High-Voltage Line Can Be Built Along Pend Oreille River Judge Upholds Officials’ Power To Approve Shoreline Permit

Pend Oreille County officials broke no law when they granted a shoreline permit for a controversial 65-mile-long high-voltage power line along the Pend Oreille River, a judge ruled Friday.

Visiting Superior Court Judge Richard Schroeder of Spokane dismissed Newport-area physician Peter Wier’s petition for a court order overturning the shoreline permit.

Schroeder ruled that state law granted commissioners and other county officials discretion to approve the shoreline permit without an environmental impact statement or public hearings.

Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger and Commissioner Joel Jacobsen expressed no joy in their victory.

“The way I see this, the whole community lost,” Jacobsen said.

Earlier this year, Jacobsen was unable to convince fellow commissioners Mike Hanson and Karl McKenzie to rescind the shoreline permit and start over with a public hearing. Hanson and McKenzie noted that the separate Pend Oreille County Public Utility District had already spent millions of dollars on the project.

“I hope something good can come out of this other than an appeal,” Metzger said after Schroeder’s ruling. “In other words, ‘PUD, what can you do to address some of the concerns that the people have expressed?”’

About 70 people, mostly powerline opponents, packed the courtroom Friday. They filled the jury box and the prisoners’ bench as well as the gallery.

“We’ve never, ever had that many people in here,” Metzger said.

Wier said he will confer with other power-line opponents before deciding whether to appeal Schroeder’s ruling.

“I’m disappointed, but life goes on,” Wier said. “We knew this was a possible outcome.”

He said his goal was to get the line moved away from the river, where it poses environmental and aesthetic problems, and away from schools in Ione and Cusick, where parents fear electromagnetic radiation may harm children.

, DataTimes