Tooele County Commissioners Uphold Planning Commission Decision to Deny CUP for Power Lines

This afternoon there was a special meeting held by the Tooele County Commissioners. Their task was to entertain an appeal by Rocky Mountain Power for Conditional Use Permit 2010-1, which was denied by the Tooele County Planning Commission in March. Rocky Mountain Power's attorneys were not present due to I-80 being closed down due to the wildfire that was raging in the area. Marty Ohler explained Rocky Mountain Power's request to the Commission and then Jerry Hurst read a statement from the Commissioners.

Mr. Hurst stated that the Tooele County Commission did not err in denying the conditional use permit that was requested by Rocky Mountain Power. He continued that the government officials, local citizen groups, and RMP had sat down together and spent hours coming up with an acceptable route that would impact the least number of residents possible. From the start the southeast bench was deemed unacceptable by all entities involved except RMP. He stated he was shocked when that route appeared as the only proposed route that RMP was moving forward with. He had thought that route had been removed from RMPs proposal.

Mr. Hurst continued and listed the following items that the planning commission deemed important that had not been satisfactorily mitigated in RMPs plan. The items listed were as follows:

1. Health issues due to EMF that may contribute to increased childhood leukemia and interfere with pacemakers

2. Water Shed protection--of ground water and underground water. The herbicides used by RMP will contaminate a major water source of the residents of the county. The access road construction and use will further contaminate the county's water supply.

3. View Shed destruction

4. Increase in fire danger and the difficulty in fighting fires on the hillsides.

5. Devaluation of property values

6. Safety issues and visual interference of the Tooele High School "T"

7. Settlement Canyon Reservoir access--line placement will interfere with access to the reservoir. Water from the reservoir is used for fire suppression.

8. Access roads will destroy hill sides

9. Natural hazards to the lines in the area include earthquakes and extreme winds.

10. Negative impact on livestock grazing

11. Negative impact on wildlife and loss of their habitat

12. Crossing of a Superfund site (highly contaminated area--contaminated with lead and other items)

13. EIS not complete and there has been no record of decision on the final EIS as of yet.

Commissioner Hurst continued that the county is not opposed to the power, but to the south east bench route. He moved to uphold the Planning Commission's decision.

Commissioner Clegg mentioned that often people say, "NOT in my back yard." He stated this was in Tooele's "front yard," and was unacceptable.

The Planning Commissions denial was upheld unanimously by the three county commissioners. They also noted that the records from the Planning Commission meetings would become part of the records of this meeting.

We applaud the Tooele County Commission for their decision to uphold the Planning Commission decision to deny the CUP, but more so for them listening and responding to the citizens of Tooele County. We thank them for representing us the way we asked them to!