on the other side of Portland to connect with a PGE substation and joins the north-south transmission line serving the West Coast.
The company behind the $1.5 billion dollar project, PowerBridge, LLC, has constructed similar underwater powerline projects under the Hudson River and across San Francisco Bay. Senior Vice President Chris Hocker explained that a barge carrying the cable lays it out to a piece of equipment called a hydroplow that sits on the river bottom:
“At the bottom of the hydroplow is a blade that contains a number of high-pressure water jets create a trench by essentially emulsifying the sediment. As the sediment rises within the trench, the cable is simultaneously laid into the trench to the required depth.”
Testimony at the meeting was largely in opposition from the tribes, Columbia Riverkeeper and the Friends of the Gorge. The Friends testified that these meetings were premature because the application was only a draft, and Washington regulations require that the application be deemed complete before any public meetings. They also noted that EFSEC’s own rules require a county appointee be seated on the commission with a vote for anything involving that county, and that had not happened.
The only supporting testimony came from several unions that would benefit from approximately 400 jobs on the three and a half year long project.
Last night’s meeting followed meetings Monday and Tuesday in Clark and Skamania counties. The whole process will have to be done again for Oregon’s EFSEC in Wasco, Hood River an Multnomah counties.