The Bellevue City Council acknowledged it may be odd for the lead permitting agency to weigh in this early during a project’s environmental process, but decided Monday a letter now could ease the process for Energize Eastside in the future.
Bellevue is in the scoping process for the first phase of development for its environmental impact statement for Energize Eastside. This phase addresses technical alternatives to meeting the additional power supply and reliability PSE is seeking with Energize.
PSE proposes running 18 miles of transmission lines from Redmond to Renton and tying in to a new transformer to ensure long-term electrical reliability.
Bellevue is the lead permitting agency under an interlocal agreement with Kirkland, Redmond, Newcastle and Renton.
Even after the city commissioned an independent study that validated Energize, the project continues to be opposed by numerous Eastside residents.
The city council on Monday wanted to ensure its interests and those of the public were adequately documented in the scoping process, which ends June 15.
Deputy City Manager Kate Berens told the council it is uncommon for a lead agency to submit a letter to itself in an attempt to affect the scoping process. She said the State Environmental Policy Act official — city land use director Carol Helland — would have to determine whether such a letter is admissible.
Councilmember John Chelminiak didn’t oppose submitting a letter, but said reading the draft last Friday prompted him to start writing his own, more thorough version. He described the draft letter council received as so broad “it almost look like we’re not really paying attention.” After paying for an independent analysis, the councilmember said it only made sense to comment on the environmental process.
Chelminiak wanted the letter to encourage analyzing four alternatives that would achieve the goal of Energize Eastside, but were removed from consideration by ColumbiaGrid early in the project.
Councilmember Jennifer Robertson said she’s also heard concerns about colocating Energize equipment with the underground Olympic Pipeline and what would happen during a major earthquake.
Robertson said the impact of such a large project on neighborhoods requires making sure “we’re not doing a Big Mac when a cheeseburger would suffice.”
The council will decide whether to forward a revised letter to the SEPA official on Monday, June 8.
