Idaho Power Company has filed an eminent domain lawsuit seeking an easement allowing the company to build the Boardman to Hemingway power transmission line across a parcel of private property near Baker City.

The property’s owners, Scott and Kylie Gressley, have rejected offers to buy an easement.

If the easement is granted, a jury would decide how much the company would pay the owners.

The Boise company, represented by attorneys Tim J. Helfrich and Zach Olson of the Yturri Rose firm in Ontario, filed the suit Monday, Sept. 11 in Baker County Circuit Court.

The plaintiffs are the Gressleys, as well as Avista Corporation and Lumen Technologies Inc.

According to the lawsuit, the two companies have easements on part of the Gressleys’ property, which is just north of Interstate 84 about 5 miles east of Baker City.

According to court records, this is the first lawsuit Idaho Power Company has filed in Baker County citing eminent domain — also known as condemnation — to gain access to and use of private property for the B2H project.

Scott Gressley, who has a cattle ranch along Beaver Creek several miles south of Baker City, said he and his wife bought the 2,000-acre property near the freeway in September 2022.

Gressley said he was aware of the B2H project at the time. He said Idaho Power has made offers to buy an easement across the property for the power line and an access road.

The lawsuit states that Idaho Power filed the complaint because the company couldn’t reach an agreement with the Gressleys to buy an easement, which would include a 160-foot-wide strip with the power line in the center, and a separate easement for two sections of access road. The easements would total about 14 acres, according to the lawsuit.

Idaho Power contends that the value of the easement is $18,690.

Gressley, though, believes that amount underestimates the long-term loss of value to his property and the effects it will have on how he uses it both during and after construction.

He said the line would run near a well that supplies drinking water to his cattle, and that construction will disrupt their grazing patterns.

“Once it’s there, it’s there forever,” Gressley said. “We’re not going to benefit from it once it’s there. They reap the benefits and we suffer the consequences.”

If Idaho Power wins the lawsuit and gains the easement, the Gressleys would still be able to use that portion of their land so long as it doesn’t interfere with the power line, Berg said.

Cattle grazing, for instance, typically continues after a power line has been built.

Idaho Power response

Sven Berg, an Idaho Power spokesman, said that although the company won’t discuss individual lawsuits, “Idaho Power is asking judges to approve easements on properties on or near the B2H route where Idaho Power has not been able to reach an agreement with the landowners.”

“While the Oregon Public Utility Commission has authorized Idaho Power to use eminent domain, it is a last resort solution we want to avoid,” Berg said. “Idaho Power’s aim is to work collaboratively with landowners to establish easements that provide fair compensation and minimize impacts to the landowner. Even if we’ve started eminent domain proceedings, we will continue to negotiate, until court hearings begin, to reach a fair agreement.”

Construction is slated to start this year on the 293-mile power line. Idaho Power projects the line, which will run from near Boardman to near Murphy, Idaho, will be finished by June 2026.

Idaho Power has filed about a dozen “precondemnation” lawsuits since late 2021, seeking access to private property in Baker County for environmental surveys along the power line’s route.

Condemnation is a different matter. The lawsuit seeks a permanent easement through the Gressleys’ property regardless of the owners’ objections. A jury, if it granted the easement to Idaho Power, would also decide how much the company should pay the Gressleys.

The B2H route through Baker County runs south of Interstate 84 from near Huntington to the Durkee Valley, crosses the freeway near Pleasant Valley, then follows the route of an existing 230-kilovolt line along the north side of the freeway to near Baker City, then heads north along the east side of Baker Valley between the freeway and the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

The existing 230-kilovolt line, which will remain after B2H is complete, runs through the Gressleys’ property.

Project proposed more than a dozen years ago

The Oregon Public Utility Commission granted Idaho Power a certificate of public convenience and necessity for B2H on June 29, 2023.

“We are so excited after all these years to break ground and for (B2H) to begin serving the Northwest,” Joe Stippel, B2H project manager, said this summer.

The 100 to 180-foot-tall steel transmission towers will carry 500 kilovolt single-circuit lines and be spaced 1,200 feet apart on average with a 100 to 250-foot right of way. B2H will deliver up to 1,000 megawatts of power in each direction.

PacifiCorp owns 55% of the project, while Idaho Power owns 45%. Idaho Power will recover part of its cost to build by delivering energy to Bonneville Power Administration customers in eastern Idaho, per an agreement finalized in March.

Stippel said a lot of the electricity carried by B2H will serve Portland-based PacifiCorp’s Portland metro area customers during the wintertime. However, the transmission line also will serve a larger role in regional energy stability.

“There are a lot of transmission line projects being kicked off right now and states are trying to fast-track a lot of them because we’re seeing there’s going to be a need for that interconnected grid,” Stippel said.

A nonprofit group, Stop B2H, has been contesting Idaho Power’s efforts to build the line.