COALDALE, Alta. — There are people and companies that like the idea of a new electrical line running from Picture Butte to Etzikom Coulee to Whitla in southern Alberta.
Few of them are farmers.
The proposed line is part of the Southern Alberta Transmission Project approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) in 2009 to connect wind farms to the electrical grid. AltaLink is in charge of recommending a route and building the line.
“We’d rather not have the power line go across our land, of course. Nobody wants it,” said Harold Perry, who farms with his brother and father near Chin, Alta., along the proposed route for the line.
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“We will be compensated for everything, but at the same time, it wasn’t for sale. My land wasn’t for sale. The operation was going well. I was making money at what I was doing and now I’ll have these huge eyesores running through the property.”
Irrigation systems are also likely to be affected, he said.
John Dagnone, who along with two partners farms 6,000 dryland acres near Wrentham and Skiff, isn’t excited about the idea either.
His land will be affected whether the AUC approves the preferred route or the alternate.
“It concerns me just the way it’s going to change our farming practices,” Dagnone said Dec. 6 at an AltaLink open house.
“Say it goes through the middle (of the property). So rather than farming a mile and a half strip, you’re going to be farming a mile strip and a half mile strip. Kind of makes it difficult for aerial spraying. Your whole operation is going to change.”
The proposed 240 kV line is split into two parts. The Picture Butte to Etzikom Coulee segment will be 66 to 80 kilometres long, depending on the route selected, at an estimated cost of $160 to $250 million.
The Etzikom Coulee to Whitla stretch will be 87 to 90 km with the cost estimated at $135 to $205 million.
The power line will run across some of the most valuable farmland in the province, much of it irrigated. In this area a quarter section of land can sell for up to $1 million.
AltaLink started mapping out proposed routes last year. Open houses held earlier this month marked the second stage of consultation.
Mark Johns, AltaLink spokesperson for the project, said the company makes an effort to minimize the line’s impact. Considerations include agricultural, residential and environmental impacts, as well as cost, visual impact, reliability and serviceability of the line and other considerations that arise.
“In our view, we picked right now what we believe is the preferred route,” said Johns.
The AUC makes the final decision, but AltaLink will consult with affected landowners before that happens.
“We are very proactive about meeting with every landowner on whose land we potentially have facilities,” he said.
“We’ll be consulting with every one of them to make sure we understand what their concerns are.”
Much of the preferred route follows quarter section lines in efforts to minimize impact and maintain distance from homes and farm buildings, Johns said.
Parts also run parallel to railways and highways, although in many cases there are existing rights of way that force the power line route further onto private land.
That would be the case if part of the line were to parallel the controversial Montana Alberta Tie Line that has been subject to legal challenge and was bought by Enbridge from former owner Tonbridge earlier this year.
The Picture Butte to Etzikom coulee stretch is likely to cross Stafford Reservoir, east of Coaldale, but an initial plan to cross on an existing dam was altered to accommodate concerns about pelican feeding areas.
Electrical lines throughout the project will be held by steel lattice structures 44 to 60 metres high, each with a base of 10 by 10 metres, and the line will have a 60 metre right of way.
A landowner compensation package has been outlined, though it is subject to AUC approval. It includes a $10,000 early access and routing consent payment, a $250 to $5,000 per title entry fee payment, a $1,500 minimum general disturbance payment, a $2,500 land damages payment with more paid after construction if applicable, and fair market value for land included in the easement.
Landowners will be paid $1,178 per steel lattice structure annually if it’s on cultivated land and $471 per structure annually if it’s on uncultivated land.
The proposed payments don’t impress everyone.
“I don’t think its adequate when you compare it to what the oil and gas industry is paying,” said Dagnone.
“It’s not comparable. But it’s my understanding that it will go through whether we want it to or not. That just seems to be the way the government works.”
Shawn Roth, communications adviser with AltaLink, said irrigation and aerial spraying issues were new to the AltaLink process and the company has enlisted experts to assess them.
“Those are two big things and we heard those loud and clear. It took awhile, but we think that these two preferred and alternate routes are the best to have the lowest overall impact.”
AltaLink expects to complete its consultation and submit its preferred and alternate routes to the AUC in winter 2012. If approved, construction will begin in fall 2013.
