The preferred route for a high voltage power line between Townsend and southern Idaho passes through 39 miles of Jefferson County, including about two dozen miles of private land, according to a June 17 presentation by utility representatives to the county commission.

     NorthWestern Energy proposes to build and operate the 500 kilovolt electric transmission line by 2013. Dubbed the Mountain States Transmission Intertie (MSTI), the project application is expected to be submitted to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Bureau of Land Management in July for an environmental review.

     “NorthWestern Energy then becomes a bystander in that process,” said consultant Kevin Everette of Power Engineers.

     The review will be a “full blown EIS” that requires public scoping meetings to determine factors to be addressed, followed by public hearings on draft alternatives ranked by the DEQ and BLM, said Everette.

     Attendees at the presentation made it clear that they need more specifics.

     Commissioner Tom Lythgoe said the county and landowners need to know how much of the route is on private land. “We need to know names and places,” he said.

     Former legislator and Clancy area rancher Bob Marks said, “It’s hard for people to come and comment if they don’t know where the line is.”

     He also expressed skepticism that the project would be as beneficial as the backers are claiming. “Montana Power promised to put a line through and pay big taxes and then reneged,” he said.

     Everette assured questioners that all of the documents that led to the choice of the preferred route and alternatives will be publicly available during the EIS process. Affected landowners will have the right to submit comment at that time if they so desire, he said. He also said that acquisition of each individual property has to be negotiated one on one if the project is approved.

     As proposed, the route preferred by NorthWestern would angle southwest from Townsend to the Radersburg area and then enter Jefferson County. Continuing southwest, it would follow Interstate 90 for most of its distance through the county.

     That route is proposed partly because “the agencies in Montana strongly preferred the freeway corridor,” said Everette.

     Two alternative routes through Jefferson County will also be submitted, he said. One would head south from Townsend to Three Forks and then enter Jefferson County along I-90. The other would parallel the existing 500 kV Colstrip line that passes through central Jefferson County. The two parallel lines would require at least 220 feet of separation, he said. A “Jefferson Valley” alternative would include a leg heading south from Whitehall in the direction of Silver Star and Twin Bridges toward Dillon.

     Earlier proposals considered, including a route down the Whitetail in Jefferson County, have been dropped, Everette said.

     Those will not be the only routes under consideration, though, he said. The DEQ and BLM will be free to develop their own alternative routes based on comment received during the EIS process, he said.

     The line will be made up of steel towers roughly 1500 feet apart and between 110 and 130 feet tall, depending on the terrain.

     Everette told the commission the construction of the line will bring “tremendous economic benefit” to the areas along the route. He estimated a cost of about $2 million per mile for construction.

     He said the line would not be available for alternative energy projects to tap into directly but would free up smaller feeder lines that could be used by wind projects, geothermal projects and other producers. “The bottleneck goes away,” said Everette.

     MSTI backers say the line is needed to increase transmission capacity, strengthen the power grid in the western U.S., and meet increasing demands. In addition to construction income, the corridor along the line should benefit from job opportunities, renewable energy development opportunities, and an increased tax base to support schools and other critical infrastructure, say public relations materials by the group.