PORT ANGELES — One of many permits needed before construction can begin on a proposed high-voltage transmission line underneath the Strait of Juan de Fuca will go before the Port Angeles Planning Commission this summer.
Additional permits from both U.S. officials and Canadian authorities on Vancouver Island also will be pursued this summer, according to officials with Sea Breeze Power Corp, the company proposing the power line
“The drills aren’t showing up any time soon,” said Mike Wise, Sea Breeze’s project manager.
“There’s a tremendous amount of permitting needs to be done first. It’s all part of moving the project forward.”
If all the permits being sought are approved, the estimated $250 million project could begin in 2007, he said.
The proposed 550-megawatt transmission line — one megawatt is enough to power about 625 homes — would extend from View Royal on the Portage Inlet near Victoria to the Bonneville Power Administration’s substation at Park Avenue and Porter Street in Port Angeles, just west of the Peninsula College campus.
Comments requested
Written comments about the project’s potential environmental impact are due by June 16 to the city Department of Community and Economic Development, 321 E. Fifth St., Port Angeles 98362.
Additional comment will be accepted at the Planning Commission’s public hearing, which is tentatively set for Aug. 9 but could be rescheduled.
Associate City Planner Scott Johns said company officials have discussed a summer 2007 construction schedule.
The biggest issue probably would be noise from an estimated four nights and five days of horizontal boring under the bluff below the north end of Liberty Street, a few blocks east of Olympic Medical Center, he said.
The city requires a variance from its noise ordinance for construction work after 10 p.m. and before 7 a.m. in the vicinity of a hotel, motel or hospital.
That would require another hearing before the city’s Board of Adjustment.
