March 29, 2024
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Bangor Hydro appeal denied BEP ruling hurts power line plan

AUGUSTA – Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.’s efforts to build a new power line across eastern Maine suffered another setback Wednesday when the chairman of the Board of Environmental Protection ruled the utility cannot change its application during the review process.

An official said the Nova Scotia-owned corporation is likely to appeal the decision to the full board next month.

The company had asked the board to allow it to amend its pending application to reroute half the 84-mile line along a logging road as proposed by International Paper Co., the major landowner in the region. Bangor Hydro wanted to make the change because a draft order by the staff of the Department of Environmental Protection issued in late December recommends denying its proposal to build the line from Orrington to Baileyville largely through the woods of Hancock and Washington counties.

During five days of testimony on the project last fall, IP and others said less environmental damage would occur if the new line were built along an existing utility corridor, such as the Stud Mill Road, rather than cutting a new swath through the forest.

At a hearing on its request to amend the application on Tuesday, Bangor Hydro repeatedly told Chairman John Tewhey that it must be allowed to move ahead quickly with the power line project because a key federal permit is set to expire in December.

In his order, issued Wednesday, Tewhey said he was not convinced that the utility would lose its federal permit and allowing an amendment to the application would further complicate an already complicated 10-year-old process.

“It is unlikely that an amendment process would be more efficient than submission of a new application,” Tewhey wrote.

Alan Spear, director of special projects for Bangor Hydro, said Tewhey’s decision certainly “complicates” the utility’s efforts to build the new line.

“We probably will appeal,” he said Wednesday. Any appeals of the decision must be filed by Friday.

As for whether the company is considering withdrawing its application and submitting a new one, Spear said he couldn’t answer that until the full board hears its case next month.

IP attorney Andrew Hamilton declined to comment Wednesday. The paper company has said it opposes Bangor Hydro’s efforts to amend its application largely because the two are locked in legal battles.

The utility has twice sued IP because it says the paper company reneged on a promise to support its originally proposed route. The paper company said it was not eager to talk to the utility while it was the target of such lawsuits.

Dan Amory, an attorney for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the third party in the debate, was pleased with what he termed “a common sense ruling.”

His group has advocated the new line be built next to an existing power line that runs much farther north through Lincoln and Orient.

Bangor Hydro said it could not follow this route because it crosses in Canada too far north, and New Brunswick utility officials have said they will not join up with a line that crosses there.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Bangor Hydro attorney Ginger Davis repeatedly said any delays in moving the application along would result in “death by process.”

“The only party that would be hurt if we don’t do this is Bangor Hydro,” Davis told BEP chairman Tewhey, who heard the case alone.

The biggest concern for the utility is that its permit to build the power line from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is set to expire at the end of the year if construction has not begun by then.

Davis said she believed if the company filed an amended application with the BEP, the corps would let it also amend its permit from that agency so that it would not expire.

Assistant Attorney General Peggy McCloskey, however, said it was likely that the company would have to apply for a new permit because it was proposing to put the line along a new route that would affect different wetlands and other bodies of water.

A spokesman for the Army Corps said Tuesday the agency would have to take a hard look at the changes the company has proposed making. Extending its permit while the state process proceeds may be possible, said Larry Rosenberg. But it is also possible that the company would have to do a new environmental assessment because the route had changed.

Much of the assessment of the Stud Mill Road area has already been done, Spear said Wednesday, because a gas pipeline, which required federal permits, was built there.


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