Attorneys for Idaho Power file 5th condemnation suit in Baker County for B2H power line

Published 12:09 pm Monday, September 30, 2024

Attorneys for Idaho Power Company have filed a fifth condemnation lawsuit seeking an easement across private property in Baker County for the Boardman-to-Hemingway power line.

Attorneys Tim Helfrich and Zach Olson of Ontario filed the suit Sept. 27 in Baker County Circuit Court.

The defendants are Michael Glen Ragsdale and Diana Kay Pawelek, trustee of the Ragsdale/Pawelek Family Trust.

The property is near Highway 86 about 2 miles east of Interstate 84, near the base of Flagstaff Hill.

Idaho Power is seeking an easement totaling about 2.2 acres for the power line, and an easement for an access road of about 0.7 of an acre, according to the lawsuit.

The company’s attorneys filed the first such lawsuit in September 2023, for property near Baker City.

They filed a similar complaint on May 20, 2024, for property near Huntington, and two other lawsits, for property near Durkee, on June 18, 2024.

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

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.

Idaho Power has offered to pay $13,760 for the easement on the Ragsdale/Pawelek Family Trust property, according to the lawsuit.

B2H history

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.