Attorneys representing Idaho Power Company last week filed four more civil petitions in Baker County Circuit Court asking a judge to order property owners in the county to allow the company to survey their land as part of the company’s Boardman to Hemingway power transmission line plan.

Idaho Power, working with PacifiCorp of Portland, hopes to start building the 293-mile, 500-kilovolt line as early as 2023.

Idaho Power is represented in the civil petitions by Timothy Helfrich and Zach Olson of the Yturri Rose firm in Ontario.

In December the attorneys filed civil petitions seeking access for five Baker County properties.

The four most recent filings name these property owners:

• Jan. 19 — Leland R. McCall, Roberta L. McCall, trustees of the McCall Family Trust

• Jan. 20 — Levi Bunch

• Jan. 20 — Smoke Ranch LP

• Jan. 20 — Rodd Bunch, Charlene Bunch, Levi Bunch

The company has been working since 2007 on the Boardman-to-Hemingway project, a power line that would run from near Boardman to Hemingway, near Murphy in Owyhee County,Idaho.

Initially, the project involved Idaho Power as well as PacifiCorp and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).

But last week the three organizations announced a nonbinding agreement in which BPA transfers its ownership interest in the power line to Idaho Power. BPA will not participate in any construction nor have ownership interest in the line.

Under the new deal, Idaho Power and PacifiCorp will jointly own the line, with PacifiCorp owning 55% and Idaho Power 45%.

Although sections of the proposed route runs through public property — Idaho Power has received permission from the federal government to do so — the line, as proposed, would also cross several dozen parcels of private land in multiple counties, including Baker, Union, Wallowa and Morrow in Oregon.

Idaho Power would have to pay private landowners for an easement to build the power line across their property. This would be a one-time payment, not an annual lease, according to the boardmantohemingway.com website.

Sven Berg, a corporate communications specialist for Idaho Power, said in December that the line would affect about 30 private landowners in Baker County, who combined own about 60 separate parcels.

The proposed route runs the line through the eastern part of Baker Valley, along the general route of an existing 230-kilovolt line that crosses Highway 86 on Flagstaff Hill a few miles east of Interstate 84. The line would continue south to the north side of Interstate 84, then roughly parallel the freeway southeast for several miles before crossing the freeway between Pleasant Valley and Durkee. The line would cross the Burnt River just west of Durkee Valley, then continue southeast, staying south of I-84, crossing into Malheur County south of Huntington.

The nine civil petitions have nearly identical wording in most sections, differing mainly in the legal descriptions of the specific parcels involved.

In each petition, Idaho Power states that either the company or its contractor, Cornerstone Energy Inc. 21, acting on the company’s behalf, has “contacted the Respondent several times to request access to survey, test, and sample the Property. Respondent has not granted Idaho Power access to the Property.”

Berg said the company needs access to the properties to do a variety of surveys.

According to the court petitions, this work is needed “to ensure the proposed path complies with federal and EFSC (Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council) permitting and siting requirements, including that it does not conflict with any protected resources.”

The petitions list the following surveys and inspections that Idaho Power wants to do on each of the five parcels:

• Pygmy rabbit survey (2022)

• Rare plant inspection (2022)

• Wetlands inspection (2022 or 2023)

• Terrestrial visual encounter survey (2022)

• Raptor survey (2022)

• Noxious weeds survey (2022)

• Land survey (2022)

• Appraisal field visit (2022)

“Because construction on the B2H project is scheduled to start as early as 2023, Idaho Power must begin surveying, testing, and sampling the Property in 2022,” the petitions state.

Berg said in December that Idaho Power typically sends three letters to each property owner before filing petitions in court.

“We prefer to work directly through landowners, and we encourage people (who are respondents in court filings) to contact us as soon as they can,” Berg said. “We much prefer to handle it out of court. We don’t want to force the issue in court.”

Berg said the owners of about 65% of the private land in Baker County that are along the line’s proposed route have given Idaho Power access for surveys and inspections.

Of the remaining 35%, most have not responded to the company’s requests, he said.

The petitions seek access to the properties through Oregon Revised Statute 772.210, which states that power companies can “enter upon lands for the purpose of examining, locating and surveying the line thereof and also other lands necessary and convenient for the purpose of construction of service facilities, doing no unnecessary damage thereby.”

That law also enables power companies to acquire real property for the purpose of building and maintaining transmission lines.

The petitions ask a judge to grant Idaho Power access to each of the properties, as well as a judgment for “Idaho Power’s costs and disbursements incurred herein and for any other relief the court deems appropriate.”

Information about the Boardman to Hemingway project, including maps of the proposed route, is available at https://www.boardmantohemingway.com/