PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — Community members are raising their concerns over a proposed plan by Portland General Electric to add a transmission line that would mostly run along Southwest Stafford Road in Clackamas County as part of a larger project that would also impact Washington County.
The plan is called the Tonquin Project and it is being opposed by neighbors who live on Stafford Road, for various reasons. They raised concerns such as project transparency and safety during a meeting on Tuesday.
“The bottom line is, everyone has a different issue,” said Ed Wagner. “We just want them to be honest with us and to be honest with the public.”
Mayor Wheeler ‘disappointed’ by lack of enforcement of city camping ban Wagner is the vice president of the Save Stafford Road group, bringing in as many neighbors as possible to raise their voices.
“What we currently have is called distribution lines, they’re wood poles that stand about 40 feet tall,” Wagner said. “And now PGE wants to come in and replace all of those, grab a bunch of easements from homeowners, cut hundreds of trees down, and put up 100-foot steel poles that are twice the diameter.”
The project also accounts for a brand new substation in the southern portion of PGE’s service area.
According to PGE’s website , the Tonquin Project is designed to build “a smarter, stronger, and more flexible grid to deliver customers the most cost-effective, reliable power today and into the future.” The multi-year construction project would be completed by the end of 2025, according to the current plan.
A public comment hearing was held at the Century Hotel in Tualatin. Officials from the Oregon Public Utility Commission said they wanted to hear people’s concerns.
“Everyone at the commission including the three of us is committed to ensuring that review of this petition will be rigorous,” said PUC Chair Megan Decker.
Issues people brought up ranged from not wanting to be close to electromagnetic fields coming from a transmission line to others worrying about the landscape and some concerned it could be a fire hazard, among other things.
Pressure builds for Chair Vega Pederson to create sobering center, reconsider deflection “It’s going to be pretty difficult to continue on if we can’t get a resolution to this pretty soon,” said Wagner, who is also the person behind the Save Stafford Road signs that currently populate it.
The Tonquin Project is in its formative stage and has not been fully approved yet. The PUC still has to do their investigation.
Larry Bekkedahl of PGE shared the following statement in response to the concerns people raised:
“Like utilities nationwide, we are updating a grid built decades ago for a different time. PGE’s Tonquin Project is critical to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population in Clackamas County and to increase grid resilience to deliver reliable electricity to the people and communities we serve. Collaborating with customers is always our preferred approach. That’s why we’ve engaged with landowners for the past year – in person, to discuss the project and secure easements where needed to make a safe and documented path for equipment upgrades – and in PGE and County-hosted public meetings – to hear and address all concerns. We appreciate the collaboration of many landowners, and are taking the best available and necessary next step to continue providing reliable electricity by pursuing a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from regulators.”
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