Pulse on powerlines

On April 24, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) came to the Hanna Recreation Center to gauge the public's opinion on a proposed PacifiCorp construction of a new and upgraded 230-kV transmission line.

The new construction would involve almost two miles of interconnection line from the BLM permitted Gateway West segment to the existing Shirley Basin substation, which crosses private land and land administered by the State of Wyoming.

Charts and photographs were presented so attendees could understand what was being proposed.

"We call this scoping and, basically what that means, this is the first step in the process where we can engage the public to let them weigh in to give us feedback on issues or concerns," Heather Schultz, BLM representative, said. "The proposal is to build a new line with new technology next to the older one, and once it is built, we take down the old one."

She said although it is a smaller scale project, the BLM still wanted to take a pulse of the public and that is why the BLM came to Hanna and set up the presentation.