Borough, MEA resolve power-line feud

March 4, 2005

DAWN De BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The Mat-Su Borough and Matanuska Electric Association earlier this week ended their legal tussle over a route for the co-op's power lines, nearly two months after MEA sent crews to start preparing to erect the lines through a portion of the borough's central landfill.

Attorneys for both sides agreed Tuesday to go with a 2.5-mile route that would take the lines down through a gully at Crevasse-Moraine park - a route that avoids the borough's landfill property and privately owned land.

The power lines would still extend across land owned by the University of Alaska, but university officials said the arrangement is fine with them - MEA will consolidate lines there on existing poles.

The cost for the power-lines project will be $800,000 per mile, MEA spokesman Tuckerman Babcock said Wednesday.

Clearing trees for the project could begin the first week of April.

MEA's transmission-line project would connect poles off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway to poles at the intersection of Trunk Road and the Parks Highway, providing a second source of power to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, which is now under construction and expected to be completed early next year.

The hospital already has a source of power from MEA and a standby generator. However, the hospital's projected electrical needs warrant the installation of a new substation and transmission lines, according to Babcock. The agreed-upon route is the most direct route to the proposed substation, he said.

The borough, on Tuesday, provided MEA officials with a copy of information that would be presented at the Assembly meeting later that evening.

That information - based on research by HDR and reviewed by community members - offered three feasible alternate routes. The borough and HDR favored an option that would take the transmission lines through the Crevasse Moraine area.

"We didn't want any surprises on the Assembly floor," said Ron Swanson, head of the borough's community development department.

The borough's lawyer and MEA's attorney entered into discussions prior to the Assembly meeting and agreed that if the borough passed an ordinance adopting a route, that ordinance would include wording that both parties would bow out of the lawsuit and each party would bear its own legal costs, according to Swanson.

"The bottom line is the court could make up the mind of both parties; and no one wanted to see that happen," said Swanson, adding that this agreement between the borough and MEA would prevent the necessity of going to court in July.

So, during its Tuesday night meeting, the Assembly accepted the lower gully route and ended its court battle with MEA. The ordinance, which substituted the original ordinance after the attorneys met, was adopted 5 to 1, with Assembly Member Lynne Wood opposed.

"Everything is cleared up and we're ready to move forward," said Babcock, who added that MEA sent a letter Wednesday to the borough to start preparations to put in the transmission line along the chosen route.

"I told the borough Assembly that we could work on a different public process. I'm glad we were able to resolve this issue and it looks like a good route," Babcock said.

The chosen route avoids the landfill as much as possible. Because it runs down in a gully, it would not mar the so-called "scenic view shed" for homeowners and passers-by.

"At the public hearing, 21 people didn't like any of the options and would prefer to see electric lines run down Trunk Road," Swanson said.

A route taking the transmission lines along a newly aligned Trunk Road, either above ground or buried, is not considered feasible, however, because Trunk Road isn't scheduled for realignment until 2007. The delay of road construction stems from time-consuming rights-of-way acquisitions.

MEA claimed in court documents that construction of the lines must begin as soon as possible, in order to supply the hospital with adequate electrical needs once it begins operating. In addition, MEA asserted that expected development in that area would also benefit from the new electrical route.

"If we all had our way, that would be the best route," Swanson said.

In related news, the Guiding Gateways Growth group dropped its lawsuit against MEA on Wednesday. Members of that group were trying to stop the installation of power lines they claimed would ruin campus trails.