PORT ANGELES — Environmental impacts and noise from underground drilling were two concerns raised at a presentation Tuesday on a proposed high-voltage transmission line underneath the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The Bonneville Power Administration hosted the “scoping meeting” at Peninsula College to discover what issues need addressed in the project’s environmental impact statement.
“We are trying to be as open as possible to describe what the project is. It’s new technology, so there’s lots of questions about how it works,” said Mike Wise, project manager for Sea Breeze Pacific, which is developing the project.
Other than the construction, the transmission line will have very little environmental impact, he said.
Sea Breeze Pacific proposes to build a direct-current electric transmission line from the Victoria area to Port Angeles.
The line could mean the Bonneville Power Administration might be able to defer building a second transmission line onto the North Olympic Peninsula.
The project includes installing a submarine cable under the Strait, as well as underground cable through Port Angeles.
The 550-megawatt cable will use “high voltage direct current light,” which is a variation of “high voltage direct current” that is being used in cables already in the Strait.
A substation would be built to convert direct current from the cable to alternating current, and connect the system to Bonneville’s Pacific Northwest power grid.
Impact concerns
More than 50 people attended Tuesday’s three-hour open house, which included a short presentation followed by small-group sessions to gather comments on the project.
Other concerns included how the cable would be buried, impacts from construction and operation to the shoreline and bluff areas, maintenance of the transmission line and surveying the selected route for utilities.
The draft environmental impact statement, slated to be done this fall, will be posted on Bonneville’s Web site.
Then it will be available for public comment until March 2006.
The final environmental impact statement will be available in the summer of 2006. A decision could be issued in fall 2006.
Construction of the land-based part of the line could start in the spring of 2007, followed by construction of the underwater section that summer.
The line could be operating by December 2007.