BOARDMAN — Umatilla Electric Cooperative has been granted a key piece of support in its efforts to build a transmission line in Boardman that has drawn opposition from some property owners.

The Public Utility Commission granted UEC a certificate of public convenience and necessity on March 5. The certificate states that the 230 kilovolt overhead line, which would stretch 4.3 miles from a planned switchyard near Highway 730 to a planned substation on Olson Road near a future Amazon data center, meets the legal criteria for a “necessity for public convenience.”

If UEC isn’t able to convince all property owners involved to voluntarily sign an agreement for an easement, it can use the certificate as evidence in an eminent domain case to compel the property owners to cooperate.

In June 2020, the East Oregonian reported that four of the 11 landowners in question had yet to sign agreements with UEC for an easement across their property. On Friday, March 12, Umatilla Electric Cooperative CEO Robert Echenrode said there was one property owner left who had yet to accept a proposal from UEC. If the cooperative isn’t able to convince the landowner to voluntarily sign an agreement, eminent domain may be an option for UEC.

”That’s certainly not a goal of Umatilla Electric,” Echenrode said.

He said the 16-page order from the Public Utility Commission “speaks for itself” on the importance of the line. According to the order, UEC stated that the line was needed to handle current and future growth in the area, and that the cooperative examined three routes and determined that the planned route is “justified by the comparative cost, benefit to its system and is the least impactful in terms of property, environmental and agricultural considerations.”

Some affected property owners disagreed. Several of them told the East Oregonian last year that a large, high-voltage transmission line running through their property would lower its value, cause a nuisance for them and in some cases interfere with their plans for construction on their property. They argued the line was mostly to benefit a single customer’s data centers rather than the community at large.

The order from the Public Utility Commission details testimony against the plan from the Frederickson and Tallman families, who argued that UEC should go with a route that affects industrial land more than farmland.

The commission sided with UEC, however, and granted the certificate.

Echenrode said besides securing the final private property easement needed — either through an agreement signed with the landowner or through eminent domain proceedings — the cooperative still needs to secure various permits, including ones needed from Bonneville Power Administration to cross their lines, one to cross Interstate 84 and one from the Bureau of Reclamation to cross a canal.

He said he believes the project falls within the rules of each permit, however, and expects them all to come through. After everything is in place, construction of the line would likely take less than 12 months, he said, barring any unforeseen holdups with supplies or labor.