MATL shift protects tepee rings in Cut Bank area

A key route shift in a major power transmission line involving a small piece of property that set off a big fight over eminent domain in Montana has the support of both the developer and the landowner.

The change, involving less than a mile of the 214-mile Montana Alberta Tie Line 1.5 miles southeast of Cut Bank, was approved Thursday by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Developer Tonbridge Power Co and Larry Salois, the guardian of his mother, Shirley Salois, who owns the property, welcomed the decision.

"It's a huge step in the right direction, and I would say we're awful close to a solution," Salois said.

Tonbridge applied June 29 to amend its certificate of compliance to make the changes requested by Salois.

Tonbridge's Darryl James said he hopes Salois signs an easement agreement in the wake of the decision allowing the route tweak.

"It is the final regulatory hurdle at the state level to see if we can't get this thing moving forward again," James said.

Salois stopped short Thursday of saying he would sign an agreement with Tonbridge, but said he was guardedly optimistic.

James said the U.S. Department of Energy still needs to approve the route change on the Salois property, but said he doesn't anticipate any problems with the agency doing so.

The Salois amendment is the third recent change approved by the DEQ that allows route shifts to address concerns raised by landowners. Two other alterations previously were approved in the Dutton area. In those cases, the company and the landowners reached easement agreements following the adjustments, James said.

The amendment for the route change on the Salois property, which was approved by DEQ Director Richard Opper, will allow Tonbridge to move the poles two-tenths of a mile to the east, onto cultivated land, so they do not impact historic tepee rings, wetlands, and an oil and gas well, said Tom Ring of the DEQ's Major Facilities Siting Office.

"I was hoping that Mr. Opper would approve that," Salois said.

The six-tenths of a mile of line and poles that would cross the Salois' property has impacted the entire 214-mile transmission line, which would connect the electrical grids of Alberta and Montana at Great Falls and Lethbridge.

In 2010, a Glacier County district judge ruled that Toronto-based Tonbridge didn't have the authority to condemn land in Montana. The decision followed the filing of a condemnation complaint by Tonbridge against Salois to gain access to the family's land, which Salois fought, saying the proposed route was too close to tepee rings and a wetland. The ruling prompted the 2011 Legislature, pressed by the state's utilities and Tonbridge, to pass a law allowing developers of merchant transmission lines to use eminent domain authority as a last resort.

Despite the approval of the amendment, legal challenges remain for the project.

Landowners living along the southern portion of the route between Cut Bank and Great Falls, where Tonbridge has used the new state law to condemn land, are suing the state and Tonbridge, alleging the new law is unconstitutional. Opponents also are gathering signatures in an attempt to overturn the law at the polls in the 2012 election.

Salois said he hopes Montanans get the chance to vote on the broader eminent domain question, even though he is optimistic about his situation being resolved.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Karl Puckett at 406-791-1471, 800-438-6600 or [email protected].