A Baker City couple whose ranch property is along the route of the Boardman to Hemingway power line contend that the land Idaho Power Company is seeking to acquire through an eminent domain lawsuit is worth almost $400,000, while Idaho Power has offered to pay $18,960.

Scott and Kylie Gressley, who bought the 2,000-acre property near Baker City in September 2022, have rejected the company’s offers to buy an easement for the power line and an access road.

The land is just north of Interstate 84, about 5 miles southeast of Baker City. Idaho Power is seeking easements totaling about 14 acres.

Idaho Power, which plans to begin building the 500-kilovolt line this year, filed the eminent domain lawsuit in Baker County Circuit Court in September 2023.

Also known as condemnation, eminent domain is a legal process in which a judge or jury orders a property owner to sell land to make possible a particular project, and decides the price.

Idaho Power, which is represented by attorneys Tim J. Helfrich and Zach Olson of the Yturri Rose firm in Ontario, has asked for a jury trial.

The Gressleys are represented by Andrew Martin of Baker City.

Eminent domain lawsuits can be filed by public agencies, such as a state department of transportation to acquire land for a highway or other project, or, as in this case, by a private firm.

On Nov. 30, Idaho Power’s attorneys filed a motion seeking permission to immediately access the Gressleys’ property — before the eminent domain lawsuit is concluded — so construction on the power line “can proceed without delay,” the motion states.

The 293-mile-long line, first proposed in 2007, will run from near Hermiston to the Hemingway substation in Owyhee County, Idaho.

Oregon and Idaho state agencies have approved construction of the power line. Idaho Power and its partner, PacifiCorp, say the line is needed to handle growing demand for electricity that existing transmission lines can’t accommodate.

Although Idaho Power has overseen the project, PacifiCorp has a 55% ownership in the line, Idaho Power 45%.

Opponents, led by the Stop B2H Coalition, based in La Grande, dispute the companies’ claims that the power line is needed.

The opponents say the construction and operation of B2H could cause a variety of problems, including spreading noxious weeds and increasing the risk of wildfire.

Lawsuit proceeds

In the motion for “immediate occupancy,” Idaho Power’s attorneys write that the company needs access to the Gressleys’ property to start construction and ensure the power line is ready by 2026.

“Not having advance access to even one parcel, including the Gressley Property, will cause a significant disruption in the construction of B2H,” the motion states.

If the company has to wait until the eminent domain lawsuit is concluded, the delay on building the line could amount to “months, if not years, and seriously disrupt the project timing,” the motion states.

Idaho Power offered in the motion to pay $18,960, the value of the easement across the Gressleys’ property determined by an appraiser.

In a Feb. 9 response to the Idaho Power motion, Martin, the Gressleys’ attorney, described the $18,960 figure as “meager” and wrote that the amount is “based on the Plaintiff’s opinion that the easements do not damage or devalue the remainder of the Gressley property.”

But the couple dispute that notion.

Martin’s motion states that the Gressleys intend at trial to present evidence from an expert witness that the B2H project would devalue their entire 2,000-acre parcel by 25%.

Idaho Power is seeking a 75-foot-wide easement for an access road, and a 160-foot-wide easement for the power line itself.

In a separate court filing, dated Feb. 12, Martin asks the court to dismiss the eminent domain lawsuit or, as an alternative, to award the Gressleys $392,542.50, as well as attorney fees and costs for appraisals and expert witnesses.

“The point is that the parties have a difference in the opinion of just compensation of over $300,000.00 but the Plaintiff is asking the Court to give Plaintiff the authority to do whatever it needs to on the Gressley property for what Defendant Gressley believes to be an outrageously inadequate and unfair amount of compensation,” Martin wrote in the response to the Idaho Power motion for immediate occupancy.

Martin argues in the Feb. 9 response to the Idaho Power motion that notwithstanding Idaho Power’s claims about the necessity of gaining immediate access to the Gressleys’ property to avoid construction delays, the Oregon law dealing with the issue emphasizes the need to protect the rights of the landowner.

“There is nothing within the statute stating that the interests of the condemner are considered in determining whether to grant advance occupancy, however the statute repeatedly and clearly directs the Court to protect the landowner,” Martin wrote.

The parties were in court on Friday, Feb. 16. Scott Gressley said there was no resolution to the issue of Idaho Power’s request for immediate occupancy, although he said a judge could rule on the matter relatively soon.

Gressley said he and his wife are contesting the motion for immediate occupancy because in his view, they need to secure the best deal, in monetary terms, for the easement before Idaho Power has legal authority to use the Gressleys’ property.

“We have one chance at this,” Gressley said on Monday, Feb. 19.

The Boardman to Hemingway power line’s route through Baker County roughly parallels Interstate 84, although the line’s distance from the freeway varies considerably.

From south to north, B2H will enter the county near Farewell Bend. It will be on the south side of the freeway to near Rye Valley, then veer to the northwest, away from the interstate, for several miles.

From the mountains south of Durkee Valley the line will head north for several miles, crossing Interstate 84 near where Alder Creek flows beneath a freeway overpass.

From there the line will parallel the freeway through Pleasant Valley, then, a few miles southeast of Exit 306, head north. The line will cross Highway 86 about halfway up Flagstaff Hill, about a mile west of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

The line remains east of the freeway, roughly paralleling the road, crossing Highway 237 a few miles east of North Powder, then veering northwest, crossing to the west side of the freeway near the base of Ladd Canyon.

According to Idaho Power Company, the line will be suspended by two types of steel towers, one with a lattice design, the other an H-frame.

Lattice towers will range in height from 130 to 180 feet, with an average of 140 feet.

H-frame towers will range from 100 to 130 feet, with an average of 100.

Each tower will have a “footprint” of 40 feet by 40 feet.

The average distance between towers will be 1,200 feet, with the lines, on average, 35 feet above the ground.

The right-of-way Idaho Power will acquire for the line will range from 100 feet wide to 250 feet.